Cheap upgrade for my 4 year old OCed computer?

[eternalone]

7750 is a great Budget Video Card I can play MW3 and BF3 with no problems. I recommend it.

 

[SPBHM]

So it turns out XCOM does not run on Window XP... so... I guess it's upgrade time after all because 2 GB RAM is not going to cut it on windows 7.

Windows 7 x86 works for most games with only 2GB, you just need to avoid as much background services/programs while gaming as possible...
also as I said before, you should just get Windows 8, I think it's $40 if you already own XP.

 

[frozentundra123456]

7750 is a great Budget Video Card I can play MW3 and BF3 with no problems. I recommend it.

7750 is great for a system with a weak power supply because it doesn't require an external power connector. The op has a decent power supply so I would suggest the 7770. Only a few dollars more, still uses little power, and performs quite a bit better.

 

[SPBHM]

my recommendation is to buy the cheapest 7850 (even with 1GB) he can find, specially for 1080p.

like this
$179.99
$169.99 with Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202004

it's even factory overclocked (a little bit)

now add the cheapest ($20?) 2GB DDR2 you can find, overclock as high as you can, and it should run any game decently.

 

[Hubb1e]

my recommendation is to buy the cheapest 7850 (even with 1GB) he can find, specially for 1080p.

like this
$179.99
$169.99 with Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202004

it's even factory overclocked (a little bit)

now add the cheapest ($20?) 2GB DDR2 you can find, overclock as high as you can, and it should run any game decently.

This or 7770 depending on your budget.

Plus for god sakes get that Q6600 at least to 3ghz. Yeah, it's not much faster than 2.8giz but it will make you feel better about yourself. Being in the 2ghz club sucks and 333 mhz front side bus is an Intel supported multiplier.

 

[nyker96]

personally, I'd just do as you planed, get some more DDR2 rams, add another 2x2gb will get you to 6gb should be enough, then get win7 x64 bit, overclock the cpu to 3,2ghz. you may need a new heatsink depending on what heastsink you got now. corsiar 520W should be good enough.

one last upgrade is the g-card, but that I think you should wait until you try this game to see if your 8800gt is enough, if not, get a new graphics card then.

 

[Kolath]

Hey everyone, just to close the loop on this, I ended up buying windows 7 and buying 2x2GB of G.Skill PC8500 DDR2. I know it was more expensive than DDR3, but the system runs XCOM like a dream now. I think the extra 2 GB of memory were crucial because I installed windows 7 first and it was a bit sluggish at 2GB, but runs fine at 4.

Also, I took off the heat sinks on my CPU and my GPU and redid the arctic silver application. It dropped my temps by 10 degrees C! Now I am running nicely at 3GHz. Ran Prime95 stable for 10 hours.

Thanks again for the suggestions!