Gamma_Guardian

.......I'm confused.....if you can use your AGP slot, why are you looking at a PCI card upgrades?
Why not just stick with AGP?

You are limited to a PCI slot for a GPU upgrade?

Seriously, not even a little bit joking.

Don't bother.

Especially not if you're serious about that particular list of games.

Yeah, see 250 watt is just......sad.
More importantly from a video-card standpoint, you're really interested in the available amperage on the +12v rail or rails, which in the case of that PSU, I believe it barely cracks 11 amps.

To put that in context, high-end videocards typically call for 30 or more amps on the +12v rail.

The good news is that that model takes a standard ATX power supply, so upgrading or replacing it isn't terribly difficult.

They even show you how (skip to page 31 onwards)

You don't need a top of the line PSU, unless you intend to build your next system, in which case you could migrate it from the HP.

This one is pretty decent, and it's currently on sale.

After you replace your PSU, this is a very nice upgrade compared to what you are currently using.

If you simply must stay with nVidia, this is your best bet, but it's more expensive and not as powerful

If you do decide to make the switch to ATI, make sure that you check the ATI issues thread, especially the part about uninstalling old drivers.
This is especially important if switching between nVidia and ATI.

Keep in mind that realistically, your system is very, very close to the end of it's reasonable gaming lifespan.

You may want to seriously consider just putting that money towards an eventual rebuild.

Check out this possible build, shamelessly cribbed from FatherXmas

This system would run rings around your current setup.

Good luck to you, and let us know how it shakes out.

(oh, and hopefully the chipset drivers solved the issue and the rest of this is moot )

Nothing unusual about that CPU usage, especially since you were checking it while the game was running.

You could try downloading and installing these

These should be compatible with your system.
How do I know that? Magic.

If you open up your case, there should be a sticker on the side of your power supply.
The vast majority of store-bought PCs will have a barely adequate PSU, but let's confirm what exactly the limitations of the system are.
Once we know how much power is available in your rig, it's a pretty simple matter to check at various manufacturer's websites on the recommended power usages of any particular videocard

Well, that's where my questions were leading, and I'm afraid the answers aren't very good.
The default PSU on your system is fairly anemic, which along with the budget requirements, rules out a fairly large spectrum of upgrades.

Edited to add: You recently replaced your HDD? Did you remember to re-install your chipset drivers along with your OS?

This system has the default power supply?

What is your budget for a replacement?

[ QUOTE ]
Before you jump on me, this is NOT a petition to allow changing of origins after creation, nor a comment on anything to do with origin mechanics.

What I am interested in is how many of you roll with one origin, and then later on, as you get a better idea of your character, or come up with a better background or story or what-have-you, have wanted to change your origin?

I've done this a few times, generally around Tech and Science. For instance, my main character, Morac, was originally a generic Powered Armour guy, but after a while his story changed so that he was infected with a Technological organism that allowed him to interface with various pieces of technology on the biological level, which is a totally Science background.

Does anyone else do this? Or is it just me?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope.
Not just you.

It's worth a shot, wouldn't you say?

Tsk Tsk.
Why weren't you constantly on your Blackberry, monitoring the forums for those oh so precious pearls of wisdom and wit that we, the players so often unearth?

so they are all using the VGA connection?
I'm assuming this is because your monitor doesn't support DVI?

Does the only working card (the 7300) connect to your monitor in the same way as the non-functional cards?
Are they all connecting via DVI, or are any using an analog VGA output?

[ QUOTE ]
Every once in a while I use to post my systems specs and get opinions about making it run CoX better, now after a while I finally am at the point where is there really a hope to keep a old system to make it feel new again or close to make CoX run better or is all hope lost sell the blood to make money

[/ QUOTE ]

The bad news is that your system really pretty much is at the end of the road.
Now, that may or may not call for a new system on your part.
It all depends on your preferences.
End of the road performance may, in fact, be perfectly acceptable to you, especially if you don't do anything else computing intensive and your current level of performance is tolerable.

The good news is that for literally a fraction of what your 6 year old system cost you back in the day, you can assemble a rig that quite simply runs rings around your current rig.

Moore's Law.
It's not at all always a bad thing

Earlier in the thread, FatherXmas posted some very cogent points.
Check out his $600 rig linked in his signature.
That machine would flat out destroy your current system.

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe they just want time to enjoy their families and the weekend.

[/ QUOTE ]

This.
I have full access to all my work accounts, but I rarely use them on the weekends unless we have a crash deadline.

Work is work and home is home.

You'll need to more stringently define "easily and seamlessly upgraded"

At $300, it's almost possible to get the barest guts of a decent rig, but the amount of upgrading that you would need to do in order to get it up to par would not be neccesarily be considered "easy" or "painless" IMO.

Just how much work are you prepared to do in order to turn your $300 webstation into a halfway decent gaming rig?

Furthermore, it would be helpful for you to give a general idea just how much upgrading you have in mind in the first place.

What level of performance will you accept?

The issue isn't simply your total wattage, it's the available power on your +12v rail.
The most power-hungry portions of a PC (CPU and modern video cards) draw their power from there.
According to this, you have 18 amps available

Now keeping that in mind, most midrange GPUs nowadays recommend 20+ amps on the 12v rail.

Looks like you may have more shopping to do

?????????

Ummmm.....375 is not even remotely good.
This is a standard Dell?
No aftermarket add-ons?
If so, give us the model number and we should be ablt to find out for sure

Need info on your power supply.
Any decent GPU upgrade will require additional power from your system above what the PCI-E slot itself provides, so it's important to know how much power you have available, especially on the +12v rail

[ QUOTE ]
Yea true i didnt think about the ghost thing. Well then just ignore that post. How about this idea in game the days last half as long as in real life so a day cycle would be 6 hours and then a night cycle would be another 6 hours. Then you have the same amount of time and day and night is longer than it is now. and there would be two cycles per day.

[/ QUOTE ]

Frankly, I'd settle for 2 hour cycles, possibly 3 tops.

[ QUOTE ]
I know that sounds like a line from a beer commercial, but what are your thoughts if the days were shorter in the COX world and the nights were longer?

Perhaps it is my liking Batman over Superman that this idea comes to mind, but patrolling the night has greater appeal to me than wearing tights in the daylight. Perhaps if the nights were twice as long as the days that might fix it for me.

Am I the only one who likes crimefighting at night?

[/ QUOTE ]

Somewhat disagree with your exact proposal.
What I would like is for the day/night cycle to be slower.
Not real-world-synced like WoW, but it would be nice if the days and the nights passed at a more leisurely pace.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks bill, Yeah I am just of the mindset that when I invest in something, I invest alot in it to last along time, I figure what I want to build has to last at least 4 years and still be a superior machine.

[/ QUOTE ]


Whoah, hold on now.
Frankly, I'm a bit surprised and dissapointed that none of the more tech savvy here have not already jumped on the bolded statement above.

OP, I'm sorry, but that's just not the way the PC game works anymore.
Today's uber-machine is lucky to be tommorow's mid-range.
Technology just moves too damn fast for what you state (build expensive now and have it still be high-end in 4years)

I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Bleeding edge is for suckers

Take it from somone who walked down that failed road of broken glass too many times to count.

Build for what you need today, give yourself a reasonable amount of headroom to expand in the future, and save yourself a ton of money and heartache.

Need to know your budget before we can make intelligent suggestions.

Your hypothesis is only correct if everyone accepts your definition of "winning"

The only thing that jumps out at me is your CPU overclock.
Try knocking it back down to default speeds, although to be truthful, I doubt that's it.
I run an E8400 at that same speed with no issues, but I figured i'd throw it out there.
Have you looked in the various Vista threads?

??????

Ok....but I personally have been able to zone under those criteria (not last into mission, often first) simply by virtue of having adequate amounts of RAM in the first place, and with no need of a RAM disk, RAID, SSD, or any other exotic storage solutions.

Just sayin'