should I upgrade

[codylawyer]

Should I up grade my current setup or start with everything new?

Right now I have:
Gigabyte GA-8IPE100
Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz
512Mb ram Thinking of upgrading to 1.5 Gb of ram
Geforcefx 5600 256mb agp thinking of upgrading to geforce 6600 256mb

I was also looking at the possibility of this setup
ABIT NI8 SLi
Intel Celeron 346 3.06 Ghz
1 Gb of ram
XFX Geforce 6800xt pci-express

Any suggestions on which is better?
Thanks

 

[acegazda]

biuld this:

asus a8n-sli
athlon 64 3200+
fortron 450w
(you can probably use your existing case...which 1 do u have?)
evga 7600gt
OCZ platinum 2x1gb xtc
seagate 7200.9 160 gb 3gb/s
benq dvd+-RW (w/lightscribe)
fill in the rest of the components with stuff you already have.
If you're ready to take it up a notch go for the x1800xt @newegg for $225 shipped instead of the 7600gt. Don't go with intel unless ure going more multitasking than gaming in which case you shoudl get a pentium d 805 and oc it.
~$690 shipped
(~$750 if u go with the x1800xt)

 

[secretanchitman]

i would stick with your current setup, upgrade the video card to a 6600GT/6800GS/X800XL/X800XT, up the ram to 1GB and you should be fine.

intels core 2 duo will come out in the next month or two, so you might want to hold off and wait for that. on a side note, AMD's socket AM2 comes out this tuesday...

edit: i forgot to WELCOME you to the forums!

 

[codylawyer]

Ok I will take a look at it. How much ram would you recommend? I have 512 right now. I am also on a budget I would like to spend less than $400 or $500.

 

[acegazda]

Yes WELCOME and secret... whats all this talk of AM2 and conroe... worth the wait or just wait so that the prices on other stuff will go down?

cody...if youre not doing anything graphic intensive... just upgrade, like u said to 1.5 gb with corsiar valueram.

 

[codylawyer]

I am mainly going to be using it to play games like BF2 and Need for Speed Most Wanted.

 

[acegazda]

i would use your current hard drive and the corsiar valueram. Also... you might not need a dvd burner so that comes out to around $510. Need SLI? The biostar SLi board is probably the cheapest one out there. Decent reviews too.

 

[codylawyer]

I don't really need sli just would like to have the option there.

 

[ExtremeGamer09]

get a X1800 XT..my bro has one and he plays games on the highest settings on all games and it stills runs flawlessly

 

[acegazda]

you ok with switching to amd or do you want to build off your current system u might get by for another couple years with that p4 of yours.

 

[codylawyer]

is the x1800xt agp or pci-e because my current motherboard is agp.

 

[codylawyer]

Originally posted by: acegazda
you ok with switching to amd or do you want to build off your current system u might get by for another couple years with that p4 of yours.

I didnt see any motherboards that have pci-e that support my current processor. Is there any you know of or will agp still be upgradable in the future?

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: ExtremeGamer09
get a X1800 XT..my bro has one and he plays games on the highest settings on all games and it stills runs flawlessly

unfortunately, he cant because his current system runs on AGP...unless he upgrades to that celeron based PCI-E computer.

but codylawyer...how about switching that pci-e rigs' cpu for a intel pentium 4 630/920/930? and maybe even upgrading the video to a 7900GT/X1800XT? that should be good, unless you are on a tight budget.

 

[codylawyer]

My budget pretty tight but i will look into those P4s.

 

[acegazda]

yeah i noticed... its pci-e and if you stick with intel and just up the video card (and probably the psu as well...) you might be better off going with this its a good card for just $140. But AGP kind of limits your options for mid to high end gpus these days...

 

[acegazda]

This is basically the asus a8n-sli for p4s. Check it out.. gr8 value and then you can go with the x1800xt.
I would make the move to pci-e becasue int he near future, games will utelize the 16x pathway that right now, has little advantage over the 8x pathway. Like you said "in the future"...it probably will be obselete.

 

[codylawyer]

Would this processor offer good proformance?
Intel Pentium 4 631 3.0 GhzIntel Pentium 4 631 3.0 GHz

 

[acegazda]

i really believe that switching to amd would help ure gaming and that processer doesnt have a lot on your current one... try this pretty good buy. Need a new MoBo tho... check ou the 1 I mentioned.

 

[codylawyer]

Ok thanks for all the great and quick responses.
I will probably go with this setup:
Pentium 4 631 3.0 Ghz
Asus P5ND2-SLI Motherboard
1Gb of ram
XFX Geforce 6800xt 256 (x1800xt a bit too much for me)

 

[acegazda]

...but the 930 processor i mentioned 4 posts up is almost identical in price and nearly double in performance... whatever its still a good build and you can get the 6800xt for chumps change. What RAM?

 

[codylawyer]

I didn't see that. I will probably get that and the corsair valueram mentioned above.

 

[TheArabian]

well if u play bf2 u really want the best system to get the full taste of the game, but at this point at least upgrade the ram and possibly ur video card. If you can do that w/o upgrading anything else besides maybe the PSU then i would wait to upgrade the rest until after the next few months

 

[acegazda]

good choice, thats not bad system, even by gaming specs, you should be set for a god 4-5 years.
Good luck.