I want to improve my computer

Alright, I'll just post some stuff about my specs. I dont know what I need to improve specifically.

Memory: 2936RAM
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4CPU 2.93GHz
Page File: 1031MB used, 3305MB available

Video Card: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series

I'm having a relatively bad frames per second in games such as World of Warcraft, and when I'm around a bunch of people in that game (I'm just using this as an example) my Latency jumps through the roof. Now, this is my bro's old computer since my other Vista broke. I got a few questions though.

1) What can I do to fix this? I got plenty of RAM as far as I know, but do I need to buy a new processor or a new video card?

2) Could I -possibly- take the Video Card out of my old Vista computer (this computer runs on XP by the way) and put it into this? Because that video card is far newer than this one I'm positive. I just don't got the box anymore, so would I need that for anything if I could?

3) Or on the flip side. My old computers problem (My Vista) was the Hard Drive. Would it be possible for me to take the Hard Drive out of this XP, despite it being a few years older, and put it into my Vista and still have it work? Would it work better than my current computer considering my old Vista had higher RAM and a better video card, if possible at all?

 

Care to post what motherboard you have? I'm not really a tech geek, but that's more or less what you need to find out if those parts are compatible.

Also, you can never have enough RAM.
I mean, just about every new computer comes with at least 4GB of it. So if you want to upgrade anything and easily see improved performance: get more RAM. Besides, it's far cheaper then other parts.

 

http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12256

 

What does my thread have to do with this? It's completely unrelated.

I'm just asking him to post that info for people who know more about it.

 

Okay, I'm kind of jumping to this but it's similar in topic. I had my old Vista computer as I told you about previously that was mega-aweosme. It faltered becasue of a hardcore virus on the harddrive. Now, my mom just got a new computer. Could I wipe the hard drive of her old computer, install Vista and all that junk on it and put it into my computer safely? How would I install all the system settings and stuff? Would it cost anything to do it and such?

 

My thread may not be related to your post, but It's certainly related to the thread. He wants to upgrade his computer, you want to get a new one.. can't you see the relation? :S

Regarding your question: Yes. You can wipe the hard drive, connect it on the new computer, install Vista or whatever OS, and use it. You'd have to check which interface it works on (probably SATA if its not too old), and see if the motherboard has that port (which again, probably It does unless its a 10 year old motherboard).
The whole installation proccess is rather easy, you just put the CD in and the installation does everything else for you.
In terms of configuration, all you need to do once Vista is installed is installing the drivers of the various devices you have on your PC (GPU, Monitor, Motherboards usually have them too). Each of these components come with a CD when you purchase them which contains an installation program which installs these drivers. So basically once Vista is in, all you'd have to do is find these CDs and install them one by one.

And that's that.

Oh, by the way, WoW is not a very reliable game to measure your FPS. I get 8 FPS on certain areas and my rig is more than respectable. Try disabling shadows, that worked for me.
If you still lag when the screen is crowded, It may be a number of reasons. Try doing what I mentioned before first

 

WoW is a terribly benchmark. My rig can run almost any game you name on high settings, but I still drop to 12FPS in Shattrath. 60FPS nearly everywhere else, but Shattrath and Dalaran.

:|

 

4GB of ram is the absolute maximum a 32Bit XP/Vista/Seven will recognise. If you have that much, i advice against upgrading as the excess memory will be rendered obsolete. Also, 4GB is plentiful and doesn't require additional upgrades since most games, at capacity (Max Quality settings) will not utilise the entire 4GB. Also, games today are heavily GPU or Video card oriented, meaning, the better the video/graphics card, the faster the game. I wouldn't worry too much with the CPU since a reasonable dual core i.e. E7XXX series and above will guarantee a highly playable gaming experience with zero bottleneck if combined with the Video card. Again, since i'm an ATI fan, i recommend purchasing the 4800 series, preferably the 4870 & 4890 for a Mid-Hing end gaming solution.

Note: Compatability can be an issue if u were to upgrade. As Aurora mentioned, it's crucial to check the motherboard model, more specifically, it's features and THE CHIPSET to identify what processors the motherboard can handle and secondly, the GPU port, whether it's an AGP or a PCI-E. Seeing as how you're using a X1500 card, the GPU port will most likely be a PCI-E which is widely compatible with all cards produced today. As such, you will probably be able to upgrade to a newer card. ALthough be VERY WEARY. Most Mid-HIGH END Gpu's require at least 450 Watts to run. Check if u meet that power requirement before proceeding to purchase it. Otherwise, undesirable effects may surface and could ultimately fry the power supply unit.

 

Yeah, I suppose I could just go buy a Vista installation disk and do that. However I got one problem. I don't got the disks for my monitor and all of that stuff, when my brother bought this stuff (I'm using his old stuff atm, which I will be using with my computer that I'd be doing this to) he threw out all of that stuff.

Would it be possible to buy that stuff at the store or would I just be better off buying a brand new computer than going through all of this? It seems like it's just too much frustration and petty buying to prolong the life of my computer probably another half a year when I could just get a new computer that will last me a good 4 years.

 

Why the heck would you get a Vista disc? 7 is out man.

 

Novacute, the 64bit platform can recognize up to 20gb of RAM. And believe me, 4GB will be the average next year, and in 2 or 3 years it will be obsolete already.
If you don't have the drivers CD, you can try downloading them online. Make a google search with the model number of the device and see if you can find it. Once you do, burn it on a cd and that's it.

And, as Aurora said, you're much better off with 7 right now, the 64 bit version of course.

Let's just say me hartey.. a swashbuckler like yerself could loot ye plunder fer free, if you catch my drift.

PM me for more information

 

4GB already pretty much is the standard. Haven't seen anything lower in advertisements since a few months. :/
The weird thing is that some standard come with 6 already, but no 64 bit operating system. No idea who thought of that.

 

I dont want to spend 200 dollars perhaps?

Perhaps a new computer will come with Windows 7, but the fact is if I'm going to be fixing my old computer I'm not going to spend 200 bucks on a new operating system when I could buy a computer that's better than it for 250 bucks.

 

Sorry, noob question.

I'm assuming I can just look inside my computer and it will tell me what kind of Drivers they are or whatnot so I know what to download? I got most of the standard things on my computer from when I bought it, perhaps I can look up the computer itself and see what it's got?

 

Windows 7 does all that automatically. ^^

Basically, you look in the hardware part of your control panel, which displays all the stuff that's inside your computer. Then you in to the website of the manufacturer of each part and download the drivers for each of them. Your computer will tell you if your drivers are already up to date if you try to install a newest version which you already have. At least most of the time.

Further, you don't really need to send 200 bucks on Windows 7. Most Vista computers come with a free upgrade to 7 in the stores here, and I'm quite sure that many websites also offer the same thing. Lastly, upgrading from an existing Vista install is much cheaper then buying a new copy of 7. Look around a bit for the best deals, you really don't have to spend that much.

 

I think I might just buy a new comp :]

 

Welcome to the club of frustrated Windows / pc users. Are you interested in our latest keyboard with extra large ctrl+alt+delete buttons?

But seriously, buying a new one isn't even such a bad idea if you want to upgrade pretty much everything.

 

I improved my computer now. I just set windows 7 up. 64 bits. 8 GO RAM. Enough to run Starcraft 2 !!

 

a 64 bit OS can see 18.45 exabytes of RAM.

But most pc motherboards limit the size to either 16 or 24 GB.

Server/workstation mobos support more than 24 GB's.

a p4 machine really isn't worth upgrading.

Its much better to save at least 800$ for all new parts.

 

Don't build you own computer. Now the big stores like "Wall Mart" in the US, "Carrefour" in Europe have bought so many computers in low price (because of the big number of units) and put them in their stocks that today it is more reasonable to buy a computer already done, a brand like Dell, HP, or whatever than to build your own one. It was a time that it was cheaper to build your own computer, not today.

One other advice : if you want a new computer just to play Starcraft 2, wait to know the official date of release of this future game, so you can buy a new more preformant computer than one now.