Converting a regular computer to a gaming computer
 

Hi guys,

I recently wanted to take apart and rebuild one of my older computers. I basically want to make it a gaming computer (Good graphics, RAM, etc). What do you guys reccomend? I've never exactly tried converting a regular computer to a gaming computer. How do I exactly do it? Are there downloads I must buy to increase my RAM? So, you guys pretty much get the idea.

Thanks,
Peter5498

How old is your pc?

Hmm, lemme go check.

2003 :/

ok. Well find out your motherboard model. Tell me how much ram you want and graphics. 4+ gb of ram recommended.

oh and ur processor speed

Hmm, where would I look to find that?

It looked like pavilion mx703 HP

I was looking towards a 6 or 8 RAM. And I'm not sure what the graphics cards are measured by. Pretty much something high.

Okay, so the desktop PC is a pavilion a230n HP.
The monitor is a pavilion mx703 HP.

right click on my computer and click properties. also a program called "CPU-Z" will give you even more info like motherboard specs.

Oh, thanks, I'll actually set up the computer tomorrow.

We need specs of your current computer to be able to help.

In all honesty though, since your computer is almost 10 years old you're better building a new one from scratch.
Anyways, if you want to attempt to upgrade your ancient desktop, here's how you can help us to assist you

1.go to search bar in start menu
2.search for dxdiag.exe and run it.
3.either save the file and post it here or screenshot the results and post it.

We can then evaluate what you have and see whats actually still worth anything. If it's really 9 years old then honestly almost everyone is probably dated.

It would probably be easier and cheaper to build a new one though. If you give us a rough budget I can help make the best gaming computer for your money(in terms of picking parts)

How much would you need to build a decent gaming computer from scratch?

$500 could make a pretty awesome one. I bought one for $700 and it can with 8GB of RAM and a 3.0GHz processor. No graphics card but I can play Skyrim and Tribes with no lag. Soon I'm buying 16GB of RAM for $100 and selling my old RAM for $100. I'm also buying a $250 graphics card with 2.0GB of graphics memory since my PC has integrated graphics which btw is fine unless you do big HD renders with thousands of images and like to run minecraft and photoshop at the same time.

Googling the threads name helps a lot aswell

Monitor 19" inches:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16824236203R
Computer, Keyboard and Mouse:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883229304
All for the low price of $545

Get a Geforce GTS 450 if you're getting a medium sized monitor (19" range). Its cheap now, (I got it for $60) although people say its not that incredible of a graphics card; yet I can run Crysis 2 in ultra settings (With directX 11 and high textures) and still get 40-60 FPS easily. So I don't know what they are talking about.

http://i.imgur.com/QLMVH.jpg

This is the graphics card I'm getting http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150549 along with 16GB of RAM.

16GB of ram is overkill. You're better off focusing on more important aspects like a proper PSU(premade computers put in a bare minimum, so upgrade anything and you'll run into problems) or something.