Upgrading my Nephew's Computer for Birthday/Christmas

[OZFive]

I was thinking of a Birthday/Christmas gift for my Nephew and was thinking about possibly upgrading his computer system. He is a huge WoW player and sometimes complains of it being slow or lagging. His friends all have pretty decent systems and he loves to go to their places and use theirs.

So I would like to spend about $100 - $125 tops here. This is what he has...

eMachines w3619

CPU
Intel® Celeron® D Processor 3601
64-bit processor with Intel® EM64T Technology
(Operates at 3.46GHz | 512KB L2 Cache | 533MHz FSB)

DRIVE
120GB SATA II (7200rpm, 2MB Cache)

VIDEO
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Up to 224MB Shared Video Memory
PCI-Express® (PCI-E x16) slot available for upgrade

AUDIO
6-Channel (5.1) High-Definition Audio
Amplified Stereo Speakers (USB-Powered

He has maxed out hs RAM so no worries there.

What can I get him that would be somewhat easy to install and really give him the thrill of being able to play without feeling inadequate compared to his friends?

Below you can see a bit of his set up.

We did get him the WolfKing Keyboard, Mouse, and a speaker/headset combo last year for Christmas. He likes those A LOT. He does need better speakers but he is 15 and those might be detrimental to the sleep of others especially his 2 yo brother sleeping in the next room.

[perlluver]

I was thinking of a Birthday/Christmas gift for my Nephew and was thinking about possibly upgrading his computer system. He is a huge WoW player and sometimes complains of it being slow or lagging. His friends all have pretty decent systems and he loves to go to their places and use theirs.

So I would like to spend about $100 - $125 tops here. This is what he has...

eMachines w3619

CPU
Intel® Celeron® D Processor 3601
64-bit processor with Intel® EM64T Technology
(Operates at 3.46GHz | 512KB L2 Cache | 533MHz FSB)

VIDEO
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Up to 224MB Shared Video Memory
PCI-Express® (PCI-E x16) slot available for upgrade

AUDIO
6-Channel (5.1) High-Definition Audio
Amplified Stereo Speakers (USB-Powered

He has maxed out hs RAM so no worries there.

What can I get him that would be somewhat easy to install and really give him the thrill of being able to play without feeling inadequate compared to his friends?

A new video card, Nvidia or ATI, with half decent memory.

[LaRoza]

RAM or a video card. Depending on how much RAM it has, it may be the best deal to get more RAM and a video card, instead of just a top of the line video card.

[OZFive]

The Ram is Maxed out at 2gb already so that one is out of the pic. Will a really good video card work with his processor?

[elmer_42]

The real question is whether a good video card will work with his motherboard, not so much with his CPU. Some computers don't have the required slot, a PCIe slot, to use a graphics card. His may have PCIe, AGP, or no free slots at all. AGP is pretty much a dead technology, sadly.

However, if there is a PCIe slot available, there are a number of cards that are rather inexpensive but will give a GREAT bang:buck ratio. The new ATi cards are very good for their cost, around $130 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261027) or $140 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770) for the HD4850, which will give him astronomical framerates with max settings in WoW. In the case that this is too much (or too little if you're unbearably rich) to spend, refer to this (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Best-Graphics-Card,2011.html) Tom's Hardware article. It is very thorough, and even includes AGP.

And on to the issue of speakers. I personally do not like speakers, because while you can get better audio quality out of speakers than out of headphones, it is much cheaper and less space-consuming to use headphones than speakers. With that over with, we can move on.

There are a lot of headphones that are great for gaming. I've heard a lot of good things about the Sennheiser HD555s. They allow you to hear exactly where an enemy is coming from, and I've even heard of a few stories where people were accused of wall hacking. The best part is they're only $110 at HeadRoom (http://www.headphone.com/) (NOTE: You have to use a coupon code, but they'll email it to you, Sennheiser just restricts what price they can put on their website). I can personally vouch for HeadRoom, I bought my SR 80s from them. They also are very well respected on Head-Fi.

Sorry if this post was a little long-winded, your original post asked about two subjects that I enjoy very much and tend to ramble on and on about.

[OZFive]

The specs calim that it does have a PCIe slot...


PCI-Express® (PCI-E x16) slot available for upgrade

So that might just be the thing to get him after all!