Upgrade or new computer?
I'd like to play WoW on high settings and have 50+fps, I currently have it on low and my fps average around 20 give or take some depending on the number of players. I went to my computer and checked 'view system information' and this is what it pulled up:
System-
Microsoft Windows XP
Media Center Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 3
Hewlett-Packard Company
Compaq Presario
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor
3500+
2.19 GHz, 960 MB of RAM
Physical Address Extension
I'm not sure that I really needed all that but I don't know what judges buying a new computer or not. A lot of that I wasn't sure what any of it meant so I thought I'd ask.
Also I'd have Warcraft III on there plus the expansion with it and would want that on it's highest settings. A new monitor would be nice also with great resolution capabilities, this one is 17" and something 20 or better would be nice.
Comments
The short answer is that it depends on how much upgrading your computer can handle. Since you already have several things that don't affect game performance (case, hard drive, CD/DVD drive, etc), there's no need to spend a bunch of money replacing all those--which is what you're doing when you buy new. Chances are, you can upgrade your computer into a pretty decent gaming computer for less than what you'd pay for a comparable system if you bought it new, but it's gonna take a bit of research.
For the long answer:
You can almost certainly upgrade your video card (though you didn't list the specs for it) and that will help a lot with your frame rate (a good video card may actually solve your problem all by itself since the processor can offload more of the video processing to the video card). I say "almost certainly" because your computer might not support anything better than what you already have. Whether you can upgrade the processor and/or RAM depends on the motherboard and what it can handle. If you go to the support section of the HP website and look up your computer, it should tell you whether you can upgrade the processor or RAM. I would suggest trying a new video card first, but try to get it from a store that will let you take it back for a refund if you've already opened the package--that way you can try it out and if it doesn't help, you can take it back and wont' have wasted the money. Make sure you find out what kind of expansion slots your computer has (PCI-Express, regular PCI, or AGP). You can pick up a pretty decent video card for around $150 (obviously, the more you're willing to spend, the better you can get). After the video card, the next thing to try upgrading would be the RAM. Chances are your computer can support at least 4 GB of RAM, but if the motherboard is truly 64-bit, then it can support up to 16 GB (more than 4 probably won't help you much, though)--again, check the HP website to find out.
If you can't upgrade your computer much beyond its current capabilities, rather than buying a whole new system, you might consider buying a "barebones" PC which usually only have the case, motherboard, processor, and RAM and you have to supply everything else. Then get the kind of video card you want and take everything else you need out of your old computer (hard drive, sound card--if you have a separate one--CD/DVD drive(s), etc), which saves you from having to re-purchase all those (unless you want new ones of them). For prices from a bunch of different online stores, check out: http://www.pricewatch.com/barebones_computers/
New computer.
You could change the power supply and get a graphics card and 2GB of RAM but once you've finished with the upgrades you're still stuck with an outdated processor and you've spent as much as you would have on a better computer.
You want dedicated graphics (Radeon 5670 or 6670 or higher, or GTS 450 or GTX 550ti and higher for max settings and 60fps)
You also want 4GB of RAM, which is pretty standard these days.
Any Athlon II, Phenom II, i3, i5, or i7 is good enough to handle WoW on max settings.
Do some research into building your own PC. It's a LOT cheaper, and the parts you use are higher quality. For a mid-range system from a company, you can make a high-range PC yourself.
I would definitely get a new computer though, that technology is 5 years old+.
www.newegg.com for ALL the parts you need.
and also look around for some pc forums, anandtech.com or overclockers.com are good sites with helpful people to answer your questions about pc building.
Personally. Without going into detail I would think about a new computer. The prices computers are today and all the greenback you will need to put out seriously I would think about a new computer with maybe windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. That's only my opinion of course the choice is yours. Good Luck.
My opinion...its old...buy a new Lenovo or Toshibia desktop.
MS win7
Pentium quad core (no AMD Stuff)
at least 2 gigs of ram
512 or more on your graphics end
if you want to play games than your computer is outdated, but a small vid card and more ram is a must, processor should be at least 2.5ghz