Could i save money on a computer by updating the video card, adding memory, etc.?

I've been shopping for a desktop, but they are either lacking a good video card and/or memory. I have added these two things and am comfortable doing it. I don't think I have the patience to build one from scratch, but I could update a slow computer. What do you think? Thanks.



or do you think it doesn't matter that much. thanks!|||Yeah I've done that before, it can save you a lot of money. I purchased a Compaq Presario with an AMD Athlon X2 5400+ @2.8GHz, 3 GB DDR 2, and popped a 9800 GT in it and ran fine, I think I paid $600 between the pre-assembled computer, the 9800 GT, and the new power supply to power the 9800 GT. Not bad at all.



Bottom line yes it CAN save you a lot of money, just be sure to upgrade the power supply in that computer as well, they usually don't have any more than wimpy 300, 350 watt power supplies installed. Most gfx cards require 500 watts at least, but it depends on the card.



@ Blamay: He's talking about buying a pre-assembled computer, like a dell or something and then sticking in a video card and more ram in if he needs it.|||Thing is you can only upgrade the RAM and Video Graphic Card not anything else,

Start saving money for batter system

but for now you can only add up more RAM and can change your VGA card to a little more batter value, for best performance use RAMs of same value for example use 512MB and 512MB two RAM, make sure to use same values and change your motherboard cell yearly which is of silver color and one dollar coin size.



Good Luck!!|||A Pentium 4 PC with 256 MB RAM will run more than twice in speed and performance if RAM is increased to 1 GB. A PC running on onboard graphics (VGA) card will have better performance when a good add-on video card is installed. Upgrading is always for the better. But if you want to run a program or game that your setup cannot meet tthe minimum system requirement, the machine cannot be forced to run it.|||Sure, but if the computer is horribly outdated it may not be worthwhile to do so.



I wouldn't upgrade anything unless it had a dual core processor these days and at least 1GB. You can always build a budget PC and bump up the memory and video card for under $600 easily.|||Like we would have a clue as to what you have for a computer? I COULD sit here and tell you "Yeah, go ahead and upgrade it". What would you think after you spent a small fortune on parts that didnt work on your system or didnt get your system performance where you expected it to?|||It depends on the rest of the system.



If its too old then its a waste of time and money.



If it is relatively newer then its a great idea.