Hey guys, I'm now after a cheap upgrade. With the announcement of the release dates for Black and White 2, I need to save! So, help me out! hehe. I'll tell you what I want.

I know that I want a P4 3.2gig processor. No arguing with me on that, I don't care if you prefer AMD or what lol. Anyway I found a link for one thats about £150

So this means I need a motherboard with a 478 socket. I have no clue on motherboards so if someone can tell me a good one to search for please.
I also want 1gig of RAM to fit the new motherboard (hence I need to know which mobo i want lol)
And I'll probably need a soundcard too, as my current one is integrated, although if the recommended mobo has integrated, thats ok by me.
And *possibly* I want a new GeForce, but not sure on that. Right now I have an nVidia GeForce 4 440mx 64mb. If I can get away with keeping that for a little while, I will, but I'd still like your recommendations for when I do choose to upgrade. Titanium maybe? FX?

I'll acquiesce to 11b on the intel stuff...not my area of expertise.

As far as the vid card...personally, I'd say wait. Wait until the last possible moment, when you pop in the game and realize you're getting 2fps. Then go buy the best card you can afford.

IMO, that card you have sucks. But if it does what you need, then good for you. No point in replacing it until you have to. But when you do, you'll want to do a major upgrade. Going to a TI isn't a major upgrade...not worth the investment, imo. Definetely go FX, and probably got 6000+ series fx. I know nvidia is releasing SLI capable geforce fx for pretty cheap. But, who knows, it might be more cost effective to buy a 6800.

In fact, if you wait, by the time B&W2 actually comes out, you might be able to buy something in the 7000 series for a decent amount of cash.

well thanks for the tips guys, keep them coming. It's about 12 weeks til the game comes out.

Basically what I was hoping was I could find out the mobo I'll upgrade to, so that if it takes the same type of RAM as my current one, I can just buy the gig of that and see how BnW2 runs. Because I'd much rather wait if I can to be honest, for saving purposes (and of course to get the best possible for cheap )

yeah i know my card sucks lol, but if i can get away with it for a lil while then thats all good. I'll keep this topic updated, I won't actually make any purchases til the game is nearly out so I have the time to sort things out and save.

Thanks again

pc3200 isn't all that expensive. Looks like around $100 for a gig.


Does your current motherboard support DDR RAM? If it does, you can use this in your current computer.

Ok guys, whaddya think? Apart from Graphics card, what else do I need? Excuse my blondeness but does the mobo have sound and network cards already in it? And double check its all compatible for me Also if any of those makes are horribly crap, tell me! I just kelkoo'ed for the stuff you mentioned and clicked some cheap ones.

oh also is this a good card d'ya think? If so, would you recommend the cheaper or more expensive version? Far as I can see they're the same, just one is a better known brand, but I'm prepared to buy the more expensive one if you think thats best



just one thing to add; need to be sure this system would run HL2 comfortably, as thats the benchmark for being able to run BnW2 til the specs are released.

those two cards are basically the same. Get the cheaper one imo.

As for the rest of it, looks good to me. You should be able to scream along in HL2. Your biggest bottleneck imo would be the graphics card, and at this point that's really not much of a bottleneck (very decent card).

So, I'd say you're set. I'll let 11b chime in on the mobo/processor if he so chooses.

btw, the motherboard you linked to includes network and sound controllers onboard.

great, thanks satis. I'm thinking I'll save up, then sorta 3 weeks before BnW comes out, I'll buy the mobo/cpu/ram, then see how much money i have left, and if i have more than i thought, better graphics card will be on the table. I'll see if 11b has any more to say on it, then it's pretty much decided.

thanks guys.