Published by Jeremy on 1/11/2006 06:35:00 AM
Heh.
I just sat down to look that up, too.
He is correct.
Your machine isn't actually that bad. (I'm assuming it is completely factory spec.) It has an Athlon XP 2400+ (2GHz) which is plenty good enough.
What's killing you is the intergrated video, and the fact that you only have 128 Megs of RAM.
A new video card will cost you anywhere from $25-$550 dollars, depending on how much you want to spend. Even the cheapest of cards will be a big improvement.
There are tons of cards in the $50-100 range on Newegg that will play Warcraft just fine. (It won't be on the highest graphic settings, but it will play it well.)
$68 ($58 after rebate) for a knockoff brand Radeon 9600. A good deal for a basic, solid card. (I think Dustin's system has a 9600 in it, actually.)
We can reccomend a few good brands / models if you decide to upgrade.
Memory is pretty cheap right now, too.
A 512 Meg chip will run you a little over $30. You can stop there, but if you've got the money (and your motherboard will support it...) you may want to go ahead and buy two. 512 will be a big improvement. 1024 will be even better.
You can get a nice upgrade for as little as $80-90 on a budget. $120-150 will get you even better.
You just wanna' make sure someone who knows a little about computers cracks the case open and takes a look inside before you order. I wasn't able to find any information about the motherboard, so you want to make sure it can actually be upgraded. Some of the cheaper motherboards used in those factory machines don't have an AGP slot (needed for the video card upgrade) or only one socket for memory sticks.
I just sat down to look that up, too.
He is correct.
Your machine isn't actually that bad. (I'm assuming it is completely factory spec.) It has an Athlon XP 2400+ (2GHz) which is plenty good enough.
What's killing you is the intergrated video, and the fact that you only have 128 Megs of RAM.
A new video card will cost you anywhere from $25-$550 dollars, depending on how much you want to spend. Even the cheapest of cards will be a big improvement.
There are tons of cards in the $50-100 range on Newegg that will play Warcraft just fine. (It won't be on the highest graphic settings, but it will play it well.)
$68 ($58 after rebate) for a knockoff brand Radeon 9600. A good deal for a basic, solid card. (I think Dustin's system has a 9600 in it, actually.)
We can reccomend a few good brands / models if you decide to upgrade.
Memory is pretty cheap right now, too.
A 512 Meg chip will run you a little over $30. You can stop there, but if you've got the money (and your motherboard will support it...) you may want to go ahead and buy two. 512 will be a big improvement. 1024 will be even better.
You can get a nice upgrade for as little as $80-90 on a budget. $120-150 will get you even better.
You just wanna' make sure someone who knows a little about computers cracks the case open and takes a look inside before you order. I wasn't able to find any information about the motherboard, so you want to make sure it can actually be upgraded. Some of the cheaper motherboards used in those factory machines don't have an AGP slot (needed for the video card upgrade) or only one socket for memory sticks.