I got a 00' dell dimension 4550 that has a 3.02 GHZ processor and I know nothing else on it's specs other than it has no sound. I know my speakers work so I assume the sound card is pooh?? :dunno:
What kind of suggestion on a hard drive upgrade? if the speed more important than memory? I figure it's 120BG @3600 [basic crap]
I think my CPU is plenty powerful for the games I will be running but does anyone know what type of mother board is in the 4550 desktops?
Graphics card?
introductory sound card?
I guess I should define my gaming habbits....Need 4 Speed, ridge racer, Need for speed undergound, Halo, Roller Coaster Tycoon and AVP + some business software. Mostly racing games So I'm not concerned with a Lan connection or whatever for online gameing.... Just strictly PC performance.
anyone want to give me suggestions please do :mrgreen:
for gaming, spend your money on a good video card before you waste it elsewhere. RAM second. Faster hd much further down on the list.
I'm a few years out of the loop as far as this stuff goes, but here's a head-to-head write up of the current cream of the crop as far as video cards go (in several price ranges)
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-8902_7-6213103-1.html?tag=prmo1
havent fallowed Dells in some time, i remember some having onboard Video and sound. these are kinda caca. If however you have a slot open you can put in your own. i generaly by my own motherboards and build em myself. Both ATI and Nvidia make some good cards.
If it's been reformatted, you're probably just missing the sound card driver. You can get it from the original system CD, or online.
Did you check the silly things, like making sure sound isn't muted in the OS? You're using Windows of some flavor?
for a hard drive 7200 rpms is sufficient. Anything higher is too much of your buck for the bang. graphics card, an ati radeon 9700 can easily handle any of those games and be had for less than $100 on ebay. Memory, you don't need more than 1024 megs, speed is important, but my guess is ram speed isnt great for a dell.
the first place you are going to go when you finish reading this is //www.pricewatch.com
on a side note, a sound card is important for games not because of sound quality but because if you have onboard sound your processor is used in the function slowing you down.
order of operations
1> if you have less that 512 megs of ram, upgrade asap
2> if your video is onboard and you have an agp slot available, get a new graphics card
3>if your sound is onboard, go ahead and buy a cheap pci slot sound card , it will at least speed up/improve gameplay if you are not too worried about super awesome sound quality.
4>find a 7200 rpm hard drive if you dont already have one, they are pretty darn cheap
If you're serious about gaming, ditch the dell. Other than that...
It doesn't sound like you need a serious gaming machine. As far as upgrades go, most of my thoughts echo what '04 said but I have a few more to go along with them.
Be careful upgrading your dell. Dell pulled a compaq on some of their machines. In other words, make damn sure that what you buy is compatible with your machine. Dell turned the AGP slots around on some of their machines so that you could only buy upgrades from them. Unfortunately, I don't know all of the machines they did this to so that will require some searching.
Get good ram. It's important. PQIpower, viking, crucial and kingston are good brands. Again, make damn sure that it will work with your machine.
Buy stuff from newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com). Their prices are VERY hard to beat (but it does happen), their shipping is reasonable, they ship really fast and their customer support is second to none. You may end up paying $.50 or $1 more than the cheapest store on pricewatch, but if something should break, who do you want to deal with? Some store in that doesn't even have a phone number or someone who is known for thier customer support?
Quote from: goatIf you're serious about gaming, ditch the dell. Other than that...
It doesn't sound like you need a serious gaming machine. As far as upgrades go, most of my thoughts echo what '04 said but I have a few more to go along with them.
Be careful upgrading your dell. Dell pulled a compaq on some of their machines. In other words, make damn sure that what you buy is compatible with your machine. Dell turned the AGP slots around on some of their machines so that you could only buy upgrades from them. Unfortunately, I don't know all of the machines they did this to so that will require some searching.
Get good ram. It's important. PQIpower, viking, crucial and kingston are good brands. Again, make damn sure that it will work with your machine.
Buy stuff from newegg.com. Their prices are VERY hard to beat (but it does happen), their shipping is reasonable, they ship really fast and their customer support is second to none. You may end up paying $.50 or $1 more than the cheapest store on pricewatch, but if something should break, who do you want to deal with? Some store in that doesn't even have a phone number or someone who is known for thier customer support?
i will second newegg, i only buy from them regardless of price, they took back my nonfunctional motherboard no questions asked and even payed for shipping :thumb:
I got this dell at a yardsale for $20...It's a 00' but it "was" the higher end of dells models in that year. 3.02 is unheard of almost 5years ago... :P but it has 4 slots, one with the 64bit graphics card that came w/ it, my new sound card I just installed and fixed the sound problem and I still have 2 free. I stoped in at Circuit City and look at what they had as far a graphics man$$$$$$ I was like ok internet e-bay here we come or something....
my order is going to get a graphics card [preferably 128mb] I was looking at the ATI7700 but could justify getting the 9700 :mrgreen:
I didn't think 256MB was going to cut it. I'll pick up another to get her up to 512
I got a 60GB hard drive but staples seems to be having a sale that that a 200GB 7200rpm drive for 89.99!! I was so tempted to pick one up w/ my sound card but then remembered my car needed and oxygen sensor and was then distracted ;)
sounds like your set.
Quote from: Jace009gsmy order is going to get a graphics card [preferably 128mb] I was looking at the ATI7700 but could justify getting the 9700 :mrgreen: I didn't think 256MB was going to cut it. I'll pick up another to get her up to 512
I have computer parts I'm trying to get rid of if you're interested. I have a ATI Radeon9700 Pro (128MB), PC2700 ram(I'm pretty sure on the speed but I'd have to double check), a force-feedback joystick, possibly some optical drives (DVD, DVD +RW maybe), a sound card (Hercules Game Theatre XP) and some hard drives (2x 7200 60GB). If you're looking for something, I probably have an extra (or 2 or 3) that I'm trying to get rid of.
+1 on newegg.com
They have good prices and excellent customer service.
Yay for newegg. I bought a case, motherboard, sound card, graphics card, surround speaker system, cpu, ram, 2 hard drives, wireless keyboard/mouse, power supply, blah blah blah, they are teh rockz0rz. A+ from me for everything they do.
Quote from: Jace009gsI got this dell at a yardsale for $20...It's a 00' but it "was" the higher end of dells models in that year. 3.02 is unheard of almost 5years ago... :P but it has 4 slots, one with the 64bit graphics card that came w/ it, my new sound card I just installed and fixed the sound problem and I still have 2 free. I stoped in at Circuit City and look at what they had as far a graphics man$$$$$$ I was like ok internet e-bay here we come or something....
my order is going to get a graphics card [preferably 128mb] I was looking at the ATI7700 but could justify getting the 9700 :mrgreen:
I didn't think 256MB was going to cut it. I'll pick up another to get her up to 512
I got a 60GB hard drive but staples seems to be having a sale that that a 200GB 7200rpm drive for 89.99!! I was so tempted to pick one up w/ my sound card but then remembered my car needed and oxygen sensor and was then distracted ;)
. tiger direct has an nvidia geforce fx55oo (256m ddr) card after rebates for like 50 dollars, which in your situation would be more than enough, plus they have cheap ram and other things
I've got a 4550. I bought it new in 2003 and it has a 2.64 Ghz processor, so yeah I would say 3.02 is a hoss for a 2000.
The 4550 can take up to 1 GB of RAM, I got mine from //www.crucial.com .
I also recently updated to a better video card from //www.newegg.com Take everyones advice and give them your business because they have a good customer rep in my opinion. I bought a Leadtek Nvidia 6600GT 128MB card to replace my old crappy GeForce MX 4 card. The 6600 is about all that the PSU in the 4550 can handle. Newegg had it for $130 for a pretty decent card, which is a steal but it looks like they sold out.
I'd at least try to max out the RAM at 1 Gig if you upgrade to a newer video card. I've got a 60GB HD which is plenty for me.
I've been playing Battlefield 2 for a couple of weeks now and my system runs it fine.
yep +1 on Newegg.com :) You can beat there prices sometimes, but the service is second to none. I'll pay the extra buck or two for that.
Just ordered a 6600GT graphics card yesterday. Never underestimate the power a new graphics card can breath into a system. I tend to stagger my MoBo Video card purchases, and you almost always see the video card performance jump while the Mobo/CPU will be there but not quite as awe inspiring.
as for sound, make sure there's only one set of 1/8th" jacks in the back. at school and work i've ran into computers with an add on sound card where someone had plugged their speakers into the motherboard sound card jacks.
Yeah ditch the dell and INTEL and get yourself a nice AMD processor. Thats what I did and my system runs all games pretty good although its not the fastest.
SPECS:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.3ghz
512mb dual channel ddr pc-4000
2 7200rpm 40 gig hard drives
Abit AV8 Motherboard
400watt power supply
NVIDIA Geforce 6600GT
amd all the way!
my specs,
amd sempron 3000+
1024mgs pc4000
ati radeon 9200 (hey it was free, the card that is)
usb 2.0, plus firewire support
but its a compaq, but now i can use any power supply, because tis the way compaq went. its got 250w one now. it plays planetside quite nicely, my fps rate in game is around 140 fps, in a major fight around 52fps :dunno:
Best Bang for the buck setup ...for gaming
AMD Athlon 64 Venice Core - 150$
Nvidia 6600 GT - 150$
Epox/Asus Nforce Motherboard - comes with lan, sound, raid, sata, pata, dual channel ddr - 110$
Corsair value ram - 1GB - DDR dual channel - 90$
use your existing hard drive, floppy, optical drive.
this will run the latest games with no problems at fairly high resolution.
also, if you want i got some extra stuff laying around that i plan on putting on ebay since i build pc's all the time. just send me a pm or email for what you're looking for. i'll let you know what i have.
you need a hard drive... i've found WD 80gig 7200 8mb cache drives after rebate for $25 a few times...
OK guys, try not to get jealous now....
I'm packin' an AMD Athalon Thunderbird 750 with 768Megs of PC100 RAM and a Voodoo-4 32Meg Video card.
only the best... from the year 2000!!!!
BOOYAH! :nana:
Quote from: vtlionOK guys, try not to get jealous now....
I'm packin' an AMD Athalon Thunderbird 750 with 768Megs of PC100 RAM and a Voodoo-4 32Meg Video card.
only the best... from the year 2000!!!!
BOOYAH! :nana:
back in the days of quake one voodoo was pretty damn awesome, i really wish they never went out of business
Quote from: '04gs500f
back in the days of quake one voodoo was pretty damn awesome, i really wish they never went out of business
You're tellin' me. I got a smokin' deal on the card though, because I bought it after they announced that they were coming off the market and that tech-support would be pulled on them in a month. :thumb:
a sad day indeed
dont get the abit av8 like i did it sucks for overclocking.