Any real reason to upgrade?

[Johnbear007]

So, I haven't been up on the latest hardware for awhile. I am thinking about upgrading because my parents need a new pc and I will give them my current rig. I am just curious to know ifI am going to see any kind of real performance gains.

I play World of Warcraft, Half life 2/counter strike, and battlefield 2 mostly

I am running:

Athlon XP 3200+
EVGA Geforce 6800
1 GB low latency Kingston hyper X
420W Antec Trupower
160GB IDE Baraccuda
ETC.

I would be keeping the ram and hard drive, and getting a new mobo pci express vid and processor.

Any opinions on weather this is a worthwhile upgrade?

 

[imported_Kensai]

You wouldn't see too much of an improvement unless you went with a 7800GTX and a highly overclocked 3000/3200/3500+ Venice or something like an X2.

 

[suszterpatt]

Wait a bit until dual core CPU's become more available.

 

[duragezic]

I have a similar system except with a 9800 Pro and I play GW, HL2/CS:S, and BF2 fine at 1024x768 to 1280x1024. I don't see any reason nor have the money to upgrade until the newest games have to be played at 800x600 or lower to get decent fps (IMO). Plus at that time I may move on to a dedicated gaming/media console like the 360 and use my PC for more work/content creation/internet in which case I won't need to upgrade the fvcker for a long time.

 

[Johnbear007]

Yeah, thats about what I figured. The only reason I have considered it is that my parents need a new machine, and ill be paying. I play all games at 1280x1024 because that is the native res of my LCD, and everything still runs great. I think waiting for dual core is probably best.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd work the numbers up to see how it compares to a lowend? system for your parents. I'm guessing the components you have now would be overkill for your parents, but if you got better parts for yourself it might delay future upgrades for awhile longer. You won't get a huge jump in performance, but anything is a plus. If that were my system, I'd be willing to spend about $300 extra to get better parts for myself. You may have a different perspective on cost vs. performance.

 

[Insidious]

I think you'd be better off to build the folks a bare-bones system and keep what you have for yourself if $$ are a burden at all right now.

Your rig (despite hype and spin to the contrary) is going to be playing games fine for quite some time yet.

-Sid

 

[Hacp]

No need to upgrade. That setup will run most of the games today, and will probably last you another 1-2 years.