Considering MidRange Upgrade

[mezrah]

I'll preface this by saying that I can't really afford to "keep up with the Jones'" and thus haven't upgraded in a couple years. I recently purchased Vista and it is a bit clunky, but overall I like it.

I'm looking to spend in the $350 - $400 range, and I'll be using my current 1440x900 widescreen lcd.

Do y'all think I'll see enough improvement (general loading times and snappiness, light gaming, HL2 and its mods, etc) to warrant the upgrade.

Current System:

P4 2.8 Ghz Northwood (It's a 2.8B 512k/533Mhz)
Cheapo ECS socket 478 mobo
1x1GB Cheapo DDR400
ATi x800xl AGP 8x

New:

BIOSTAR TForce TF7025-M2 Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$69.99

GIGABYTE GV-NX86T256D GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
$142.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3800CZBOX - Retail
$78.99

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-5400c4 - Retail
$69.99



Thanks!

 

[PurdueRy]

I don't think the graphics card is enough of an upgrade to warrant the cost

 

[mezrah]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
I don't think the graphics card is enough of an upgrade to warrant the cost

Yeah...that's why I was going with a mobo with onboard video. I was thinking I may just hold off on a new video card for a while.

The concensus is that Vista is definitely snappier with 2GB of ram, though, right? And the dual-core cpu couldn't hurt.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: mezrah

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
I don't think the graphics card is enough of an upgrade to warrant the cost

Yeah...that's why I was going with a mobo with onboard video. I was thinking I may just hold off on a new video card for a while.

The concensus is that Vista is definitely snappier with 2GB of ram, though, right? And the dual-core cpu couldn't hurt.

Yes that is typical.

Have you looked in to a cheap C2D rig with the option of OCing? Like a 4300?