Overclocking suggestion

[vpw]

Hi, I built my current system about a year ago and I've never done any overclocking before. However I want to play the more current games and I feel that I wanna wait maybe until next year before buying a new PC, so I'm actually thinking of overclocking right now.
Here's my spec:

Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe
Gigabyte X700 Pro 128mb
Corsair Twin2X 2x512MB PC6400 5-5-5-12
WDC Raptor 36GB
Seagate SATA 300 GB
Simbadda 550W PSU

I have no idea how overclock whatsover, I did try the Asus Ai booster set at FSB 960/800, I didnt keep the setting cos I was afraid it might damage the system although it was pretty stable.
I've been having problems with WD raptor, its benchmark (sisosft sandra) shows that its driver index is at 53mb/s, while random access time is 9ms. We've been playing Sims 2 lately and it takes forever to load n unload the program.
I'm also thinking of getting the new Geforce 7900GS or a second Raptor 36Gb so I can run Raid0.

Any suggestion is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[myocardia]

While you didn't mention which processor you have, here's what I would do to make your system faster. First, replace that video card, it's way too slow for gaming. Second, upgrade to 2GB of RAM, preferably 2x1GB sticks. And since you're planning on overclocking, you'll want PC6400.

 

[Zap]

For gaming, video card first. More RAM often helps bloated games to load faster, but won't help in-game performance.

BTW, welcome to the forums, vpw.

 

[tylerw13]

Originally posted by: Zap
For gaming, More RAM often helps bloated games to load faster, but won't help in-game performance.

on the contrary...due to past personal experience ram does help in game performance....i would suggest atleast two gigs....i installed more ram in the past on one of my computers and it helped my gaming experience alot!! but to get back to the question i would try doing both but for sure your video card that baby is due for an upgrade...lol

 

[vpw]

Yeah I forgot to mention, I run a P4 530 3ghz CPU.
Would you guys recommend the 7900GS or something a little more powerful? More RAM on the way of course, for some reason it seems Windows is writing a lot on the HDD even when I'm not running any application. Is it the swap file or anything?

My other system which is a P4 2.6ghz, running Abit IS7-J and Geil DDR 1 GB and 80GB Seagate ATA drive loads and plays Sims 2 faster than this one. It has a Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb.

My current system runs other games like Doom 3 and Quake 4 fine even at high res, it has problem running only Sims 2.
I'm lost....

And thanks for the welcome guys.