Upgrading help!!

I need some, OK a LOT of help....with upgrading my kids computer.

I have an HP Pavilion 523n. I need to decide if it's worth upgrading or trying to afford a new one. I don't want to repeat the mistake I just made with buying an eMachine (what a piece of junk)....

What I found so far is that it currently came with 512mb Ram, it has 2 DIMM slots/3 PCI slots/1 AGP slot, it's an AMD and is 80gb HD.

I want to say I've had it about 4 years so it's out of date the minute you "drive it out of the lot" but it's old and tired. About the 2nd year the floppy disk drive went out on it. Then it started making the awful grinding noises but hell, my new POS eMachine grinds like a freight train and it's NEW!!! Last time I tried to update microsoft updates it just totally messed up the computer and I had to go back to the beginning....what a mess since I'm not computer saavey!!!

I've tried to take care of it with all the spyware, anti-virus things I can since it's for my kids. But it continues to just chug along at a snails pace. I'd like to upgrade if it will be cheaper.....

It's used for: Word of Warcraft and various other high memory usage games.....homework.....heavy internet use, i.e. college reseach, myspace, AIM, etc.,.......and of course music and video downloads.

Can anyone help me decide what I need or if it's worth upgrading or should I just shoot it?

 

What upgrades do you want to do?

To make a competent gamer out of it you need better graphics, but that power supply isn't going to handle much more than what you have.

If you want to game, you should probably invest in something that is built for it. You can re-install and de-crapify this one and use it for office/internet stuff.

 

Well that's what I thought. I guess it's hard to do eveything on one computer. Looks like the kids will continue to suffer until I can save enough money for a "gamer computer" and I'll just put up with my POS eMachine I bought!!!!
Thanks for the input.

Its like an uphill battle....everytime you THINK you have the best (at the time) a new game or program comes out that needs something bigger and better....lol

 

If you do look again, Dells seem to be pretty good lately for using quality hardware. Just remember that with branded systems you get a bunch of junk you don't need, software wise, and they usually aren't very upgradeable, with the exception of maybe adding more RAM.

eMachines, however, not so great...

 

Best bet would be to get a Custom built computer that is more Game supportive. So with a decent video card, good amount of ram etc etc. Also by getting it custom built by somebody that knows what they are doing you can get a Good pc and can be easily upgraded in the future when prices of better hardware come down.

Ciao

 

Or build one yourself!!

You CAN save money building high end machines, as opposed to budget boxes.

 

A gamer computer that is built for World of Warcraft will take about 1000 dollars to completely make. But it will last you for a LONG time.

I'd say the minimum would be about $800.

And for the love of god, NEVER buy a pre-built computer. They are always complete crap, and you get jipped in every way imaginable.

If you can't build a computer yourself and still want a good computer that can run WoW effeciently, go to cyberpowerpc.com

Otherwise go to newegg.com and save yourself about 200 dollars.