Annual holiday upgrade

[1sikbITCH]

Current specs:

2500+ Barton @ 3200+ with an SLK800 and TTSF 2 on top
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
2 X 512 Buffalo Tech PC3200 Winbond
ATI 9600 Pro
36GB Raptor boot drive

Budget = $250.

After reading a lot of posts, I need some clarifying.

Some threads say the AMD64 2800+ is the way to go, and others say the 939 Winchester core is where it's at. Which is it?

I'm seeing the AMD64 3000+ Winchester for $150 at Newegg. Good enough?

Then I would appreciate listing the top 2 or 3 NF3 boards (there used to be a 8 or 10 stickied mobo threads in the mobo forum, but not now). I believe my PC3200 will make the jump, but I could be wrong.

My first thought was to go for a 6600GT, until I started reading threads here. I am not really stressing the 9600Pro with what I'm playing now, so I'd rather go for the 64bit if it's feasible.

Thx.

 

[imported_TimJ]

Whatever you do, make sure you get a socket 939 mobo and CPU. It will offer you a longer upgrade path. The Abit AV8 and MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum are good motherboards.

If the 9600 Pro isn't stressing what you're playing your best bet would be to wait until you start playing games that are stressing it. If you wait and save up more money, you will be able to buy better hardware when you really need it.

 

[Mik3y]

why the raptor on such a budget? you wont see a worthwhile improvement. the 74gb raptor is faster then the 36gb one and still doesnt perform much better hten the newest 7200 rpm drives w/ 8mb cache.

 

[1sikbITCH]

I already have the raptor.

I'm looking at mobo/cpu with the $250.