• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 14:36
CEST 20:36
KST 03:36
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview9[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?30Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris46Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!15Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw? Heaven's Balance Suggestions (roast me) Speculation of future Wardii series Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time
Tourneys
LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Monday Nights Weeklies
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies
Brood War
General
Starcraft at lower levels TvP BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 General Discussion BW General Discussion Victoria gamers
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro24 Group F [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Is there English video for group selection for ASL [IPSL] CSLAN Review and CSLPRO Reimagined!
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Nintendo Switch Thread Mechabellum
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
How Culture and Conflict Imp…
TrAiDoS
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2625 users

To Buy Or Not To Buy

Blogs > Equinox_kr
Post a Reply
Equinox_kr
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States7395 Posts
August 23 2007 18:28 GMT
#1
My brother\'s taking my laptop to college this Saturday so I was thinking whether or not to buy extra RAM or a nice graphics card for the desktop he\'s going to leave behind. I asked him about this and he just said to make a computer (which supposedly runs for about $500-600 and is really awesome). The specs for the desktop are currently:

2.4ghz P4 processor
40 gig HD and a 400 gb external hd
128mb and 256 mb of ram in it
Basic graphics card, not sure
Basic sound card, not sure

Would it be worth it to upgrade? I mean, maybe the graphics card may go out of date over time, but wouldn\'t buying the RAM still be useful if I decide to actually make a computer since I can use that instead?

(Yeah, pretty worthless blog post but I didn\'t want to make a thread about this -_-)

***
^-^
Pressure
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
7326 Posts
August 23 2007 18:35 GMT
#2
wait why upgrade it
dont you have your own computer or do you use your laptop for everything
Auspicious
Profile Joined August 2007
United States175 Posts
August 23 2007 18:36 GMT
#3
Upgrading RAM could be useful but you might limit yourself to what kind of motherboard you'd need for a new computer, it depends on what you want to use this old desktop for. If it's for Starcraft there's no need to do anything to it. If it's for newer games I'd probably just buy a new computer because your processor is not capable of most new games at this point, nor is your RAM, basic graphics card won't cut it for new games either.

If you do build a new computer, you can probably just go with mobo integrated sound (no need for sound card) and take the disc drives from your old computer and stick them in the new one, reuse the monitor, etc.
You don't fuck around with the infinite.
Sr18
Profile Joined April 2006
Netherlands1141 Posts
August 23 2007 19:47 GMT
#4
A lot will depend on what motherboard you have. Given the P4 processor, the motherboard will probably not be able to use newer types of RAM, which would make the RAM you buy now to upgrade obsolete when you want to use it in a new rig. Also, getting 1+ GB of RAM more would be rather pointless anyway with such a dated system.

And I don't think your graphics card may go out of date over time. Chances are the card is already almost useless for modern games.

I would advice against upgrading. It will not help play old games better and you probably still won't be able to play modern games with decent performance. If you want to spend money on gaming, you are much better off buying a new rig altogether. And like Auspicious said above me, re-use old pieces of hardware that are still good (keyboard, mouse, monitor, HD if possible, etc.). The basic upgrade set should have a new motherboard, processor, RAM, graphics card and power supply.
If it ain't Dutch, it ain't Park Yeong Min - CJ fighting!
zer0das
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
United States8519 Posts
August 23 2007 21:19 GMT
#5
Mm... I probably would, but I'm biased. I suggest googling cpuz and downloading it to figure out exactly what you have first though.
omgbnetsux
Profile Blog Joined April 2004
United States3749 Posts
August 23 2007 22:55 GMT
#6
I wouldn't bother upgrading that machine.
Equinox_kr
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States7395 Posts
August 24 2007 00:40 GMT
#7
Well, I honestly don't want to invest a lot of money for now; would it be a viable short term solution just to buy RAM so that programs run faster and then use it for a newer computer that I'm destined to make this year in Comp Tech?
^-^
Sr18
Profile Joined April 2006
Netherlands1141 Posts
August 24 2007 11:30 GMT
#8
It highly depends on the operating system and the programs you run. If all you do is browse TL, play Starcraft or web games, 384 RAM should be enough under windows 98. If you run windows XP, getting some more RAM will definatly help. Graphically demanding games will not benifit much from additional RAM, as your graphics card is probably not capable enough anyway.

You need the motherboard information when upgrading RAM by the way, as you need to know what RAM can fit in. If you can only run SDRAM (non-DDR), you might have a difficult time finding it in stores.
If it ain't Dutch, it ain't Park Yeong Min - CJ fighting!
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 5h 24m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Livibee 116
BRAT_OK 79
IndyStarCraft 74
MindelVK 25
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 25181
Mini 815
EffOrt 719
Dewaltoss 148
firebathero 140
Mind 82
sSak 63
Larva 52
Sexy 40
Aegong 29
[ Show more ]
Backho 25
yabsab 23
ivOry 10
Dota 2
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
fl0m1799
Fnx 1450
pashabiceps275
oskar241
Stewie2K212
Foxcn3
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu108
Other Games
Grubby2666
FrodaN1555
ceh9512
B2W.Neo170
Hui .144
ArmadaUGS126
Trikslyr101
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 19 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta63
• Reevou 7
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 22
• blackmanpl 1
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV691
• masondota2547
League of Legends
• Nemesis5495
Counter-Strike
• imaqtpie731
• Shiphtur181
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
5h 24m
The PondCast
15h 24m
RSL Revival
15h 24m
Maru vs SHIN
MaNa vs MaxPax
Maestros of the Game
22h 24m
Classic vs TriGGeR
Reynor vs SHIN
OSC
1d 8h
MaNa vs SHIN
SKillous vs ShoWTimE
Bunny vs TBD
Cham vs TBD
RSL Revival
1d 15h
Reynor vs Astrea
Classic vs sOs
Maestros of the Game
1d 22h
Serral vs Ryung
ByuN vs Zoun
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Dewalt
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
GuMiho vs Cham
ByuN vs TriGGeR
[ Show More ]
Cosmonarchy
2 days
TriGGeR vs YoungYakov
YoungYakov vs HonMonO
HonMonO vs TriGGeR
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Solar vs Bunny
Clem vs Rogue
[BSL 2025] Weekly
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Cure vs Bunny
Creator vs Zoun
Maestros of the Game
3 days
Maru vs Lambo
herO vs ShoWTimE
BSL Team Wars
4 days
Team Hawk vs Team Sziky
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
Monday Night Weeklies
4 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
Maestros of the Game
Sisters' Call Cup
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

LASL Season 20
2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
EC S1
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
Skyesports Masters 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.