Please suggest an upgrade path

[warpigeon]

msi neo2 plat
3200+ winchester w/ xp-90
1 gb ocz plat rev 2
AGP evga 6800 gt w/ arctic cooler (oc'ed)
74 gb raptor

How would y'all upgrade this to get more performance for games. I imagine some would say to oc it but frankly I've never come across a good enough guide to show me how. I guess I could put another couple of 512k sticks of ram in but I think if I remember correctly I lose dual channel or something like that. When it comes to cpus I'm totally clueless as I haven't really been following comp stuff since I built this 2 years ago.

Thanks.

 

[MDE]

You could drop in a dual core, otherwise you're basically limited to more RAM or overclocking. You're kinda stuck with the video card you have because anything else you can get is just too expensive. What games are you playing? Some depend more on RAM, others more on CPU.

 

[warpigeon]

Originally posted by: MDE
You could drop in a dual core, otherwise you're basically limited to more RAM or overclocking. You're kinda stuck with the video card you have because anything else you can get is just too expensive. What games are you playing? Some depend more on RAM, others more on CPU.

Mainly first person shooters. If I went to a dual core would I have to update my bios? I've never done that so I'm a little hesitant. It would be nice though to just simply drop in a new proc, get a nice boost in performance and be done.

 

[DaveSimmons]

There is a Radeon X1950 AGP for around $250 (Apoppin discusses his here) and it -might- be on sale at best buy for $200 tomorrow (PCI-E will be, not sure about AGP). You can also get a 7800GS for $236 (beofre $30 rebate) at newegg (link)

Those would be a much better gaming upgrade than dual-core. If you don't want to overclock a single-core 3700+ - 3800+ (not X2) for under $100 would offer the most gaming improvement for your CPU dollar, but either get the video card first or just move to PCI-E with a new motherboard.