PC/Gaming Geeks....need some advice

[Falcon]

Since I got my laptop, my desktop has just sat, never used for over a year. It is an older desktop (prolly ancient in pc terms) and I have decided I want to make it a dedicated gaming machine. Currently I only play flight sim x delux on it but would like to be able to play newer games on it as well. What do I need to do to update the hardware/software for better gaming? Keeping in my that I don't want "the ultimate gaming machine"....just something that will work on most games and do well.

Current Specs:

Dell Dimension 4700
Windows XP Home Edition SP 3
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 270.96 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.22 GB

Product/pricing suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

 

[Slitherbeast]

You ,really need to upgrade the whole thing , but a good 120 Gig SSD and a GTX 570ish videocard will really wake it up!

 

[Falcon]

You ,really need to upgrade the whole thing , but a good 120 Gig SSD and a GTX 570ish videocard will really wake it up!

Yeah....she is an old lady by now. But figured she could be worth hanging on to. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Slitherbeast]

Those parts are also transferable when you do upgrade the motherboard and processor

 

[Falcon]

Sweet!

 

[BriteCrawler]

You'll need more RAM as well. 512MB isn't doing much when most new games want about 2GB on recommended specs.

A lot of games coming out later this year and moving forward will not run on XP Home either, since mostly everything is 64 bit and requires DX11 now. XP only supports DX10.

 

[scoobert]

WAIT!!!!
i am a specialist on computers.
i spend about $5000 a year building rig after rig.
i throw away parts newer then you have there.
first things first. you need no less then 4GIGs of memory, and preferably
8 gigs $50
new motherboard, AM3+ $95 Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
new processor, 3 core $90 Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X3 460 Rana 3.4GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX460WFGMBOX
new OS windows 7, $100
new HDD 1TB $40 Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda Green ST1000DL002 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Bare Drive -Bare Drive
EVGA 560GT video card $200 EVGA | Products

will also need a case and power supply, at least 600watts.
=$80-120

you can transfer your DVD drive.

this would build you a kick ass system, that would be playing the newest games for the next 2-3 years, and last 5 years.

if you have more questions PM me.

 

[scoobert]

WAIT!!!!
i am a specialist on computers.
i spend about $5000 a year building rig after rig.
i throw away parts newer then you have there.
first things first. you need no less then 4GIGs of memory, and preferably
8 gigs $50
new motherboard, AM3+ $95 Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
new processor, 3 core $90 Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X3 460 Rana 3.4GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX460WFGMBOX
new OS windows 7, $100
new HDD 1TB $40 Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda Green ST1000DL002 1TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Bare Drive -Bare Drive
EVGA 560GT video card $200 EVGA | Products

will also need a case and power supply, at least 600watts.
=$80-120

you can transfer your DVD drive.

this would build you a kick ass system, that would be playing the newest games for the next 2-3 years, and last 5 years.

if you have more questions PM me.

 

[500snakz]

Sounds like he has an AGP slot motherboard. He will be limited on his options.
Do yourself a big favor and buy a new one. Dell has special motherboards, cases, and power supplys. You cant buy off the shelf and install.

 

[RAMDUDE]

I have a 1TB harddrive and 6 gb memory in mine, plays games alot faster then the older dell I had from years ago.

windows 7 the works, bought it from office depot for like 400.00 for the tower and keyboard and mouse. I had a flat screen already so thats why i went that road.

great PC tho. loads videos fast, very fast.