Rec's Needed: Sony Vaio System Needs Upgraded

[indianajdp]

Was pointed here by some folks at DVD Talk and am hoping a few of you can help me out. When it comes to this stuff I am admittedly, well, lacking in knowledge to say the least.

Anyway, I currently own a Sony Vaio Digital Studio w/ the following specs:

PCV-RX560
1.7 GHz, Pentium 4
80 GB
256 MB PC-133 SDRAM (expandable to 512 MB)
Video RAM = 32 MB
Current Video Card: NVidia TnT2 M64

So...it's definitely time to upgrade my Video Card, especially with some great games like Call of Duty on the horizon. My question is, which video cards would you all recommend? Secondly, do I also need to upgrade my RAM or am I okay on that front?

I'm currenly looking at the NVidia GeForec FX 5600 and the FX 5200, but don't know a whole lot about other cards out there. Since I'm not a serious gamer I'd like to try and do this for no more than $200. I did just read the review here about the 5700 and it sounds interesting too, although I'm not sure if I'd be better suited with 128 or 256.

Thanks in advance for all of your help, as the searches I did for the Vaio yielded some older information.

 

[modedepe]

First on your video card: fx5200 is a bad choice. The fx5600 is an ok choice, if you get the ultra revision 2 at a good price (I think they were around $105 at circuit city or some other retailer, which would be a good price, but that deal might be dead). A fx5600 non ultra or ultra revision 1 is a bad choice. A ti4200 for a little under $100 is ok too. You might also want to look at a 9600 pro for about $140.

As far as ram, another 256mb giving you 512 total would help. Your ram is going to be a bottle neck in the system since it isn't ddr. Your processor is also getting fairly dated. For those two reasons a $200 video card might be a little overkill. A 9600 pro would keep your system fairly balanced.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

modedepe's got it pretty much.

A new video card should be your first stop. Radeon 9600 Pro is a good call.
Then RAM, up to 512MB. Then maybe a processor upgrade, but at that point you're looking at "new system"

- M4H

 

[indianajdp]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
modedepe's got it pretty much.

A new video card should be your first stop. Radeon 9600 Pro is a good call.
Then RAM, up to 512MB. Then maybe a processor upgrade, but at that point you're looking at "new system"

- M4H

Thanks, guys.
I was afraid I might need to make multiple purchases...then it becomes a question of, well, do I just purchase a new system.

So ... 9600 Pro AND RAM up to 512MB. Is it the 9600 128 MB or the 256MB?

Again, Muchas Gracias.
I'll probably have many more questions once I have to do the installations

 

[hans007]

just get a 9600 pro 128 mb. and 256mb more ram. that about $150 total. no real point in upgrading anything else. unless you wanna basically be building awhole new machine (Well, cpu video, ram wise)