Need Help Upgrading PC

[Greyone]

I recently received a copy of The Orange Box for the pc and was extremely delighted. Everything was wonderful, until I decided to play Half Life 2. The game runs horribly on my computer. It was doing pretty good at the start of the game, but once i got around to actually fighting it lagged immensely.

Please help me upgrade my pc, i am a noob to computers and don't know what i need to buy. Or I will buy a new computer if upgrading is not worth it.

I have a Gateway 420GR with Intel Pentium 4, 2.93 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 cache, Intel 915GV chipset, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, and 512 MB DDR.

Is it my ram or my graphics chip ?

[M7thCC]

Both. I would suggest going back to wherever you bought the PC originally, or at least somewhere that can legitimately service it, and ask them about upgrades. You might not be able to upgrade everything due to hardware restrictions, but I would start with your graphics card.

Right now you have what's called an "integrated" graphics card, meaning it draws it's processing power from the main CPU. What you want, if possible, is a "dedicated" graphics card, meaning that it has it's own CPU, aka GPU (Graphical Processing Unit). That may not be possible without first upgrading your motherboard, but it all depends.

Next I would aim for getting more RAM, 1GB would be the bare minimum though I recommend you get 2GB if possible.

[Greyone]

Thanks so much for the information M7thCC

I found out i have 4 slots for ram(already has 2, 256mb), so i think ill buy 2, 1 gb to have a total of 2.5 gb altogether.

And if it's possible for me to get a "dedicated" graphics card which would you reccomend?

could you also reccomend a store too.
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I went to Gateway's tech support and they told me that i do not have to upgrade my motherboard. They said to install the video card upgrade, and it will disable the integrated one. They also reccomended the NVIDIA GEFORCE 7300GT 256MB and also they added that I would need a 400W power supply.

[kibbles]

Originally Posted by Greyone

Thanks so much for the information M7thCC

I found out i have 4 slots for ram(already has 2, 256mb), so i think ill buy 2, 1 gb to have a total of 2.5 gb altogether.

And if it's possible for me to get a "dedicated" graphics card which would you reccomend?

could you also reccomend a store too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I went to Gateway's tech support and they told me that i do not have to upgrade my motherboard. They said to install the video card upgrade, and it will disable the integrated one. They also reccomended the NVIDIA GEFORCE 7300GT 256MB and also they added that I would need a 400W power supply.

newegg.com

[Greyone]

Originally Posted by kibbles

newegg.com

yeah I'm so glad I didn't let tech support order the parts. Im saving myself $80 by not buying from Gateway.