Ok so, I want to build a bit of a gamer's pc, but I'm not sure what to buy next. The stock specs of the PC are as follows:
Dell, OptiPlex GX270
Pentium 4
3.0GHz processor
1GB ram
40GB hard drive

Now, stuff I recently got:
2x LG Flatrons L193st
GeForce 7300GT 512MB DDR2
BNIB ATX computer case (damn card didn't fit in the dell's case)
350W Power Supply
2.1 surround speakers

Sooo… what else do I need? More RAM? water cooled system? etc. etc. etc.
budget is about $200 a week for the next few weeks.

Sell the Dell and start from scratch if you want a good gaming PC. P4s are soo old.

Grab a reputable motherboard that supports a dualcore processor such as the Intel E6550 Core2Duo & has onboard SATA RAID & PCI-E. Buy 2 sata drives with 16-32mb cache, then cram some high end ram in 667Mhz+ 2-4Gb worth. Grab a decent Antec case with awesome cooling and a PSU pushing out over 460W. Main thing is to have everything working in unison with no bottlenecks. For example, theres no point having a bling PC running a 40Gb PATA drive, thats for sure.

Man im tired but that should get this thread rolling. Should be able to build one for 1200-1600 depending on how big you want your e-penis to be.

lol. thats what i told him last week

i'll be saying the same thing

and, what brand psu?

Not all that keen on starting again because I just got a lot of gear and I wont get near the money I spent on parts…


Is there a way to upgrade mine more?

Short answer. No.

Put it this way. You own a Mitsubishi L300 workhorse with a dying 4 cylinder when your wanting the same performance as an EVO9. No way in hell! With your budget, you could always opt for an xbox 360 or PS3. They're designed to play the games available and doesn't have the initial cost of a new gaming PC.

You can build a very decent PC using parts from www.msy.com.au for ~$1000

Like everyone said above, trying to add bits a pieces to your current setup is not a good idea.

I recommend you save up for a few weeks and buy your parts from MSY. They are the cheapest place in Sydney.

That $1000 is including everything such as monitor ($~250) and case (you could probably use your existing case and just upgrade the power supply).

So if you use you current monitor and case you can take ~$300 off the ~$1000.

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It comes down to exactly how powerful Pat wants it to be, and what games to run, and how awesome it performs. A P4 3.0ghz still isn't something that is bad, it's still a decent chip. It's not as quick as what's out there now, but if he has it why not use it now. 2 gig or ram (so 1 gig more) will be beneficial, and the 512mb AGP card is pretty solid. No doubt it'll be fine to play games, not at full tilt but should be pretty smooth I would imagine.

Sure spending ~$1k on upgrading to a better one is great, but then for that price you might as well buy a console which will be able to play games at full tilt without needing to be upgraded each 6-12months (at least that was my reasoning to buy the PS3 ).

Obviously if Pat wants to sell it off and start again to build a beast of a machine go for it, but that leads to a path of continual updating components to get the best (I know many who've been down this track ).

hint next time do your research before you start buying gear. I agree with most of the above you've started off without out much forethought and now you will probably end up with something thats cost you a fair bit all up but with medicore performance.

dont go 4 gig of ram, waste of money,
i got 4 gig and it will only let me use 3.25 of it cause of vista

because of 32-bit vista?

Yea computers get old... fast. lol

Keeping up with technology is too hard. what he has right now might be enough for now with a few upgrades such as RAM. But 6 months down the track hes going to need to upgrade something else.

Buying everything new such as new motherboard and core2duo cpu etc. will last for a couple years.

Its really up to the buyer and if they want to spend money on a new computer or not.

Ben hit the nail on the head, I’m not planning to have a full tilt pc system (well anymore due to the age) so hopefully the mods that I do have will at least make the games ‘playable’ as I’m never going to get near the $600 I’ve spent on it so far.



But yeah, If the game play is total crap, I’ll be starting from scratch that for sure. (or buy a ps3)

In that case you can maybe add another stick of 1gb ram.

Make sure its the same type of RAM though. Can cause major problems if its not...

Same as above, MOAR RAMS!

Then don't spend any more.
Keep a few dollars each pay to save up for a complete overhaul.

Unfortunately the Dell Optiplex GX270 is aimed at the business market as an office PC so it's not suited to upgrades as you had planned.

All internal components are proprietary Dell so "clone" components won't fit (as you've found out with the GeForce 7300GT)

As others have suggested .... best to save up your coin and buy a new PC

As it happens, I will be decommissioning a number of GX270's at work this year!

yup :S

i can upgrade mine to 64-bit but then ill have problems GALORE!

Um, so what game do you actually want to play?

^^ my guess is a few??

u know for sure you'll have problems fudd? ........... how many peripherals etc do you use? ........ i guess you've looked into it a bit, but i'm one of those people who can say that i've not really had any problems....to be specific, i've had ONE - my mobile phone.....and, i just couldnt be bothered stuffing around but i have read that its fixable. anyway.

ps: Pat, our PB is the same

i have about 5 - 6 printers hooked up, and then heaps of weird programs etc

....mmmm yeh....goodluck with that

No point wasting money on a computer if your idea of a gaming machine is CS and diablo2.

RAM is useless without the CPU to back it up.

You need a complete new PC mate, if you want it upgradable for a few a year or 2 more, make sure your motherboard is a 755 socket.(very popular amongst the gaming scene)

like many people have said start from scratch......
sell all the bits you recenlty purchased to...... the 7300GT isnt a gaming card and the other components are not very goood

i recomend a
775 socket mobo
a E6400 core 2 duo or better depending on your money..
2gb 800Mhz RAM with timings of 4-4-4-12 or lower in case you want to over clock her
hard drive if you want gaming... go a raptor.... more expensive but spin at 10000rpm
graphics: 8800GTS

case, one with sufficent cooling.... more fans the better...
you do not need liquid cooling unless you want to waste your money..... or unless you get way better parts then what iv mentions and overcloik the crap out of them.

my 2 cents claor