Hi =]
I was wondering if anybody could help me with upgrading my graphics card and RAM, i have around £150 to spend for all of it.
My specs are: http://support.packardbell.com/uk/i...
My boyfriend bought me it a couple of years ago and now it needs an upgrade!
I like to play online games (MMORPG) but this graphics card isnt cutting it, i expect i'll need 2gig of ram also :(
I don't think my PSU supports much (240/250 i believe) and im too worried to change it. It has a 4 pin connecter which i think is the auxiliary lead for cards (it has P7 written on it if thats relevant) Any suggestions / links to grphx card + ram plz? for my budget of £150!!!
Thank you =]
(Preferably buying from amazon as i trust them!)
Hannah xo

MMORPG gaming generally doesn't require a high end video card & 1GB RAM *should* be sufficient. If you're experiencing lag, I would suspect the internet connection.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02...

Hi jam, some of the newer ones do i'm considering one of the 8 series nvidia as they come at around £70-100 mark. Anyone have an idea on the best i can get for around £100? (GBP)
Toms Hardware is good but thats all USD and prices are a little different here.
Considering the low power supply too i'm not sure what i could get and hopefully i can get the 2 ram sticks (2x1gig) for around £50?
The two i have are 2x512 could i keep them and add 2x1gig ram sticks also? or do they all have to be the same? (unsure)
The 8600 GT looks nice i found these on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/2td5k6 8600 GT
http://tinyurl.com/37kc4t 8600 GTS
Obviously the GTS being better but would that need extra power or just plug in pci-e and good to go? i dont think the GT version does? So perhaps the GT is better for me? help please!!

http://tinyurl.com/38k6cq 2x1gig RAM
http://tinyurl.com/3b45jy Another 2x1gig RAM

With the ram im unsure what the numbers mean like 4-4-4-12 and stuff, which one would be right for my motherboard please!?

Hopefully the graphics card doesnt need extra power because my PSU is low (250) and my aux lead inside seems to be a 4pin, sorry if this is all vague i'm not too sure about all this techy stuff =]
If i've missed something out plz let me know, thanks for your advice so far =D

My current pc specs: http://tinyurl.com/2o268y
Thank you =]
Hannah xo

Packard Bell pulled out of the states many years ago (thank god).

As for the Tom's Hardware article, price has nothing to do with it...the card choices are still valid. I think you *may* have problems if you don't upgrade the PSU though.

Thanks for your quick reply =]
Wouldn't the cards i picked run on my system fine? and the ram? without a PSU upgrade?
Im not looking for anything too high-end those cards/ram would suit me fine if they can be put in my pc fine without additional power and i would have a little pocket change after =]
Also as i asked in my previous post which ram should i choose? as the 4-4-4 and 5-5-5 thing baffles me ><
A link to the ram suitable and the best choice of of the two cards suitable without additional power would be great!
Thank you
Hannah xo

"Wouldn't the cards i picked run on my system fine? and the ram? without a PSU upgrade?"

You're already pushing the limit of your PSU. The D820 doesn't support SpeedStep so there is no power saving feature. It consumes 160W at idle, 250W under load.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/83...

"the 4-4-4 and 5-5-5 thing baffles me"

The 1st number is the one you should be concerned about. I realize that all the numbers in these "chains" are the same, but it's not always like that. The 1st number is the latency...basically, it's how fast the RAM responds. Lower is generally better.

"the best choice of of the two cards suitable without additional power would be great!"

Like I said, you're already pushing the limit. The 8600GT consumes over 100W:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article...

Thanks jam that was really informative but quite worrying also :( Ive never upgraded a PSU just graphics cards and ram so im unsure what to do now, upgrading the PSU seems tricky!
I could buy a PSU also i guess (If they dont cost too much!) but would be very worried about installing it myself :( What would you recommend or anyone else?
Im starting to worry i'll have to buy a whole new pc base unit :( also places like pc world and such way over charge for what i would want and always seem to give you a raw deal on one or two of the components ><
Sorry for ranting on i'm just a little worried as to what to do next!
Any suggestions welcome!!
Thank you
Hannah xo

Installing a new PSU is no big deal...picking a good one with decent specs capable of handling your systems needs is the tricky part. Don't buy a cheap generic model.

PSU's are easy to install, in fact that was the first component that my girlfriend upgraded in a computer, and I had her do it over the phone.

This one is cheap and should do the trick
http://tinyurl.com/2dzxnj

I've bought at least 5 of them and they've all run perfectly, in fact I had to use one to replace a Silverstone 650 SLI ready PSU that was failing to power a system with something like a Pentium Extreme Edition 955 and 7800GTX, both quite power hungry. I put the little thermaltake 430 in there, and my dad could play HL2 for more than 30 mins now! it all ran beautifully, especially considering his components. These PSUs are incredibly stabe and decently cheap.

As for a graphics card, an 8600GT should be fine for MMORPGs. It doesnt take a pci 6pin power connector, but as jam said, its pushing it enough to spring for a new PSU. depending on the resolution of your monitor eg. greater than or equal to 1680x1050 then spring for a 512MB version of either the 8600GT or 8600GTS

oh and the thermaltake 430W is especially easy to install because all of the cables are wrapped and all the molex(also known as legacy/4pin) connectors have little things on the side that you can squeeze to pull them off. its hard to explain but it makes pulling those plugs around sooo much easier.

2 sticks of RAM can be cheaper than 50USD here so you might be able to find it cheaper there... but you guys get boned a lot over there with prices being the exact same just in pounds, and considering the conversion rate... ouch.

anyway good luck!

Hiya Bolshevik!
Thanks alot for your reply, gave me a little confidence in trying it! (Install PSU)
The PSU link you supplied would be fine in my system with the ram/card upgrades? if so thanks muchly and i'll buy that asap =]

Oh and yea the prices really suck here but theres a few nice places online another member linked me to so hopefully i can keep within my budget still =D

My rez is 1440x900 and i'll opt for the GTS if i can find a nice 512 still in my price range!!
Anyway thank you jam and Bolshevik for your great posts, i'll post back soon on what i can find and show you my component decisions for a review!! ^^;
Thanks muchly =]
Hannah xo

Hiyaz =)
Sorry took me awhile to post back i've been really busy and had to use the money, now i have it back and want to get my upgrades as soon as possible before i have to spend it on something else!
Going to buy:

RAM - 4 gigs from Crucial.com
(they found compatible ram 4 gigs for only £66!)

PSU - http://tinyurl.com/2j5bs6 OCZ StealthXStream 600W Gamers PSU
(Would this be fine to put into my system? also not sure if all PSU's are the same size / will fit in my case.. is this standard etc?!)

Graphics Card - http://tinyurl.com/2j76y4 Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB PCI-E
(Would this do the job?! good for the price?)

The RAM seems to be fine thanks to Crucials compatibility tester program which redirected me =) The PSU and Grphx Card i'm unsure of.. mainly the PSU, never installed one before =(
Thank you all for your help so far and putting up with my newbie questions =)
Hannah xoxoxo