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Posted: 15 Aug 2006, 09:01
by jonesey2k
Ive got an old Athlon XP2400 (2ghz) and socket A (Soltek FRN2) mobo sitting here not doing anything...

Posted: 15 Aug 2006, 14:51
by bigred1970
I am not sure how computer prices are in uk, but here if you had a computer that old, you could get a new e-machine that would run circles around it for maybe 3 to 4 hundred dollars....

I wouldn't even waste the time trying to upgrade it.... :k:

Posted: 15 Aug 2006, 15:12
by ianhind
you could get a new e-machine that would run circles around it for maybe 3 to 4 hundred dollars...
Yes but it would likely struggle with FS2004 because of the onboard graphics which might not be upgradeable (cf people who bought some Dells that only had a PCI expansion card - have you seen the price of recent PCI graphics cards on Ebay? A last desperate attempt to avoid upgrading :sad: )

Posted: 15 Aug 2006, 16:04
by Charlie Bravo
I wouldn't touch a shop built machine.

As Nigel has stated, his funds won't allow at present, so I would go for the CPU upgrade as long as it isn't silly money.

An upgrade of any other sort would also mean a Windows reinstall and if I recall, Nigel uses Windows 98. The time spent reinstalling that beast wouldn't be worth it.

Posted: 15 Aug 2006, 16:33
by Nigel H-J
Jonesey2K

Have pm'd you.

Posted: 26 Aug 2006, 05:40
by phantom_fgr2
Charlie is right when he says to avoid shop bought machines, this is what im running:

Dell Dimension 9150 Purchased April 06

P4 630 HT (3ghz, 800FSB, 2mb Cache)
2048 mb 533mhz DDR2 RAM
160Gb 7200rpm HD
256mb Geforce 7300LE Graphics

and it still chokes up to around 5 FPS if there's loads of clouds or your flying out of EGLL or EHAM etc with the sliders on max!!!!!!!!!!! any ideas? personally i think an AMD would be a good idea.......

Regards

Posted: 26 Aug 2006, 14:09
by Charlie Bravo
The CPU is slow, the memory is also slow and the graphics card will be lucky to handle MS Paint.

If you want more fps you're gonna need a full upgrade.

Posted: 26 Aug 2006, 15:02
by phantom_fgr2
Actually it runs mspaint fine! you could have been polite about it! just goes to show shop bought stuff is s**t..............

Posted: 26 Aug 2006, 15:05
by Charlie Bravo
Sorry mate :think:

The 7300GT isn't a bad card but any Nvidia card with LE at the end has a low memory bandwidth. Shops don't tell you that of course, they just say "256mb Geforce 7300" and make people think wow !

Makes them money but the end user gets a crap deal.

Posted: 26 Aug 2006, 15:18
by phantom_fgr2
i heard it was designed for mid-range laptops? is this true?