upgrading for games

[munchkinn]

I am planning on upgrading my computer for my boys to play games. I have a AMD K-2 350MHz it's fine for office stuff but the games don't run well if at all. I tried to install a new stealth S540 video card only to find out I have a onboard SiS video and sound card, so it won't let me switch to the new video card. My question is what all do I need to upgrade to get a good gamming machine not top dollar but one that will perform with games like rainbow 6, rogue spear, that use a lot of graphics. I would like to buy the motherboard and processor and anything else I might need and and have someone put it in this computer.
Any suggestions would be helpfull.
Thanks,
Muchkin

[Tiretool]

You can probably get away with disabling the onboard video by re-positionsing a jumper on the motherboard or by changing a setting in the bios.
But, I would suggest investing in a motherboard that doesn't have extra baggage like video and sound built in. I would suggest an ASUS board or an ABIT board and a good 400-500 Celeron or if you're willing to put down a little more money, an Athlon motherboard and 500-600 CPU. I'd also suggest taking that S540 back and getting a TNT2 Ultra or GeForce video card. You can't go wrong with any of the Sound Blaster 'Live' cards. You'll be sitting pretty with 128 megs of RAM memory on the motherboard, and make sure your power supply provides a "minimum" of 250 watts.

Other people will probably disagree with portions of my advice... but hey guess what. They can do that! This is a forum for people's opinions...and I happen to have one!
Good luck with the new system!

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tiretool@pcmech.com

[wedor]

Your video card is probably the biggest trouble, if you can't disable the on-board video you will have to get a different motherboard. I agree with tool's idea concerning the 540, but you will never find 1 card that runs all games. So try to check the games for potential conflicts if you can.