Hey all, help needed

Hi there. Im Rob

I've registered with this site because I really have very little knowlege of computers, I can work my way around them etc but I have little idea about computer hardware etc.
Im interested in building a computer or possibly upgrading mine, however as I understand it not all components are compatable with others. due to this I thought it best to ask honest people on here as oppose to computer shops who usually end up trying to sell me something lol.

If someone could tell me what they would reccomend me to do it would be really great. I'll put what I know about my computer up.

Processor - AMD Althlon64 3400+ (2.4 GHZ)
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 (I want to upgrade this)
512MB DDR-SDRAM (also want to upgrade this)
200GB Hard disk

I dont know what else I need to put here, Im running XP home edition but I'm tempted to get VISTA.

I dont really play computer games a huge amount so I dont need a completely top spec computer however I do play some. I mainly use my PC for the internet, watching DVD's etc, listening to music and for MSN Messenger etc, as I use my computer for music and DVD's I'd like a HD video card. I'd also like to watch TV on my computer, preferably freeview (UK) too, is getting Windows Media Center worth it for this?

I apologise for my lack of knowlege lol, If I need to put anything more up here then just let me know.
Thanks for any help

Rob

Hello and welcome, if you start a thread in the appropriate forum section I am sure somebody will be glad to help you

Welcome....

Moved to General Hardware.

Sorry, no idea where I was supposed to put this thread as Im very new to this site, where should I put it?

should be in general introduction, near top of the forums lists but i doubt it will kick up a fuss however like socialwarfare said the better your thread is placed the quicker yourll get answered, makes sense hehehe welcome buddy yourll learn alot here :)

thanks, I put it in the introduction forum before but it was moved, sadly no anwsers yet lol

kk, download everest here, run it, click,computer, summary, from that tell me the make of your motherboard and we can get started

I use PCwizard 2007 which also tells me this kind of info. the motherboard is made by time computers - K8TM-ILSR

Max ram supported by your board is 2gigs of DDR400
Do you know what wattage power supply you have so we can figure out what kinda graphics card it can handle

lol Is it worth upgrading or should I just buy a whole new system, is DDR worth buying now or would it be better to spend more money and get DDR2?
I dont know the power in watts im afraid. If you think its easier I will put all the information on here tomorrow, its late now but thanks for offering your help, if you tell me what I need to find I'll get it all together

DDR is 184pins
DDR2 is 240pins
So you cannot use DDR2 in your system
The wattage of your PSU will be written on the side of it if you can take the side off your case
As you say that you only use your comp for some light gaming and the likes, I don't think you should buy a system that you don't really need

Hey, I checked the wattage of my power supply, its only a 300W max output so Im pretty sure I'll have to get a new power supply to get a decent graphics card.
Is there anything else that you need to know?
thanks for all your help
rob

With a little research I figured that this would be a good upgrade and you will not need to upgrade your PSU as this card only uses 15w idle and 40w load

Thanks :) really helpful!
Is it worth me upgrading my RAM? currently its 2 x 256 DDR-SDRAM, I was thinking of going for 1gig or so.
anyone know of any program which would enable me to use my computer in a way similar to having windows media center? or is it worth buying media center?

A gig of ram is probably enough for your particular build
And Check out Mediaportal, its an open source version of windows media center (so to speak)