Upgrading old PC (for fun)

[ultra violent]

Got new Mega PC on order, but would like to upgrade old one to have as another gaming PC on my network. Whats the best I can get out of the following whilst not spending more than £400.

Currently:
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~3198 Mhz
Mother board ASUS P4P800
Memory 4*512MB SDRAM
Graphics NVidia 5950Ultra

Basically looking to upgrade CPU (as should cost 5p), graphics card, PSU (currently on 340W) and memory if there is any benefit.

As it stands it will play Far Cry at 1280*1024 @ 35fps-45fps, I know games have moved on since, but plenty of fun to be had with FC and Generals on a network...

[ThePassenger]

ultra violent said:

Got new Mega PC on order, but would like to upgrade old one to have as another gaming PC on my network. Whats the best I can get out of the following whilst not spending more than £400.

Currently:
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9 GenuineIntel ~3198 Mhz

And I'd like a CPU cooler for a P59C please :P

So it's a 3.1GHz P4. :P

ultra violent said:

Mother board ASUS P4P800
Memory 4*512MB SDRAM
Graphics NVidia 5950Ultra

Grab the manual for the mobo and see if it's an AGP 8x slot (it should be). If it is look around for the biggest nastiest AGP card you can find (I think the Nvidia 7000 series came in AGP flavours for some chips). That's the only upgrade I'd do on that machine; the CPU is strong enough to do 99% of stuff, you've got 2GB of RAM which is plenty and to be honest the games aren't going to speed up a great deal by going to DDR or DDR2.

If you do really want to go for it, hunt around for a PCI-Express mobo that'll take that CPU, drop on 2GB of DDR2 in 2x1GB sticks, drop a 7000 or 8000 range GFx in and blast away.

[xiphias]

Yep, short of rebuilding it (you can easily core 2 that for £400) I think just stick a decent gfx card in it, but as said the psu will probably need upgrading! You've pretty much maxed out that tech.

[ultra violent]

OK, got:

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP)

For a smidge over £200.

What do I need to do driver wise to swap over the graphics cards?

[ThePassenger]

As you're going from Nvidia to ATi, I'd recommend the long winded route.

Uninstall the Nvidia drivers from Add/Remove Programs.
Reboot.
When Windows prompts tell it to use the Generic Video driver that's built in.
Shut down.
Swap hardware.
Power up and install ATi's Catalyst drivers.

Should do the trick

ATi -> ATi & Nvidia -> Nvidia is simpler (whip out hardware and update).

[ultra violent]

Thanks

[ultra violent]

All done, Overclockers did the job a treat, next day delivery and now it is all in. 3Dmark03 went from 6500 to 14500. Can now run all my games at max every thing at 1280*1024, all for £200. Should keep the old girl going for another year.