Need advice on friend's pc

I would suggest against the built in gpu option as it is usually lacking versus what can be obtained for pci-e or even agp graphics cards. i ran into this when searching for a laptop. The fps scores for the built in graphics chips were no where near as high as having a dedicated graphics card.

Another point on this is that the on-board graphics chip will use the Ram that you are using for graphics instead of having its own ram
ex. if you have 2g of ram, the chip will use 512 (?not sure on this), but that leaves you with 1.5g left for non-graphics processing.

understood. but: I found some $50 graphics cards when I was looking previously. You would be suprised.

On-board graphics are not as gaming friendly and are mainly added to handle video. for the time being its ok, but any games that are graphic-intensive or 3d will not be as smooth or high fps.

Just check what the chip is and read reviews to see what it can handle. see what the board has for graphics ports. most new ones have pci-e (2x-16x are main types). AGP was the norm for a long time for dedicated cards. Pci-e is fast-line straight through. you will probably be able to find a card for it easily when your friend upgrades again.

Thorsen said:

If wanting to upgrade, I suggest looking at www.tigerdirect.com there are alot of mobo/chip combo's that are inexpensive. upgrading through this setup is a good start. This would be a low budget way of upgrading. (you will need new ram though to match the system and if it is old IDE hard drive, make sure it has a port for the IDE hard drive).

Edit: Weigh your options though when upgrading, it might be wise to save up and get a premade system if you are not familiar with building comps. upgrading to what you want for gaming can run you +$500 easily. buying a decent laptop that can play some games is about the same price, but building the comp will cost less than buying a new comp with comparible hardware.

i would avoid tigerdirect, too pricey normally. go with newegg or zipzoomfly.

I have seen Newegg, I have not seen zipzoomfly. I will check it out. thanks

lol ok I will check it out cautiously. thanks King :)

Jonathan_King said:

monkeys breath said:

i would avoid tigerdirect, too pricey normally. go with newegg or zipzoomfly.

Why not check out the prices? I have caught a couple of good deals there, it can't hurt just to take a look.

agree. i usually at least look at tigerdirect before making a purchase.