Is now a good time to upgrade?

[Pho King]

well, my (agp) video card died and I started looking at buying one to replace it, problem is everything is in pci-e now! So I figured with all the good things I've heard about Core 2 Duo, I might as well upgrade my mobo, ram, and cpu (along with my video card)

Old System:
P4 1.8, Asus PTE, 512mb Rambus, gforce 4200

New System:
Help!?

Errr I forgot to mention that I hear that kentsfield is almost here (quad core) - Should I wait?

 

[corkyg]

Everything is not all PCI Express. I just upgraded two machines with AGP - Radeon X1300 and X1600 respectively. No problems. Newegg has 'em.

 

[dreamx]

go ahead and upgrade imo..
your system is way too old... get a core2duo and enjoy its speed...

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: dreamx
go ahead and upgrade imo..
your system is way too old... get a core2duo and enjoy its speed...

I agree. I upgraded from a p4 3.0 GHz and 1 GB of RAM to my current system and noticed a HUGE increase in performance. Since your system is quite a bit slower than my old one and the Core2duos are faster than my current system, you'll be amazed at the speed difference.

And, you can always wait for the next big thing, but by the time it comes out, something else seems just around the corner. If kentsfield were being released in the next month, then I'd say to wait, but it'll be several months before it's released, prices drop, and motherboard support matures. Core2Duo has been out long enough to at least have a lot of the motherboard bugs worked out. I'd definitely upgrade now.

 

[Pho King]

Can I get some suggestions on what to get? CPU, MOBO, RAM, and VIDEO?

I'm thinking of:

E6300 of E6400
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard (Mixed Reviews and I'm not really an overclocker)
EVGA 7900GTO

 

[acegazda]

I don't know about the 7900gto now... everyone is saying that it is 1st class binning of the 79000gtx and the ram chips are not properly cooled. The x1900xt 256mb might be the better of the two. Just get an aftermarket hs to cool it.

 

[pkme2]

Buy your components when the dealings good, IMO that what I'd do it.
Caution, in some areas, the prices are going up, like memory, DDR2.
There are some good deals to be made if you're patient and resourceful.
There's a lot of good advice here on AT, good hunting.