Need suggestion

[ghostr]

Hey All,

I have a friend who's comp config is as below:

MotherBoard : http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...asp?Model=K8NF4G-SATA2
AMD Athlon 3000+
704MB RAM
Hd 80GB 3 partitions [20/28/28]
PCI exp slot

he would like to go for a new graphic card...he has his eye on nVidia Geforce 8600 GT...could some one tell me if this gc will be compatible for this above mentioned mother board?

Or

Do you have any suggestion for GC for this mother-board.

Thanks in advance.
Ghost

 

[daveybrat]

That Asrock motherboard has a PCI-E x16 slot on it, so he should have no issues with an 8600GT.

However, if he's going to buy it new, and doesn't want to buy a newer power supply, then go with an ATI HD 4670 card......it's much faster than an 8600GT.

Or if he wants to get or has a better power supply, got with an ATI HD 4830 or Nvidia 9600GT card.

 

[Denithor]

4670 for about $70 after MIR at newegg is your best bet.

You should also consider upping his RAM. See if you can snag two cheap 1GB sticks in the FS/FT forum here, off Craigslist, or even eBay.

Personally though I wouldn't spend more than $100 on this old system. Because for about $200 you can rebuild the innards completely with a faster dual-core setup & more RAM.

 

[octopus41092]

This system is pretty old. I would recommend just rebuilding the whole thing. My friend had a similar setup and was able to upgrade to a Q8200, ECS Mobo, 2GB RAM, HD4830 for about $300. Now he picked up the CPU and Mobo on Black Friday but for about $200-250 I would think that you could get maybe an E5400, Mobo, 2GB RAM and at least an HD4670 and he could probably run most games pretty well.

 

[error8]

704mb of ram is only good for Windows98 or something like that. Octopus41092 has a point. Your friend needs a new computer if he wants to seriously play some games.

Anyway, if he doesn't have more money, then 4670 would be just much better then the 8600 gt, but still, games will work very badly, if he doesn't change everything.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Yes, it all depends on what games he wants to play. If he isn't into hardcore gaming and won't be playing newer games, he could probably get by just upgrading a few parts. But anything beyond that and he'll have to upgrade everything.

Of course, even an Athlon X2 would be an upgrade for him, and it's possible to get a mobo/CPU combo for as little as $100 or so if you look around. DDR2 is cheap, and a 4670 won't cost much either.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: ghostr
I have a friend who's comp config is as below:

MotherBoard : http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...asp?Model=K8NF4G-SATA2
AMD Athlon 3000+
704MB RAM
Hd 80GB 3 partitions [20/28/28]
PCI exp slot

he would like to go for a new graphic card...he has his eye on nVidia Geforce 8600 GT...could some one tell me if this gc will be compatible for this above mentioned mother board?

motherboard = old
CPU = old & slow
RAM = too little (DDR400? old & slow)
HDD = old & slow

So an 8600GT PCIe would be great match if you want to stick with old & slow.

As recommended above, a 4670 would be a good new graphics card that would fit nicely for when the rest of the system gets a proper upgrade. A cheap system built around 2GB of DDR2 RAM would be immeasurably faster.