Woad Warrior
08-21-2006, 23:06
As I have been trying to upgrade my computer recently, I've realised that it can be quite an ordeal. I was completely clueless about the various components, what to get, which ones would work etc. Therefore, I thought it might be helpful to set up a thread to give advice to others planning on upgrading their PC's, or even getting new ones. I'll be adding to this thread as I continue to learn more about upgrading PC's, and any more info anyone has would be appreciated, and immediately added to this post. Eventually, I hope it will be a simple and thorough guide for all gamers here at the Guild to refer to. You can correct me if I'm wrong anywhere.
Graphics Cards:
This can be one of the most confusing aspects when upgrading a PC. Graphics cards are necessary to improve the performance of your PC while playing games, as they will allow them to run much more smoothly and on higher settings. You need to be extremely careful the graphics card you buy is the right one to fit into your PC's slots. There are several types of slots. PCI slots are the oldest type, found in older computers when graphics were less significant. However, these slots are still manufactured in almost every computer today, and so there is a wide variety of graphics cards available for them.
As graphics became more important, AGP slots were developed, allowing more powerful graphics cards to be developed for them. As well as the AGP slots, AGP Pro slots were developed to cater for even more powerful graphics cards. AGP Pro graphics cards are longer than AGP cards, and so cannot fit into an AGP slot, although AGP cards can fit into an AGP Pro slot.
AGP slots are rapidly being replaced by PCI Express slots. These slots offer the best performance, and are SLI compatible, meaning they allow dual-graphics cards to be installed, for extremely high quality performances.
NOTE: The range in prices for the same graphics card across different sites can be incredible. 500% price increases between some sites. So, an excellent site I recommend is:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Graphics_Cards.html
The following is a guide for PCI and PCI Express slots, based on performances for RTW:
Budget Gamers - You may want to make do with your computers integrated graphics card. However, for a pretty smooth and solid performance on low-medium settings, these cards can be found around the range of £20-£40.
GeForce 6200, GeForce 6600
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 7000, Sapphire ATI Radeon X1300
Casual Gamers - For those people who like to play games often, but their lives aren't dominated by them, these graphics cards will offer a largely smooth gaming performance even on medium-high settings, and are priced from £30-£70.
GeForce 7300 LE, GeForce 7300 GS, GeForce 7300 GT
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1600 XT
Serious Gamers - You spend a lot of time at your PC, so you want it to run smoothly and with quality. These are high-end graphics cards, allowing things to run nice and fluently on high settings, without you digging to deeply into your wallet, maybe for around £60-£100. Also, some of these graphics cards are SLI compatable, meaning if you have a PCI Express slot, you will likely be able to combine more than one of them.
GeForce 7600 GS, GeForce 7600 GT
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 GTO, Sapphire X1600 Pro
Extreme Gamers - You spend most of your time parked in front of a screen, so you want that time spent well. These are the best in graphics cards - top quality performance on the top settings. Unfortunately, even on the cheaper sites I've found, its gonna cost you anything from £150-£350. Some examples:
GeForce 7900 GT, GeForce 7900 GTX, GeForce 7950 GX2
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT, ATI Radeon X1900 Crossfire Edition, Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X
Random Access Memory (RAM)
RAM, or Random Access Memory, determines the speed of your computer. RAM will always improve your PC's performance when carrying out standard tasks, but when it comes to playing games, RAM and a Graphics Card are both required for a decent performance, one is little use without the other. Upgrading your RAM is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to effectively upgrade your PC. Its also a lot more simple than selecting Graphics Cards, but you should still think carefully about how much you really need. Apart from the really old 64 MB etc, modern RAM has ratings of 256 MB, 512 MB, 1024 MB. The higher the better. As well as this, they have a rating in Mega Hertz, which effectively shows how fast they work. The rating in MB is for showing how the RAM will cope with large or several tasks at once, and the rating in MHz shows the RAM's processing speed. So, be careful when picking RAM, remember, money saved on RAM could go towards a better Graphics Card or anything else you need. So, a quick Guide for general gaming, but based on RTW:
Budget Gamers - For a bog standard performance of RTW, 256 MB RAM will do. Most computers made in the last few years should come with it anyway. Any less than this and you have to upgrade - 256 MB RAM is an official minimun requirement for RTW. Of course, all the various forms of 256 MB RAM have different levels of quality. Budget Gamers might consider buying, for around £20, or for the latter below, up to £40:
Crucial 256 MB DDR PC3200 CAS3 (256 MB, 200 MHz)
OCZ PC 3700 Gold Series EL-DDR CAS2 (256 MB, 450 MHz)
Casual Gamers - For a solid gaming performance, with little lag and fairly slow loading times, 512 MB should have the power to offer this. Its also pretty affordable, with a wide range of choices at around £40:
Crucial 512 MB DDR PC2700 CAS2.5 (512 MB, 166 MHz)
Crucial 512 MB DDR PC3200 CAS3 (512 MB, 200 MHz)
Serious Gamers - If you want excellent gaming performance even on high settings, 1 GB RAM will do the job, as long as it has a graphics card to complement it. Having 1 GB of RAM will be increasingly useful in the future, as it is recommended to have at least 1 GB RAM to take full advantage of what Windows Vista has to offer. So, for great quality and value RAM for serious gamers, at around £70-£100 take a look at:
Crucial 1GB DDR PC3200 CAS3 (1 GB, 200 MHz)
Mushkin 1 GB DDR XP3200 (1 GB, 400 MHz)
Extreme Gamers - To allow your other components such as your graphics cards etc to be used to their full advantage, 2 GB of RAM will easily allow this. This is the best RAM available, though it is expensive at anything from £130-£. Some good choices of RAM for the extreme gamer would be:
Mushkin 2 GB DDR EM 3200 (2 GB, 400 MHz)
Mushkin 2 GB DDR XP 4000 (2 GB, 500 MHz)
Corsair 2 GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 Pro TwinX (2 GB, 800 MHz)
Graphics Cards:
This can be one of the most confusing aspects when upgrading a PC. Graphics cards are necessary to improve the performance of your PC while playing games, as they will allow them to run much more smoothly and on higher settings. You need to be extremely careful the graphics card you buy is the right one to fit into your PC's slots. There are several types of slots. PCI slots are the oldest type, found in older computers when graphics were less significant. However, these slots are still manufactured in almost every computer today, and so there is a wide variety of graphics cards available for them.
As graphics became more important, AGP slots were developed, allowing more powerful graphics cards to be developed for them. As well as the AGP slots, AGP Pro slots were developed to cater for even more powerful graphics cards. AGP Pro graphics cards are longer than AGP cards, and so cannot fit into an AGP slot, although AGP cards can fit into an AGP Pro slot.
AGP slots are rapidly being replaced by PCI Express slots. These slots offer the best performance, and are SLI compatible, meaning they allow dual-graphics cards to be installed, for extremely high quality performances.
NOTE: The range in prices for the same graphics card across different sites can be incredible. 500% price increases between some sites. So, an excellent site I recommend is:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Graphics_Cards.html
The following is a guide for PCI and PCI Express slots, based on performances for RTW:
Budget Gamers - You may want to make do with your computers integrated graphics card. However, for a pretty smooth and solid performance on low-medium settings, these cards can be found around the range of £20-£40.
GeForce 6200, GeForce 6600
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 7000, Sapphire ATI Radeon X1300
Casual Gamers - For those people who like to play games often, but their lives aren't dominated by them, these graphics cards will offer a largely smooth gaming performance even on medium-high settings, and are priced from £30-£70.
GeForce 7300 LE, GeForce 7300 GS, GeForce 7300 GT
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1600 XT
Serious Gamers - You spend a lot of time at your PC, so you want it to run smoothly and with quality. These are high-end graphics cards, allowing things to run nice and fluently on high settings, without you digging to deeply into your wallet, maybe for around £60-£100. Also, some of these graphics cards are SLI compatable, meaning if you have a PCI Express slot, you will likely be able to combine more than one of them.
GeForce 7600 GS, GeForce 7600 GT
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 GTO, Sapphire X1600 Pro
Extreme Gamers - You spend most of your time parked in front of a screen, so you want that time spent well. These are the best in graphics cards - top quality performance on the top settings. Unfortunately, even on the cheaper sites I've found, its gonna cost you anything from £150-£350. Some examples:
GeForce 7900 GT, GeForce 7900 GTX, GeForce 7950 GX2
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT, ATI Radeon X1900 Crossfire Edition, Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X
Random Access Memory (RAM)
RAM, or Random Access Memory, determines the speed of your computer. RAM will always improve your PC's performance when carrying out standard tasks, but when it comes to playing games, RAM and a Graphics Card are both required for a decent performance, one is little use without the other. Upgrading your RAM is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to effectively upgrade your PC. Its also a lot more simple than selecting Graphics Cards, but you should still think carefully about how much you really need. Apart from the really old 64 MB etc, modern RAM has ratings of 256 MB, 512 MB, 1024 MB. The higher the better. As well as this, they have a rating in Mega Hertz, which effectively shows how fast they work. The rating in MB is for showing how the RAM will cope with large or several tasks at once, and the rating in MHz shows the RAM's processing speed. So, be careful when picking RAM, remember, money saved on RAM could go towards a better Graphics Card or anything else you need. So, a quick Guide for general gaming, but based on RTW:
Budget Gamers - For a bog standard performance of RTW, 256 MB RAM will do. Most computers made in the last few years should come with it anyway. Any less than this and you have to upgrade - 256 MB RAM is an official minimun requirement for RTW. Of course, all the various forms of 256 MB RAM have different levels of quality. Budget Gamers might consider buying, for around £20, or for the latter below, up to £40:
Crucial 256 MB DDR PC3200 CAS3 (256 MB, 200 MHz)
OCZ PC 3700 Gold Series EL-DDR CAS2 (256 MB, 450 MHz)
Casual Gamers - For a solid gaming performance, with little lag and fairly slow loading times, 512 MB should have the power to offer this. Its also pretty affordable, with a wide range of choices at around £40:
Crucial 512 MB DDR PC2700 CAS2.5 (512 MB, 166 MHz)
Crucial 512 MB DDR PC3200 CAS3 (512 MB, 200 MHz)
Serious Gamers - If you want excellent gaming performance even on high settings, 1 GB RAM will do the job, as long as it has a graphics card to complement it. Having 1 GB of RAM will be increasingly useful in the future, as it is recommended to have at least 1 GB RAM to take full advantage of what Windows Vista has to offer. So, for great quality and value RAM for serious gamers, at around £70-£100 take a look at:
Crucial 1GB DDR PC3200 CAS3 (1 GB, 200 MHz)
Mushkin 1 GB DDR XP3200 (1 GB, 400 MHz)
Extreme Gamers - To allow your other components such as your graphics cards etc to be used to their full advantage, 2 GB of RAM will easily allow this. This is the best RAM available, though it is expensive at anything from £130-£. Some good choices of RAM for the extreme gamer would be:
Mushkin 2 GB DDR EM 3200 (2 GB, 400 MHz)
Mushkin 2 GB DDR XP 4000 (2 GB, 500 MHz)
Corsair 2 GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 Pro TwinX (2 GB, 800 MHz)