Help me squeeze more life out of my pc!

[Andy22]

I have just passed the two year mark on my last parts order but don't have the money for a full blown upgrade. I was hoping I could appeal to the masses to look at my parts and suggest a minimal upgrade path that might allow me to enjoy the newest games that are coming this year.

This is what I currently have:

motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4/SLI nForce4 SLI Athlon 64(FX) Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail
cpu - AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail
ram - Patriot PDC2G3200LLK 2GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 Dual Channel Memory Retail
video card - eVGA e-GeForce 7800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out, Dual DVI & VIVO Retail

Those are the principal parts that I assume will need to be upgraded. I am going to also have to buy a new DVD drive as my Benq has gone out. I was hoping to not have to upgrade the motherboard as I would like to avoid a OS reinstall but I wasn't sure if there are CPU's still available for it.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[bamacre]

Budget?

 

[Andy22]

Good question...$400ish give or take $50 🙂

 

[bamacre]

You have a few options. Unfortunately, you are correct, one option is not an overhaul. 😀

What I would do...

Grab one of these (quickly maybe)...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...E16819103543&ref=lmcd1

Then wait and pick up one of the new 512MB 8800 GT cards, which will be out early next week. Supposedly. 😀

That won't hit 400, but save the little bit left over for when you want to do an overhaul (cpu/mobo/ram).

However, if you want to wait on upgrading the video card, and replace the cpu/mobo/ram now, then I would do the following...

Q6600
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/....jsp?ProductCode=80864

P35 Board
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...p?ProductCode=10006307

Ram
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...p?ProductCode=85016-16

 

[BadRobot]

Budget build

click that link

ABIT IP35-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
89.99

SAPPHIRE 100196L Radeon X1950PRO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
154.99

Intel Dual-Core E2140 Allendale 1.6GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E2140 - Retail
74.99

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail
65.99

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
49.99

LG Electronics Black LG Super Multi 18x SATA DVD Burner GSA-H62NK, 10x DVD+/-R DL, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 12x DVD-RAM - OEM
$28.99

464.94

It has all the parts you need and more for $464. If you don't want the hard drive in the list it will drop it down to 410 or so.

This would allow you to upgrade your processer in the next year maybe as well.

Oh this was assuming you would overclock.

 

[Andy22]

Thanks for the replies guys. That 512 MB 8800 GT sounds pretty good for what looks like a decent price. Looks like it will be in the $250 ball park from a quick price check. I guess from a CPU standpoint I could go as high as a 4800 if I could find one right?

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Andy22
Thanks for the replies guys. That 512 MB 8800 GT sounds pretty good for what looks like a decent price. Looks like it will be in the $250 ball park from a quick price check. I guess from a CPU standpoint I could go as high as a 4800 if I could find one right?

Yeah. The link to the X2 4200 was in the Hot Deals thread. I think the 939 X2's are getting tougher to find.