Need a $400 upgrade...

[Darkhawk28]

Hey all, I need a bit of advice on how to go about a $400 upgrade.

Here's what I have now...

XP 2600+ Barton (333 FSB)
Abit NF7-S v2.0
1GB (2x512MB) Kingston ValueRam
Antec 350W Smartpower
Nvidia FX5900 128MB AGP
Edit: Just to add: 160gb Maxtor ATA/133 HD (yeah, yeah, I know... Maxtor, but I got it for $50 nearly 2 years ago.)

I need suggestions before my wife lowers my budget again!

Thanks guys!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What's your goal here? Gaming I assume?

 

[Darkhawk28]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What's your goal here? Gaming I assume?

Ya, gaming mostly.

 

[DanielHerrmann]

I'm not trying to crap your thread, but how do you like that kingston valueram?

 

[Darkhawk28]

Originally posted by: DanielHerrmann
I'm not trying to crap your thread, but how do you like that kingston valueram?

It's ok, I suppose, but I'm not sure how well/badly it's doing.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Will you be able to sell current parts and get a bit more to work with?

 

[Darkhawk28]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Will you be able to sell current parts and get a bit more to work with?

Planned on keeping old parts and making a 2nd computer for my kids.

Edit: With the parts that wind up being replaced that is.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Hmmm, I was thinking if you could get another $100 - $150 to work with, you could do

7800gt
low end 939 processor (3200+ or an opteron)
Basic 939 motherboard with PCI-e

With $400 you could do
3200+ / 3000+ / Opteron
6800gs
basic 939 PCI-e motherboard of your choice

 

[Darkhawk28]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Hmmm, I was thinking if you could get another $100 - $150 to work with, you could do

7800gt
low end 939 processor (3200+ or an opteron)
Basic 939 motherboard with PCI-e

With $400 you could do
3200+ / 3000+ / Opteron
6800gs
basic 939 PCI-e motherboard of your choice

Is there a way you can tell what particular part is your bottleneck with any setup?

 

[KeithP]

What speed is the RAM? Do you mind overclocking? I am guessing that Barton could be overclocked to 3200+ speeds without much problem (that is what I am doing with my 2500 Barton.) If you don't need high resolutions when gaming (1600x1200 or better), the cheapest thing to do would be to overclock the Barton and buy a better AGP video card and call it day.

-KeithP

 

[Aznguy1872]

Go with what YOyoYOhowsDAjello suggested, I think thats your best choice to go about with this 400 dollar upgrade.

 

[rancherlee]

I'd say an AGP X850XT and 2 gig of ram on your current board. That XP chip still has alot of firepower left in it and will run the X850XT just fine.