Need some suggestions for upgrading a gaming machine

This is for a good friend who just got into gaming (BF1942 only). Here is what he has now:

Duron 1.1 gig
Generic SDR mobo
512 mb pc100
80 gig 8mb cache Maxtor
Radeon 8500
sound blaster live value


If you could plz list what order of things you would upgrade I would appreciate it. Here is what i thought:
1. Barton CPU
2. DDR mobo (nforce2 maybe) and 512 ddr
3. Radeon 9600np

He is looking good bang for the buck but he really wants better frames per second on battlefield1942.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Bonesdad]

Here are my thoughts:

1. New NForce2 mobo (Abit NF7-S $110, Shuttle MN31N or AN35N $80 or less, Asus A7N8X $110-125...pick your desired features and price point)
2. Barton 2500+ ($91)
3. 512 MB PC3200 DDR (Buffalo RAM is great and pretty cheap - $83 for a single stick)
4. Radeon 9600Pro - if you get the Made by ATI brand you can get a free copy of Half-Life 2 (when it comes out)
5. Lose the Soundblaster - most NF2 mobos have great onboard sound - soundstorm
6. Hard Drive is good

Here is the catch...this all has to be done at once (with the exception of the video card). Can't use SDRAM on an NForce2 mobo...and its pretty certain the Barton wont work on his mobo either...and you need a new mobo for any kind of meaningful upgrade. Good luck.

 

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
Here are my thoughts:

1. New NForce2 mobo (Abit NF7-S $110, Shuttle MN31N or AN35N $80 or less, Asus A7N8X $110-125...pick your desired features and price point)
2. Barton 2500+ ($91)
3. 512 MB PC3200 DDR (Buffalo RAM is great and pretty cheap - $83 for a single stick)
4. Radeon 9600Pro - if you get the Made by ATI brand you can get a free copy of Half-Life 2 (when it comes out)
5. Lose the Soundblaster - most NF2 mobos have great onboard sound - soundstorm
6. Hard Drive is good

Here is the catch...this all has to be done at once (with the exception of the video card). Can't use SDRAM on an NForce2 mobo...and its pretty certain the Barton wont work on his mobo either...and you need a new mobo for any kind of meaningful upgrade. Good luck.

Thanks, ya i just noticed that order part, I meant to say video before mobo/cpu or vice versa...

I am out of the AMD loop (intel for me right now), so i really appreciate the toughts...!

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: Phocas

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
Here are my thoughts:

1. New NForce2 mobo (Abit NF7-S $110, Shuttle MN31N or AN35N $80 or less, Asus A7N8X $110-125...pick your desired features and price point)
2. Barton 2500+ ($91)
3. 512 MB PC3200 DDR (Buffalo RAM is great and pretty cheap - $83 for a single stick)
4. Radeon 9600Pro - if you get the Made by ATI brand you can get a free copy of Half-Life 2 (when it comes out)
5. Lose the Soundblaster - most NF2 mobos have great onboard sound - soundstorm
6. Hard Drive is good

Here is the catch...this all has to be done at once (with the exception of the video card). Can't use SDRAM on an NForce2 mobo...and its pretty certain the Barton wont work on his mobo either...and you need a new mobo for any kind of meaningful upgrade. Good luck.

Thanks, ya i just noticed that order part, I meant to say video before mobo/cpu or vice versa...

I am out of the AMD loop (intel for me right now), so i really appreciate the toughts...!

looks like a very nice system

 

Up for some other thoughts.....

 

[chizow]

Definitely the mobo/cpu/RAM first. That 8500 is still very serviceable and sits somewhere between a GF3 and GF4 in terms of performance (depending on the game, resolutions etc.). It'll run most games well at 1024 with a fast CPU/mobo and the Catalyst drivers have come a long way for the R200 based Radeons. On the other hand, that SDR system with a Duron is definitely going to be a bottleneck for current games even with a faster video card. I agree about the SBLive as well, grab one of the nForce2's with the MCP-T (SoundStorm) onboard audio and it'll be superior to the SBLive.

Chiz

 

[tenoc]

4. Radeon 9600Pro - if you get the Made by ATI brand you can get a free copy of Half-Life 2 (when it comes out)

fyi, this is for the XT version only. Until it does come out, you can d/l the entire HL series for free as well. Again, XT only.