Please Advise Re: My System. Where Are The Weak Links? What Should Be Upgraded Next?

[Dan]

Last weekend I upgraded my mobo, CPU and case/power supply. Please take a look at my system as it's now configured and give me some advice. What are the weak links? Which components should I look to upgrade next? What priority?

My uses are primarily business apps, image-editting, web surfing and CD-burning. I rarely play games. (Alright, The SIMs are an occassional diversion. )

AMD Duron 600MHz @ 900MHz
Cooler Master DP5-6H11 Heatsink/Fan
Abit KT7 mobo
NEC 128MB CAS 2 PC-133 DIMM
Western Digital 20.5GB, ATA/66, 7200rpm (Primary Master)
Shuttle 50X CD-ROM, IDE (Secondary Master)
Pine 4X-4X-24X CDRW, IDE (Primary Slave)
CL Graphics Blaster TNT2 Ultra, 32MB, 2x AGP, 218.4MHz/200.5MHz
CL SoundBlaster Live, Value! Sound Card
SMC Ethernet 10/100Mbps NIC, PCI
US Robotics 56k v.90 ISA Modem w/voice
Fujitsu ?SpeedPort? External DSL Modem
Alps 1.44MB Floppy
Enlight 7237 Mid-Tower w/300Watt P/S
In addition to the 80mm P/S fan blowing out, I have:
1) 80mm case fan blowing in, lower front
1) 80mm case fan blowing out, upper rear (below P/S)
Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard
Logitech Cordless Mouseman Wheel
Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional

 

[Czar]

DVD drive
Bigger HD, as in another HD
New graphics card
more memmory

in any order, the other parts are fine

 

[Xray]

I could see adding another 128 meg of ram.

Do you see this new tool bar? I am going to play!!Texthello



This is really cool


Text

 

[Xray]

Its not working

 

[poopaskoopa]

I say more memory and replace those IDE HD and CD-ROMS with SCSI drives. I tend to think fast PCs and fast gaming PCs are two different things so...

 

[Rand]

A is your system looks very good.
The best upgrade at this pointwould probably be some more Ram, ANOTHER 128mb DIMM might make a surprising amount of difference.
Given that you don't play games much, and nothing more stressful than the SIMS, you video card is probably plenty good enough. BTW, Nice overclocking on it, not many TNT2U cards make it that high.
A faster CDRW might be nice or maybe a DVD drive.
Next upgrade should probably be to add another 128MB DIMM.

 

[Noriaki]

Only get a bigger/second hard drive if you find you are running out of space. If you do make it an IBM 75GXP, they aren't very expensive and are the fastest IDE hard drives there are. They are available in 15,20,30,45,75 and maybe 60 gig sizes.

I'd put another 128MB of RAM in that system as priority 1.

If you don't play games your TNT2 is probably ok speedwise, you might want to consider a Matrox G400/450, they have superior 2D and some fun features like 2 Monitors. If you think you want some games try a GeForce 2MX, not as good as the Matrox for 2D, but it also has 2 monitors, albiet less mature support for it, but the GF2MX has much better gaming support.

 

[Dan]

Thanks for the fast responses. I was thinking another 128MB of RAM would be the next item to get; nice to have it confirmed. And a bigger hard drive wouldn't hurt either. I've only got about 5GB free at this point.