Good time to upgrade?

[Artician]

Hi. Right now I'm running a P4 3Ghz (first generation, don't recall what project name it is). I had a 6800 Ultra AGP card blow up on me for some reason recently, and it seems that Nvidia is trying phase out AGP entirely and force everyone to go with PCIExpress, because finding a replacement 6800 that is AGP is quite literally impossible.
So I'm looking at my options for an upgrade, but I really don't know if right now is a good time for it. There are so many CPU options now, and with Intels rediculous product naming scheme that's even more confusing, and what seems to be new technology with the single/dual core processors, I am really not sure I want to jump onboard for a whole new set of hardware.
From the little bit of research I did, I was looking at an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ with a geforce7800 GTX. Does anyone know if this is this something worth investing in right now, or if I should hold out for something coming down the road in the next few months?

It's been a while since I've been in the loop for current technology, so I'm really clueless. Many thanks for any help.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Are you cool with overclocking? A 4800+ is quite expensive and people have been getting very good overclocks out of X2s and Opterons that cost significantly less.

That should certainly be a big jump in performance if you like to play at high res with the settings turned up.

Is there something new coming? Yeah, AMD is moving to a different socket type soon, but afaik there's not going to be a huge jump in performance from it.
Dual core has been the big thing lately and you have quite a nice one picked out

Do you have 2 gigs or ram already?

 

[darXoul]

I would wait a bit, to be honest. I usually don't recommend waiting for new tech but in this case, it might make sense. The new G71 video cards and socket AM2 for AMD CPUs are soon to be released.

If you want to buy now, maybe you should consider A64 X2 3800+ or 4400+. Both can be easily overclocked to 4800+ speed, at much lower cost. The GF 7800 GTX is right now too expensive, IMHO. GF 7800 GT is a much more affordable solution, and not a whole lot slower. Like I said, another alternative is to wait for GF 7900 GTX and GT, to be released in March.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Artician
Good time to upgrade?

You've been a member here for a few years. You know we say... :thumbsup: :laugh:

 

[Artician]

Hey guys, thanks very much for your replies. I didn't know if I'd be missing out on anything, and I'm not familiar at all with current chip and videocard makers roadmaps for the next few months. It sounds like I may as well take the plunge now, though I will wait until March for the new card. I'll definitely grab a slower chip and overclock as well, just because the cash saved is much more valuable to me, and I think my cooling system could handle it relatively well. If the new AMD's are out by then I'll definitely look at that option as well.

And I have been running on 2GB of RAM, but its PC2100 and I have been considering getting PC3200 or greater, I have to look at the real speed of whatever I upgrade to so it matches whatever bus speed I end up getting. Plus I'm not sure yet if the increase in bandwidth makes that much of a difference.

Thanks again very much!