[Jim]

Hi, i've recently dug my computer out of the loft and started playing some games on it again. Only to find its so slow i cant play any of the latest games (even the ones that have been out 3 or 4 years). Like i bought prey only to find out that on the lowest settings available i get something like 8fps. which obviously is no good. So i've been looking into ripping half the stuff out and putting in a new motherboard, processor, graphics card, buying a sound card (as i currently dont have on - onboard audio), and some more memory (as i will most likely need a different type to whats in now). And i need all this to last a while as i dont intend to update it much due to money. Therefore im after a lot of kit - but only able to spend about £200-300 at most

Any thoughts? Any thing i shuld keep away from? Any thing been fantastic for you? im after kit that will let me play games like fear and stalker at decent frame rates and with decent quality settings. Im not after the best gaming experience ever as i know i cant afford it. Just somethig that will last a while hopefully and play the latest games well.

I've been looking at something like a Radeon 1950 256Mb graphics card, or atleast a 7600GT or above. Need a motherboard with PCI-express and supports dual core processors. Also - single or dual core???

My current kit is a GeForce FX 5600 StarForce MX 256Mb, 1 gig of memory, onboard audio, athlon 1800.

Any help or guidance will be much appreciated


-- EDIT -- sorry rocky, just noticed there is a seperate computer discussions forum

[Rocky]

That's a tight budget for gaming, you could spent that on just the graphics card. Having said that if you're not looking to play Colin McRae dirt any time soon, you should manage to get a not bad system up and running, at leat one that can be upgraded later if possible.

[Jim]

yeah, im not after extreme gaming - just so the games will actually work

i mean the recommended requirements for prey (never mind games like stalker) are:

pentium 4 2.5GHz / AMD Athlon 2500+
1GB memory
Radeon X800 series or above graphics card

so along as i get a similar/better spec computer i can run some of the latest games ok.