Quote:
|
Originally Posted by allaboutmusic
My motherboard is the MSI PT8 Neo-V (MS-7043). From what I can tell, it uses DDR DIMMs rather than DDR2. I believe the G400 is AGP.
I'll have a look to see what those cost here in the UK. Thanks for the input so far.
|
If you want current hardware, you're going to be looking at upgrading to DDR2 and PCIe. The good news is that the whole thing should be doable for less than $400 if you look for bargains and will give you a nice amount of headroom for future upgrades. You should be able to get a GeForce 8500 or Radeon 2600 for less than $100; while these are far from top of the line video cards, they are solid performers and from the latest generation; if you're not planning on doing a lot of gaming they ought to serve you well. RAM, similarly, can be done for under $100. You ought to be able to get 1 GB of RAM for $60-$80. So overall, we're looking at ($60+$80+$100+$80) or roughly $320 to upgrade all of your hardware to the current generation. While I realize this may be more than you wanted to spend, it will give you the opportunity to expand your capabilities down the line, which is always nice.
One word of caution as well; many newer motherboards only come with one PATA channel. If you want to keep all of your optical drives you may have to invest in a PCI controller card; otherwise, you'll have to prioritize.