The journey to an upgraded computer.

The only computer I like to play is World of Warcraft (begin with the eye rolling).  Last week their newest patch 5.0.4 went live. And my frame rate died. I got a whopping 9 fps with my character out in the middle of nowhere and every setting turned to low.  I have the picture to prove it.

Now I would love to blame Blizzard for "breaking my fps" but I know quite well that my computer isn't the best. I've got an eMachine ET1331G, which comes with a 300w power supply and a Nvidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430.  And yes I know with a computer like that I most likely deserve that 9 fps for trying to play an online game like World of Warcraft.

So started the journey to an upgrade. I've never installed or bought a graphics card before. I didn't know where to start.  I looked at graphic cards on Amazon but I couldn't figure out what to buy. What did I need? I knew the computer had a PCI Express port but didn't fully know what that was. I ended up at tomshardware.com. That site has a great forum full of people willing to help answer the questions of the clueless.

They gave me the names of a few cards that "might" work in my computer and told me to buy a new power supply.  By "might" I guess we are talking about the fact that you have to have room inside the case to put the graphics card. I have no idea why any company would build a computer and assemble it in a manner in which it can not be upgraded properly. Built in obsolescence most likely.  With the names of cards and power supplies in hand, I found myself back at Amazon.com.

I ordered a Radeon 6670 graphics card and Corsair 500w power supply. My order is set to arrive on Wednesday.  The next part of this journey will continue then, when I find out if these parts will fit and if I can install them properly.