Advice/Recommendations on upgrade

[jjanders]

I am thinking of upgrading my computer soon. The components I will be replacing will be the motherboard, memory, processor, video card, and possibly the monitor. My current specs are:

ASUS P4PE motherboard
P4 2.4GHz
512MB Corsair XMS DDR 2700
ATI Radeon 9500 (crappy)

I would like to switch over to AMD since I do a bit of gaming, though not a lot. I am looking at something fairly high end but not super expensive (i.e. no FX57), however have considered an X2 (whatever the cheapest one out is).

I'm not sure if now is the best time though since a lot of next gen vid cards are coming out soon, AMD will support DDR2 soon, etc... is it better to wait a few months before upgrading?

For processors I've looked at the 3700+ San Diego or the cheapest X2 (is X2 worth the money right now?). Memory will be at least 1GB of DDR3200 (unless I wait till AMD supports DDR2). Motherboard most likely an nForce4, video card I'm not sure, there are lots of options and I don't know much about video stuff.

Pretty much any general specific advice/comments are welcome. Thanks.

 

[birdpup]

With the stated replacements, you may do better to keep the old system or give it to someone, and then build a completely new system. Your current specs are for an Intel system, yet you mention considering AMD. AMD is clearly the current superior choice for a new system, especially with the on-die memory controller and 64bit support for future upgradeability. Plus, linux holds an excellent 64bit offering with Ubuntu linux. However, it is important to understand you do not need the 64bit support and the 32bit systems are perfectly good. The 64bit systems help with massive data calculations and database information retrieval and is overkill for a generic home system. I do not believe 64bit curently holds any superiority in gaming but I understand that game companies will provide more 64bit games in the near future, but I do not game so my knowledge here is limited.

My recommendation would be exactly the rig I possess. An AMD64 3000+ Venice processor, which can be overclocked up to 2600MHz if you wish. This processor really needs to be overclocked since its original 1.8GHz seems too slow for me, especially after overclocking it by 44%.

For gaming purposes, a high end graphics card seems to be more important than a high end processor. Typical recommendations are still an AMD64 3000+ Venice with a single PCI-E Nvidia GeForce 6600 or 6800. A second card can be purchased for an SLI motherboard (SLI means two video card compatible) in a year or two when everyone hopes the 6600 and 6800 cards will be available at a reduced price.

Read through the other threads regarding system recommendations. Not everyone can reply to all the requests and it is typically a matter of chance as to who replies to which request thread.

As far as waiting for future products, it is best to buy computer systems for what you need now, rather than what you will need in the future. Also, prices continue to go down. I tend not to purchase the latest and greatest but rather what has been out for 3-4 months and has typically been reduced in price to a more normal cost, instead of the initial premium often required. If you need to purchase a system before the school semester starts, then buy something now and set it up so it is stable before the semester starts.