Need some advice

[kmatt02]

Hey everyone.

My 18th Birthday is coming up soon and I need some advice.
My current rig is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2Ghz)
ASUS A7N8X2.0 Mobo
512MB Ram (unknown brand + details)
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra

I'm not sure how old it is, I'm thinking 3-4 years.
I use my PC mostly for gaming and watching movies. I've noticed that in recent games such as HL2, BF2 and WoW, my rig tends to lag. It can't cope with the higher settings but it can still generate acceptable FPS at medium settings (1024*768 2xAA).

I was wondering if it is worth either upgrading or building a new rig. I'm quite sure that the ram will be causing some lag and slow loading issues but I'm not sure if an increase in ram will make a huge difference.

I've been looking at the lastest hardware and if I were to buy a new rig I'd want the latest AMD X2.

My parents should be able to help me with some cash for a new PC
Any ideas guys?

Thanks!

 

[Zerhyn]

I too was thinking of building a new system and getting the dual cores. You would think they would be good for gaming. But from what these people are saying, it seems that it is a hassle to play certain games.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1662743&enterthread=y

For me, my current system is somewhat up to date, i would wait till maybe some of those issues were resolved, (the having to disable a core). Would that be the games fault or something else?

So maybe it would be an idea just to get a higher end single core and save for when the dual core issues are fixed.

 

[kmatt02]

If the problem is really that bad, then I guess I can hold out for a little longer. If I were to buy a new PC however, I really want to go Dual Core rather than single core because it seems to be the future.

 

[Ricemarine]

Go build a new rig.

 

[munchow2]

Adding extra RAM will make a huge difference. At least it did for me when I upped it from 1GB -> 2GB. BF2 started running super smooth. I suspect the same will happen when you up it from 512MB->1GB especially if you are running windows XP.

I don't think that computer is older than 2-3 since the FX5900 Ultra is not really that old.

You could build a new computer if you have the money but I wouldn't bet on it being solidly future-proof or whatnot since the specs for Vista seem ridiculous.

 

[xTYBALTx]

It just depends what you upgrade to, and what resolutions you use. Your CPU certainly is not slow per se, but there is stuff which is much faster. You're talking dual core, but upgrading from an XP 3200+ to an X2 3800+ might be a bit. . .premature. You might want to hold off a bit, maybe grab a used AGP X800XL and another 1.5GB of RAM to keep everything running smoothly. I'd recommend you uprading after AMD's new socket set is released at the earliest - maybe getting something roughly equivilant to the 4800+ several months down the road at a reasonable price.