Well, my parents have finally decided to help me out with upgrading my computer, due to me not being able to play SC2 'cause my video card is terrible. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm doing still.
I don't want to get anything too expensive, but I still want something that works well. I'm thinking that I should get a new motherboard/processor first, then follow it up with the video card, then get some better RAM. My brother is telling me to get an Intel Core i7 as a processor, and he won't accept any substitutes.
I'm just looking for other suggestions for, well, just about anything. I've got an open mind, and I'm not gonna be biased for/against a particular brand.
This is looking to be a long-term thing, where I get one part, then get another piece some weeks/month later. I'm not going to splurge all out at once, so what should I look to get now, look for in the future, or wait for the price to drop on?

That depends on what you have now.
Post your GFX, CPU, MoBo and RAM.
To view this information do "Start > Run > dxdiag".

It's a Dell DIM4500
I don't know what a GFX or MoBo are....
CPU: Intel Pentium4 2.00GHz
1022MB of RAM

You should get a completely new computer. Anything you buy for this computer can't be reused in a new one.
Also

I'm planning on replacing all the innards of the this computer, and just using the casing in the end.
As for:
Tried it. Didn't have anything labeled GFX or MoBo, and nothing that I could find which those could be acronyms for.

There are also other factors like your power supply in there (whether it is sufficient and if it is a standard power supply or some custom one that only works for Dell systems) and whether the parts will fit in that case.

My dad and I are probably going to upgrade whatever power supply is in there. He's pretty sure any decent graphics card is gonna need a better one that what I've got.

Core i7 is seriously a waste of money. If your parents are footing the bill and don't care about $, then fine. But you're much better off getting an i5. Ask Ex for more details.

If you're going to go i7, you really won't be able to use any of your existing hardware.

That being said I don't think you should go i7, its overkill, a waste, and your brother is a tool. Tell him I said so.

I googled your PC. You have an AGP slot. Your motherboard cannot use any current or 'good' video cards by any standards. You have DDR1 RAM. You have an IDE hard disk. So you really need an entirely new PC. Your current platform isn't even good enough to upgrade.

Give me a price range and I'll design you something.

And I'm telling you it's the worst plan imaginable. The computer is too old to buy anything decent for. Sure you can upgrade it, but it'll still be bad.
You need to upgrade your motherboard to get past limitations like the socket (for newer CPUs), graphics card interface (got AGP, need PCIe) or max. 1GB RAM, DDR1 (need at least 2GB DDR2). But nothing you have will fit in any decent modern board.
You can reuse the case however.

Mobo = Motherboard > System Model
GFX = Graphics (card) > Display (Name)
CPU = Central Processing Unit > Processor

But tbh this doesn't really matter I googled this Dell and it's beyond hope.

Oh and yes, I7 is overkill for now. But maybe you should get a motherboard capable of using an I7 so you can upgrade in a few years.

Depending on which Dell case it is, that may not even be worth using either.

If you still want to get it a piece at a time, even though you probably won't be able to use it until you have all of it, be sure to get the parts first that are least likely to become obsolete, unless you can get enough of the parts at first to get it working.

If you want to use your existing hard drive, you may need to get a new DVD drive that connects to a SATA port, since it isn't likely you will be able to get one cable to reach both the hard drive and your existing optical drive (unless they are right next to each other.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 23 2010, 10:52 pm by ShadowFlare.

I wouldn't recommend that. Save your money until you can afford the whole computer or do a hire-purchase. On a benk you'd even get interest. Buying a part and then not using it does nothing but drop its value and slim your warranty. Also you will get better deals and more modern hardware if you wait until you can afford everything.

Why is it that it would be such a bad idea to upgrade? I'm not trying to debate the fact that it's a bad idea, I'm just curious as to why.

Because the technologies don't work together. A modern GPU won't work with your current motherboard, so you'd need to get a motherboard, too. A modern motherboard and a modern GPU won't work without a stronger PSU (power), so you'd need to get that. Your current processor won't work on a modern motherboard, so you'd need to get a new processor. All at once. If you try to upgrade piece by piece, it won't work, because in order to keep your computer going you'd have to buy outdated pieces that would work with your current computer.

I recommend just giving us your total budget, because Ex can probably make a decent upgradeable SCII-able build for about $400.

Also, you cannot buy any parts (except parts bought from Dell) to upgrade a Dell computer. This means extremely expensive for what it's worth.

So if I didn't go piece by piece and bought it all together, then put it together at the same time, then it would work?
As for a budget... My parents haven't given me a budget, and I'm not sure where the roof would be. I've got about $100 dollars to spend right now, but after this summer I should have a good deal more.

Yeah, buying it at once is the best option.

I'd tell your parents how you see it now that we've described the matter to you, how buying piece by piece is useless and that you might as well buy the whole thing now or you'll have to wait. If you can get them to just give you money, that'd be best; otherwise, promise to repay them after the summer.

I meant things like computer cases and possibly power supplies. Also things like monitors, keyboards, mice, speakers, optical drives - if getting new ones for the new computer. None of those things devalue or get obsolete as quickly, and for things that you can immediately use (and in some cases may want to immediately start using if you had it) like the external parts, it doesn't matter as much.

Especially with cases if you know you are getting a new one, it might be useful to just get the case you want when there is a sale on it, rather than chancing at not getting it on sale when you actually buy the parts. Computer cases don't become obsolete just because some other company or the same company came out with a new model. There have not been any significant enough changes with power supplies for a long time either, though if you buy it before the parts I suppose there could be a chance you would underestimate what you will need, depending on what power supply you choose. If you give yourself a good enough margin on it then that shouldn't be a problem, though.

Of course, there's still the warranty issue that was brought up. On any parts you would start using immediately or on the computer case, that's probably pretty much a non-issue. For parts you're already starting to use, you're already using it. For the case, the warranty probably just doesn't matter as much (if you bought one that did not come with a power supply). As for the power supply, that is a good point there, because the warranty does matter; you want a replacement if it goes bad, but you wouldn't be able to test it until you put together the whole computer.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 24 2010, 1:59 am by ShadowFlare.

New tech uses PCI-Express. Your motherboard has AGP, a dead interface.
New tech uses DDR3. Your motherboard has DDR.
New tech uses AM3 or LGA 1366 or LGA 1156. Your motherboard has socket 775 or 478.

Let's say you upgrade your graphics. You'll have to get an AGP card, which will be pretty much completely overpowered (since nothing is really that slow anymore) and will be bottlenecked by your ram/cpu. Not to mention, you'll have to toss it should you ever upgrade your motherboard.
Let's say you upgrade your processor. The best you can get on a socket 478 is a Pentium 4 Prescott core, which only comes in single core flavors. Not to mention, it's impossible to find, and is the rare case where AMD absolutely owns intel in every way shape and form. Seriously, P4 sucks.
Let's say you upgrade your motherboard. You'll have to get a new CPU, RAM, and Graphics card. Pure and simple. That IS the computer. Anything else can be re-used, including the terribly slow pata hard drive and cd rom drive.

If you want to upgrade for cheap, get an amd platform with a decent µATX motherboard. If you get a 785G chipset, you can pass on the graphics--the onboard 4200 is technically equivalent to the 9800 pro, and should be able to run SC2 awfully slowly on a low resolution. If you get a phenom II x2/3 or an athlon II x3, you can unlock those to a quad core with a good chance, so long as you have a 710 or 770 southbridge. The beauty of quad core is how well it handles multithreaded tasks. If the task is not multithreaded, it allows you to multitask. My dual core slows down firefox if I'm running one core at 100%. Not so with a quad core.

The am3 socket will also allow you to buy a 6 core phenom way down the line if you want, something the competing LGA 1366 can't offer. The 1156 might eventually support 6 cores like the 1366, but the 1366 will never support anything lower than a quad probably. Granted, the 1156 has the i5 750, which is more than enough processor for anyone, since it performs much better than the i7 920 for the price.

More than likely, you'll want a new power supply too. That's why you should put an amount on your upgrade, or just say "the cheapest you can make it with the ability to upgrade later", and we can find you the best fit.

Sub-500$ SC2 capable, upgradable, complete PC.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138179
GFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161334
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134492
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687
DVD + PSU Combo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.390779

$474.78 after tax and shipping to my location in NJ, although you might not have to even pay tax depending on where you live. There's even a 5$ promocode for the HDD I didn't include. I just sniped the lowest priced parts that met my minimum specifications when doing this. But look at it. 475$ for a perfectly good PC that plays games and can be upgraded in every way. There really is no downside.