Hey, im the n00b

[bottlerocket]

Hey everyone, i found this site on yahoo and it seems really sweet. I got a new HP computer for christmas :( The upside is that it has an AMD 2800+, but it doesnt have any AGP ports which reall sucks. I have 512 ram, Geforce 4 :( , onboard sound :( , etc.

The computer is great for now, but i am going to upgrade to a GeForce FX soon to hold me over until PCI express comes out and i can build my own computer. If anyone has any suggestions on things i can do to make my computer better for gaming, let me know. Right now i mainly play Rainbow Six: 3, and im looking foward to Far Cry, but im not sure if my PC will handle that. :mad:

[[M]uuhh]

Hi Welcom. If your going to get a FX 5200 dont bother :) its not much better than the geforce 4 MX

[Fireblade]

Welcome aboard bottlerocket (great nic :D). I'm sure you'll ge t answers to all your Q's in here ;)

I assume the on-board graphics will be of the MX variety, which will definately struggle wi the likes of Far Cry etc (if they run at all?), and the only way to aleviate that particular problem is to buy a seperate gfx card.

You're not stuck tho' - coz there are still PCI gfx cards available!

For instance... a (retail boxed) 128MB Sapphire Radeon 9200 Atlantis can be bought for around £50( including delivery)... or a (retail boxed) 256MB PowerColor Radeon 9200 can be had for around the £60 mark.

Whilst I admit they're not an ideal gaming solution by any means... they'll perform a lot better than the on-board gfx are doing just now, and they save you having to buy a new mobo ;)

[bottlerocket]

My GeForce isnt an on-board, its a seperate gfx card. Its a NVidia GeForce 4 MX 420 64mb card. I triend out the farcry demo and it was sad to say the least. I definately need a better chipset. So the FX isnt a big improvment over the GF4?

Also, i want to build a new computer some time soon, but when is PCI express comming out?

[[M]uuhh]

the FX 5200 is not a big improvment no.

[bottlerocket]

so how long until PCI express comes out?

[conan]

Originally posted by bottlerocket
so how long until PCI express comes out?

Welcome to the forums :) How long is that peice of string? :)