Is it worth it to upgrade from this?

[Netarial]

I have a 2 year old computer that I keep mostly upgraded every 2-3 months or so on whatever component needs an upgrade next. Unfortunately, the original case was from a Dell e510 and the motherboard does not support C2D.
It currently has:
[*]Intel Pentium 4 630
[*]Some generic 945g motherboard that doesn't have the voltage regulators for C2D
[*]7600gt
[*]1.5GB ram, worth noting that the guide for my system states that it (apparently) only handles speeds up to DDR2 533
[*]And Vista Ultimate

I was wondering if it was worth it to buy a new case, motherboard, and processor to ditch the P4, if so with what?, upgrade the ram to 3GB as ram prices are dropping like a rock, or cease upgrading and save up for a high end laptop such as a Macbook Pro? So far, I am reasonably happy with the system, but I rarely get better than 40fps on 1-2 year old games, and rarely more than 25 frames on current games.

 

[Boyo]

I would upgrade your system. It's dated. Try a E6400 with some Corsair RAM, 667DDR2 and a 500W PSU. IF you have any other questions, just post them.

 

[Netarial]

The thing is that although it is dated, the case is BTX, so I would need a new case, mobo, psu, and ram but I wanted to keep it at a reasonable price. However, I know I would need to get a laptop in about two years so I was wondering if it would just be good to upgrade one or two things for cheap and get a laptop later or can I still upgrade for less than around $400?

 

[Mavrick007]

Well, if it's games that you are interested in the most, try upgrading your graphics card and maybe add a bit more ram.. that would take you to less than $400 and should get you by for awhile longer until you buy your laptop. If you want a decent new system now, you could probably get by with a mobo, cpu, ram, case and vid card for under $700-800. It will not be top of the line but it would seriously kick the machine you have now.