Need some suggestions for a semi-upgrade

[dabuddha]

I finally got permission from the wife to do a semi upgrade 😀 I realized that it might be time when I was getting ~12fps on average sometimes in WoW. My goal is to build 2 PCs out of my current PC and new parts. The 2nd PC will be hooked up to my TV in my living room.

Here is what I have currently

CPU: Athlon XP 3000+
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7N400S-L
Memory : 2x512MB sticks of Mushkin Level 1 Dual Channel PC3200
Video Card : ATI Radeon 9800 Pro ATI Radeon
Hard Drive : Maxtor L01p120 120.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS
Sound Card : Soundblaster Audigy 2 platinum

I know I want a 64 bit proc and I know I will not be overclocking my CPU. All of the old hardware pieces will go into the living room PC. I want the new PC to last as long as possible 🙂 My current config lasted me about a year or so.

My budget is around $600. I can, of course, adjust it slightly 😀


Heres what I think I'll need to buy.

CPU
Motherboard
Memory
Video Card
Hard drive
Sound Card (maybe? My audigy is currently hooked up to my 5.1 klipsch speakers. I don't know how good onboard sound cards are these days)
Case

Usage: Lotsa WoW. FPS games as well (BF2, COD2, etc)

TIA for any help/advice! 🙂

 

[Bobthelost]

For $600 you'll be hard pressed to buy an entire new PC that's going to be great for gaming.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
For $600 you'll be hard pressed to buy an entire new PC that's going to be great for gaming.

Well it's not a completely new entire pc 🙂

I know I won't be getting top of the line parts but ~$600 should be enough for most of the parts.

 

[dabuddha]

Up for the evening crowd 😀

 

[HybridSquirrel]

id say for you mobo cpu and vid card should be decent and you can do that for under 600 everything else looks nice

my recs

CPU:AMD Opteron 148
VID: depends on games
6800GS or GT
or
x800gto or gto^2)
Mobo😀fi Lanpart UT Sli-d(for future upgrades to SLi mode)

 

[l Xes l]

my advice: overclock.

 

[Atheus]

That's not a bad setup, I have something similar and i'm yet to find a game I can't play at 1024*768 4xAA. You may have problems if you are only geting 12fps... I'm overclocked though...

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: HybridSquirrel
id say for you mobo cpu and vid card should be decent and you can do that for under 600 everything else looks nice

my recs

CPU:AMD Opteron 148
VID: depends on games
6800GS or GT
or
x800gto or gto^2)
Mobo😀fi Lanpart UT Sli-d(for future upgrades to SLi mode)

Actually, I've been thinking about it and I'm thinking of not including the Vid card price with the upgrade. I'm leaning towards a 7800.

So what if the budget changed to $500 for all those things except the vid card. Would your suggestions still be the same?

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Atheus
That's not a bad setup, I have something similar and i'm yet to find a game I can't play at 1024*768 4xAA. You may have problems if you are only geting 12fps... I'm overclocked though...

Running at 1600x1200 😱

 

[halw]

Check out Monarch Computer, Their barebones/combo deals. If nothing else, this will give you a benchmark to work from.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: halw
Check out Monarch Computer, Their barebones/combo deals. If nothing else, this will give you a benchmark to work from.

I'll check it out 🙂 It might help as a benchmark but in my situation, it won't work cause I plan on putting all the guts in my current PC into the new case and throw that in the living room. The new pc guts will go into my old case.

If I have to chose between an opteron and an amd 64 proc, which would be the better choice for me? I'd love to get a dual core proc but it's just not in my budget :/

 

[halw]

Most people here like the Opteron. I'm sure those that do will elaborate.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: halw
Most people here like the Opteron. I'm sure those that do will elaborate.

I saw that the opteron has 1 meg of cache vs the 512kb of cache. I suppose for that reason alone I might go with it.