hey all
I want to upgrade something on my PC and i was thinking something along the lines of a new lcd monitor 21" or something depending on price. I don't really know what to upgrade for increasing my performance in games without having to get a new motherboard and cpu maybe? I don't want to go too crazy spending money on this.. maybe $300ish

Anyway I just want to hear from what you guys would do.

current specs:
P4 3.0GHz dual core (2x 1.5 i believe?)
1024mb ram
ATI raedon 9550 256mb agp
120gb/80gb IDE Hdd's
300W PSU
Aopen MB ax4sg-un
17" crt s***ty monitor
42" TLC plasma (DVI 1280x960@85)

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/1209/copmuter001fw0.jpg

video card and monitor

but to do that ud need a decent mobo (ie not agp)

so, everything, computar parts are cheap right now

Save your dollars and upgrade it all

1024mb ram

Put an extra gig or two in, that is probably best bang for buck you would get.

For once I agree with spook.

s*** hey... ah well guess il just grab a LCD... anyone know of anywhere with some good deals? Im not really fussed about brands as long as its 19" or bigger.

state the job you want done (specific game/program you want to run well atm) - then build the machine to do it.

if you're on a budget just make do and learn to like it

just go 22"

they are like $300

come here and give us a kiss whoop

yeah vid card and monitor

but you're pretty due for a whole upgrade

those old xpertvision R9550's were alright back in the day (run hl2 sweet as) but many things more modern it struggles (i used to own one).

get a $100 video card and a $230 monitor and that'll see you through for 6 months or so.

but bite the bullet i say, and just get it over and done with.

a girlfriend

hey big bear, have you been told today?

f*** OFF c***

well this looks like what im going to get until i can get the cash up for a full upgrade again in the future..
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=143&bid=5&sid=28948

thanks fellas.

a few years ago I upgraded my PC and I decided to not install ANY games on it and to this day I still haven't.

Reclaim your life. Diet, exercise, work, holiday, gaming: everything in moderation for the win.

pfft exercise.

What are some decent brands of monitor these days? I've had this 19" samsung thing for a few years now and I still can't see any dead pixels on it (there is one on it somewhere that you have to look REALLY hard to find because it's more like a dimly lit pixel than a dead one). I was thinking some sort of 22" wide screen, maybe another samsung?

whoop I just looked at every spec sheet on the umart website for 22" 's and that LG one is best vale for money atm and also has one of the fastest response times and a 5000:1 contrast ratio.

Il be getting that.

I love my VA2226w

http://cdn.overstock.com/images/products/etilize/images/250/1011066641.jpg

Samsung
Samsung
Samsung
Asus/ViewSonic/BenQ

In that order (more or less) :)
I just gave my old 20" BenQ to my pseudo sister-in-law after 2 years no fail anywhere

edit: ^^ yeah I love my samsung there's nothing wrong with it, I just want a widescreen after getting a widescreen laptop and realising how sexy widescreens are :) However my samsung is an S panel and I think the current ones in umart are C panels and I hear they're s***/low quality or something.


what really pisses me off is that now tv's & monitors are coming out in 16:9 or 16:10 widescreen DVD's are coming out in 2.35:1 ratio so I still get black bars top and bottom. When are we going to see 2.35:1 tv's. I might as well buy a projector.

last edited by whoop at 01:39:41 21/Mar/08

f***ing oath^
I just use vlc with 4:3 aspect ratio and put up with it being slighty stretched. I hate that on my plasma it pisses me off so much even on normal dvds on a normal dvd player it still does it, but watching tv its fine.


why is the samsung better hermi?

woah, Mrs Hardware

have you got your knickers in a twist??

28" Viewsonic

For a gaming monitor I recommend going the 28" one from Viewsonic. I upgraded to this from a 22" and f*** me drunk it's awesome. Took a couple of days for my eyes to adjust from sitting in front of this monster but it's totally worth it.

It does 1920x1200 when plugged in to a PC plus it also does up to 1080p res if you wanna hook up your Xbox or PS3 to it. Has a bunch of connections in the back so you can have a few things hooked up at once and it's just a matter of cycling thru the settings button on the front to use it.

Only played HL2/TF2 and WoW on it so far and I'm extremely impressed with it. Lovely crisp and clear image.

8-)

$799 is a nice price for it also - currently on par with the best in the country

Personally i'd save your money and spend a bit more on it - i'd go RAM, monitor, videocard (in that order). I'm not totally sure how outdated that gfx card is but if it's really old then I'd put it in front of the monitor.

You'll really notice a big improvement in general useage by upgrading your ram so I'd have to agree with toll on his recommendation there.

Personally I'm planning on going with the viewsonic screen unless someone starts importing the HannsG 28" which uses the same panel, looks like a nicer build and is cheaper to boot. I think they currently represent great value for money.

last edited by DeePer at 09:56:16 21/Mar/08

It's kinda pointless getting a larger monitor which will look like ass at anything but the native resolution if the system can't drive it.
I see the plight you're in though - your mobo takes AGP, but everything decent these days is PCIe.
Similar, to upgrade the CPU, you need a new motherboard; and with a new CPU and motherboard would also be new RAM.

Personally I think a new GPU would be the way to go, but there may be some significant bottlekneck there - if you could use PCIe then it'd be that for certain, as you can upgrade the rest later. Also, if you are running Vista (but why would you), then I'd be throwing more RAM in there. Again the same problem though, you're buying more of an end-of-life technology.

And all that said though, it really does depend on what you're using the system for, and what games you're playing. There may be little point if all you still play is Quake 3 or Sam and Max, for example.