A REAL Poor man's guide to upgrading...

[hbooraem]

Would anyone be interested? I might try and write up something myself, but it would only be a compilation of my personal experience, and that of my friends, combined with what I read on the net. I'd really rather see someone with Resources do it.

My guidelines for a REAL poor man's upgrade guide is this:
1) No more than $300/year in upgrades (that's really pushing it, too).
2) No component over $150.
3) approximate max costs:
$75 video card
$150 CPU AND motherboard
$150 hard drive
$40 CD ROM drive
$100 RAM
$25 case
$110 monitor (this one I know, it's the Digiview HR-50. It rules.)
4) The idea is to create the best gaming computer possible for as little money as can be spent. Remember, no more than $300 in one YEAR, and no more than $150 at a time. So, figure $150 in six months, max. This means: You can't upgrade to a PII/Celeron 400 since you can't buy the PC100 RAM at the same time...

Suggestions welcome! Email me, even!

[AuraEdge]

yea..be stuck wit your P Pro all your life...if u cant ever step up to PII/celeron, your way in the past. PII/cel is becomin a standard too fast....
Here lemme put it another way...
ive had my PMMX 200 for 3 years...plenty happy with it..till they invented FPS's...like halflife...then i cried out for more.....
so after my $2000 purchase on a full system (w/ good speakers/printer/15" monitor/scanner)
Ok...i mananged to get this new one several months ago porting over just modem and HD.
PII 350 ($150)
Abit BH6 ($90)
HD from old comp (8.4 gig)
CD rom POS 44x that cant reach 20x ($40)
64 SDRAM PC100 ($50...whyd u allocate so much for ram?)
ATX case ($35..seein your 25 makes me think ur thinkin old baby AT)
17" monitor ($200)
CL TNT ($90)
SBLive ($70..even cheaper now)
adds up to $655 w/o hd (If i went cel..woulda been less than $655)
now, im planing on keeping this for another 2-3 years....
I almost hit your guildlines (over 2 years)and have a state of the art comp.

Wait..i dont remember what quewstion i was answering..uhh...yeah..ill get back to u

[hbooraem]

That sounds like just the sort of thing I'm talking about, AuraEdge. Thanks for posting.
Yes, I am thinking baby AT. In order to upgrade my CPU right now, I'd need a new CPU, a new case, a new MB and new RAM (probably). Which is why I've been upgrading other components (like modem, hard drive, monitor, and now video card).
Has anyone else out there got a system like AuraEdge's that they'd care to tell me about?

By the way, I allocate so much for RAM because I want good quality stuff. I try not to buy too much "house brand" or "generic" RAM anymore.

Also, let me point out that I cannot afford your upgrade path, since your processor cost you $150, and your mother board cost you $90, and case cost at least $35, that's close to my entire years budget. I cannot spend all of that in less than six months. I have a wife and daughter to feed, y'know.

[MadMax]

Ummm...What are you asking? I'm lost.