• Welcome to the Off-Topic/Schweb's Lounge

    In addition to the Mac-Forums Community Guidelines, there are a few things you should pay attention to while in The Lounge.

    Lounge Rules
    • If your post belongs in a different forum, please post it there.
    • While this area is for off-topic conversations, that doesn't mean that every conversation will be permitted. The moderators will, at their sole discretion, close or delete any threads which do not serve a beneficial purpose to the community.

    Understand that while The Lounge is here as a place to relax and discuss random topics, that doesn't mean we will allow any topic. Topics which are inflammatory, hurtful, or otherwise clash with our Mac-Forums Community Guidelines will be removed.

Advice with upgrades...

Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
940
Reaction score
59
Points
28
Location
Framingham, MA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook C2D 2.4 2GB
I'm thinking about doing some upgrades to my PC, wich is mostly used for games (EQ2). Right now it has:
- AMD64 3200
- ATI Radeon 9600 w/ 128mb
- 1gb of RAM (512mb PC2700 x2)
- 80gb HD 4200rpm (i don't know how much cache)
So my question is wich one should i change (besides the CPU and the motherboard) and/or wich one should improve the performance better? I want to keep the price around or bellow $100, but i'm not sure wich change should have the best effect. Thanks for any advice.
 
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
304
Reaction score
6
Points
18
Location
dodo island
Your Mac's Specs
ibook g4, 14'', 1.33 Ghz, 60gig, 768ram, Mac OsX 10.4.3
i would go better gfx card. Nvidia 6800gt, 7800gt?...
and maybe an affordable 7200rpm h.disk.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
3,378
Reaction score
61
Points
48
Pick up a Radeon 9800 Pro 256bit for under $100. You might have to buy used/refurb, but I think that would be the best upgrade for the money.

Are you sure you have a 80gb 4200RPM drive? Thats really odd for a desktop. I would check the black friday deals to see if you can get a cheap/free 7200 rpm drive.
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
1,278
Reaction score
13
Points
38
Location
/home/sheffield/UK
Your Mac's Specs
12" 1Ghz PB 768Mb 10.4.5 30Gb Video iPod 40Gb 3G iPod 1Gb iPod Shuffle
GFX card first then the Hard Drive if you can afford it, then make a ghost image of your current set up so you can just copy it across onto a new drive
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
I agree with mynameis. The video card would give you the most improvement in games. The AMD 64 CPU, even the 3200 is quite fast. The Radeon 9800 sounds like a winner. I upgraded from a 9600 to the 9800 Pro and it was a big improvement in gaming.

Are you sure that Hard Drive is not a 5400 RPM drive? A 7200RPM Drive would help loading times but the Video Card would really give you better gaming performance at higher resolutions. EQ2 is a very demanding game.
 
OP
mraya
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
940
Reaction score
59
Points
28
Location
Framingham, MA
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook C2D 2.4 2GB
Thanks for the advices, i will upgrade my video card next week and i think i'll be able to upgrade my hard drive a little later. My hd is 3 or 4 years old, so i think is time to change it anyway, i spend all my day re-installing WinXp wich help me a bit with the performance and also make me love my iBook even more, i wish i could get rid of these [insert here extrange names in forbiden languages] PC, but my brother refuses to let it go.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top