[metallicsob]

hey guys, new to the topic of upgrading/building a computer, so i would appreciate any help with choosing the right hardware to upgrade my new HP a6683w-b to a more gamer friendly machine

for one i just have no clue where to start, i am on a limited budget and its not exactly high...

i am running NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE Graphics card as well as an AMD Sempron X2 2200 Dual-Core Processor, and yes i know, not top notch but it came stock on the machine

i recently got some new games that are fairly laggy so i hve decided to beef up my system a bit

if anyone has any ideas where a low budget can take this machine i wont mind listenning

[BG-0]

Okay, first off, where do you live? What are the games you want to play? What is your comfort zone in the budget? X-Y monetary units?

[maxibhoy]

Make and model of motherboard would be required, Also output of power supply ie: wattage, amperage of all rails. Just open her up and you should see the info needed on the side of the psu and on board somewhere. Welcome to tsg, Max.

[metallicsob]

thanks man, good to have help from a community with experience
i will pop the cover when i get home, so ill have to get back to you once i can

[metallicsob]

The closest major city to where I live is Charlotte, North Carolina
and i guess i could call my budget "unstable" ha
but other than that i am just trying to get a bearing on what exactly is "low budget" on certain parts and after research i will have to see what the ol' wallet has in stock. things are changing very rapidly and i am still not sure what i can afford at this point,
as far as games are concerned i have tried Farcry 2 and some assassins creed and Call of duty but i want a system that will be able to sustain a good fps with out being amazingly expensive, sorry if that information is a little too vague but it is all i can tell you at the moment cause it's all i know myself i will be out of town for possibly 3 days at the most so i won't be able to give any more specs till i get back but a vague answer to a vague querry will most certainly suffice

[Compie Jim]

My first recommendation in any case would be to max out your RAM. You will notice less lag in a lot of applications with more RAM available- your computer should be able to accept another 2GB of memory, according to HP's specs. Also, RAM is definitely "budget-friendly" because it gives you the best boost-price ratio of many upgrades.

[maxibhoy]

Suggestion: Get yourself a network card and broadband for online gaming. We'll look at hardware upgrades when you post back the specs i asked for. Compie Jim is right about the mem though. Max.

[Noyb]

Originally Posted by maxibhoy

... We'll look at hardware upgrades when you post back the specs i asked for...

Till metallicsob checks back in ... We can see he has a 250w PSU, a Asus M2N68-LA Mobo and a few other things ..
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...roduct=3817780

[maxibhoy]

Till metallicsob checks back in ... We can see he has a 250w PSU, a Asus M2N68-LA Mobo and a few other things ..
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...roduct=3817780

Yeah i know i could have done the homework myself but too lazy for that. :-)

[BG-0]

After the RAM maxing, next step would be something like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341010 with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130378 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161252

[Noyb]

There's probably better (more expensive) RAM .. But I'm running 4 sticks of these in my HP Vista computer ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134114

Vista 32 says it sees 3.25gig of it.
Windows 7 32 (a.k.a. Fixta) says it sees 4 gig of it.
What it is really using might be another story.

[metallicsob]

allright guys i am on my laptop but i did my research and got my make and model for the board. but it looks like there are two posts already on here that show what i turned up hah, so yeah i found the ram on newegg last night and i am running vista ultimate 32-bit, so i will probably purchase the same as listed above but depending on what i turn up in the bios should i buy the 2 gb version of the same stick do you think?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148235

[Noyb]

Not sure ... I don't see any voltage or timing specs ???
I went with (4) 1 gig sticks .. thinking I can remove 1 gig at a time if I suspect a RAM problem ..
and the heat is spread out farther.
a 32bit system will only see 3 gig anyway.

[maxibhoy]

Also if you're planning on puting in 2gb of ram alone then 2 igb sticks would be best so you can enable dual channel. Max.

[metallicsob]

alright guys, i just got home so now would be the perfect time for me to check out any hardware specs you guys need, just tell what you need and how to get it and i'll write it down
Thanks guys!