What to upgrade?

[Unreal]

Ok, I have these specs and I`ve made a simple poll for peoples expert advice to reach me in a simplified way..

I need to know what I should upgrade or fix, as I`m getting a low performance in some games that should be performing better with my PC specs.

AMD Athlon 2700+ XP
1024MB DDR 400MHz PC3200
Jetway V400 DA motherboard KT400 Chipset
Gigabyte Radeon 9800 Pro AGP 8X
Windows XP
Hard drive 1 - Samsung probably 5400 RPM (not sure but slow) 40GB
Hard drive 2 - Maxtor 7200 RPM 30 GB
Old case with a few case fans that dont seem to help...

 

[SidewinderX]

You really don't need o upgrade anyhting. But if you have the money buring in your pocket, get a new mobo.

But if you uprade your CPU, i'd be more than willing to take it off your hands....

 

[Unreal]

I cant install motherboards, CPUs etc, I can only install RAM, PCI cards Fans (not CPU) and graphics cards. I`m not a very knowlegable guy when it comes to the CPU and I hate the thought of static electricity damaging it... I would have gave you the CPU though. The fan is hard to clip onto the board for me too and I dont want to take it to a computer shop just for a new motherboard.

 

[crabcakes66]

Your motherboard is your problem.

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

motherboard.

they are not easy, but not hard to install:
-remove pci/agp cards
-unscrew motherboard screws
-carefully slide it to the right, then raise out, supporting the heatsink side with your left hand
-remove heatsink, this is the tricky part, and wipe the bottom after your done
-wipe cpu chip and there should be a little lever to unlock it

put chip and ram in new one.
add thermal paste and heatsink
screw back in
add the rest.

you may have to format if its not working right

 

[Unreal]

Originally posted by Steven Q Urkle
motherboard.

they are not easy, but not hard to install:
-remove pci/agp cards
-unscrew motherboard screws
-carefully slide it to the right, then raise out, supporting the heatsink side with your left hand
-remove heatsink, this is the tricky part, and wipe the bottom after your done
-wipe cpu chip and there should be a little lever to unlock it

put chip and ram in new one.
add thermal paste and heatsink
screw back in
add the rest.

you may have to format if its not working right

^above^ Thats the hard part!

Wipe CPU? Would that not damage it with static? and how do you handle the CPU?

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

just ground yourself before you do it by touching a lamp or something.
hold it from the sides, dont touch the bottom.

its gonna have paste on it, you will need to re apply this.
you can get some OCZ paste for like 3 bucks, or better arctic silver for 7

 

[SubKamran]

A7N8X-Deluxe Mobos kick serious butt, I think that's your problem.

 

[TheRook]

id say mobo

 

[[NPR]Noah Adams]

Spend $3 at Radio Shack on a anti-static wriststrap if you're really paranoid.