Need advice upgrading my rig

[hmorphone]

I can only affort one upgrade at a time and I can't decide what's the best choice...

Go from 1 gig to 2 gigs of ram
or
Go from my 3000+ to a dualcore 3800+ after the July price drop
or
Go from my X800XL to a X1800XT/7900GT level vid card

Once I narrow it down to which component then I can refine my choices. Please post your thoughts. Not much overclocking going on, using for both gaming and regular computing chores.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The 3800+ won't help much for games, your 3000+ is already good there.

1 GB is fine for most games, a few benefit from 2 GB.

1800XT would let you turn on more eye candy or jump to a higher resolution in many newer games.

If you aren't having to dial down settings in a game you're playing now, the best choice is probably to do nothing and hang on to the money for later.

 

[Indred]

If it were me, I would upgrade the memory. The other thing to consider is what CAS latency is your ram. If your running CAS 3.0 then you could get some lower latency ram/upgrade the size. Is there a dollar ammount you are planning on?

 

[hmorphone]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The 3800+ won't help much for games, your 3000+ is already good there.

1 GB is fine for most games, a few benefit from 2 GB.

1800XT would let you turn on more eye candy or jump to a higher resolution in many newer games.

If you aren't having to dial down settings in a game you're playing now, the best choice is probably to do nothing and hang on to the money for later.

Thanks for the thoughts... the only game I'd like to dial the settings up on right now is FEAR

 

[hmorphone]

Originally posted by: Indred
If it were me, I would upgrade the memory. The other thing to consider is what CAS latency is your ram. If your running CAS 3.0 then you could get some lower latency ram/upgrade the size. Is there a dollar ammount you are planning on?

The Ballistix has good timings at pc3200, I'm looking at $150 to $250

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: hmorphone

Originally posted by: Indred
If it were me, I would upgrade the memory. The other thing to consider is what CAS latency is your ram. If your running CAS 3.0 then you could get some lower latency ram/upgrade the size. Is there a dollar ammount you are planning on?

The Ballistix has good timings at pc3200, I'm looking at $150 to $250

2x1gb

 

[imported_fx]

-Upgrade X1800XT 512mb if you want to have better performance in games than your X800XL

-Upgrade your processor if you want better performance or if you usually multitasking.. You don't want your A64 3000+ to be bottleneck..

-Upgrade your RAM from 1GB to 2GB if you want better performance in games, and some stuff you do on pc.

There are many options you can choose.. whatever you choose is fine for now..

 

[Talcite]

actually if you're playing fear, I'd say do the vid card. I thought pixel shader 3.0 was supported on the x1000 series and not on the x800 series?

 

[hmorphone]

Originally posted by: Talcite
actually if you're playing fear, I'd say do the vid card. I thought pixel shader 3.0 was supported on the x1000 series and not on the x800 series?

True. I didn't know 3.0 made much of a difference with FEAR though?

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: Talcite
actually if you're playing fear, I'd say do the vid card. I thought pixel shader 3.0 was supported on the x1000 series and not on the x800 series?

that's true.