Upgrading pc for lastest games

[thomas49th]

Hi, I want/need to upgrade my pc's graphics card. My pc is farily powerful with intel pentium 4 650 socket 755 @ 3.4ghz, and 2gb pc3200 DDR RAM 800mhz bus speed. However my powersupply and my graphics card isn't! This is a retail pc (from packardbell) and the powersupply is just 250W, running a ATI radeon 9550 graphics card! Even worse is that my motherboard does't have a pci-e slot, so i will need to upgrade that too. My board is here

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=146&model=374&modelmenu=1

I want to be able to play bf2 on max settings and company of hereos too @ 1280 x 1024. To get a graphics card to do this im going to have to upgrade PSU, motherboard (for PCI-E slot) along with the graphics card aswell. I want to try and stay under £200 with vat and p&P included (buying from preferbaly UK seller). Now unfortunatly my case is microATX, so I will have to buy a microATX board. With all of these things in mind i can start chosing my components.

Im not sure wether to go with http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=15219&GroupID=0
OR
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106578

Im not sure what motherboard to get however i like the look of this one (but i cant find a UK seller)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131586

and im not sure what powersuppy i should get, but it will need to be 500W atleast. Im running a FSP 250W powersupply currently

1. Does anybody know a good power supply i could get (500W) to fit in my ATX case?
2. Anybody know a good microATX motherboard to fit in my case?

P.S My pc is here:
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?i=spec_santiago_nofw&ppn=PB14307101

Thanks

 

[LambOfGod]

I dont have personal experience with either of those brands, but yea definetly get a 7600GT.
That ASUS board looks great for your setup, so keep looking for it.
And any ATX powersupply should fit in that case. ( on newegg you can get the dimensions of them so i would measue it just to be sure, but you should have no problem)

 

[thomas49th]

okay, i think these will do:
Graphics Card
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=15219&GroupID=0
PSU
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=11879&GroupID=9
Is the PSU going to be fine for this setup

i cant find that motherboard anywhere in UK! I cant order it from newegg as they dont ship internationally. Is there any other board that is DDR1, PCI-E, mATX avaible in (preferably) microdirect, as i cant seem to find one?

Thanks

 

[prosser13]

Company of Heroes requires a powerful graphics card if you want to run it at highest settings - you'll want the equivalent of a X1800XL to run it at 1280x1024 with AA and 2xAF, which would be a better card than an overclocked 7800GT, according to a review I read in a magazine I suscribe to.

If you're happy at medium settings, the 7600GT should be OK.

 

[thomas49th]

thanks. im not really bothered about the anti aliasing, it's the texture detail that I enjoy

 

[thomas49th]

how about this board:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=242&model=814&modelmenu=1

i have 2gb ddr400 ram in my current pc, plus this new motherboard has DDR and DDR2!!! I have a socket 775 processor (P4 3.4ghz 650)

best of all it's a microATX (mATX).

I beleive it would fit, right. From the spec it says 1 x AGP8X/4X (1.5V only), can that take my ATI RADEON 9550 AGP 8x?

Thanks

 

[Raffaz]

Heres the board ya after mate, i use these all the time, scroll down near the bottom.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Asus_177.html

 

[thomas49th]

cheerz im not sure wether i should get this one or the one on ebay. They will both fit, right? I was wondering is there any DDR, PCI-E x 16, SLI READY mATX motherboards out there? I like the look of the one on ebay as it supports DDR and DDR2 memory (can they both run at the same time?)

Thanks

 

[Raffaz]

Look on that site i posted for a P5B-VM, although its not SLI. As for the memory, ya will only be to run one or the other i think.

 

[thomas49th]

im going to go with the P5GV-MX, however i read some reviews and the manual and not that many graphics cards are 100% compatible. I downloaded the manual for the motherboard @ ASUS's website after reading reviews on newegg.com. I want to get a 256mb nvidia 7900 GS, but im not sure which company makes a compatible one (the manual isn't very clear). What graphics card are you using in it Raffaz?

Thanks