HOW TO SPICE UP THAT OLD SYSTEM

First of all, what do you have? The amount of cash and effort you have to put into upgrading really depends on what you have to start off with. Right now, the system everyone wants is a Pentium III 550. This is not a realistic goal for many people's pockets so the ideal system is one that can be overclocked.

If overclocking is new to you, there are many pages on the net explaining the details of overclocking with all types of processors, motherboards, and ram. I'm not going to get into that now but some good places to start are Jeff's Hardware Site, Tom's Hardware, and Sharky Extreme. If you don't feel the risks of overclocking are worth it, then you can still upgrade inexpensively, you just won't get the best price/performance.

The focus of this article is really in the perspective of gaming, so having a good video card is very important. You can have the fastest machine available, but if you're still using the video card that came with 486, then you're not gonna be able to play Quake III with the big boys. If you running all your games in software mode- you're in trouble. A machine has to have a video card for the picture to be displayed on the monitor but if the card doesn't support Direct3d (D3D) or OpenGL then you won't have any hardware acceleration. This results in a slow, ugly gaming experience.

Other important upgradeable items are the CD-ROM, RAM, Hard Drive, Modem, and Sound Card. Some have a larger effect on everall system performance, but they are all important. The rest of this guide will tell you the most cost effective ways to turn your sluggish old desktop in a raging gaming machine.