Thinking about upgrading computer

[bladefd]

Hey, I am a gamer and I play all the latest games, such as F.E.A.R, BF2 at low/medium settings. I keep getting question after question every week and I keep posting them on here beacause I can get the most help here from you guys. Anyways, I was thinking about upgrading. I got a few choices - let me list them after I list my current pc specs. I got a Sapphire radeon 9600(not pro) with msi neo platinum edition mobo and athlon64 2800, 640 PC2700 ram..

Choice 1: Buy a 6800 in january and stay with it for 2 years, along with my current cpu/mobo/ram.

Choice 2: Save up and wait until the end of 2006 and upgrade mobo/cpu/videocard when the prices are down for PCI-E supporting videocards/939 cpus. If I do this, I cannot upgrade the videocard or anything right now and I am stuck with my current specs.

Choice 3: Upgrade cpu to the max that my mobo supports and upgrade to X800 at around july of 2006 and stay with that for 2 years.

Choice 4: Look on ebay for a pci-express mobo and get a 939 socket cpu from ebay. I currently got a pci-express card lying around that I bought by mistake(I think its a X300 or something) and compusa refused to take it back.. I can use the same RAM and case and PSU if I do that. I also don't know if x300 is better than my radeon 9600 or not.

I think choice 3 is the worst choice but what is the best choice? If there is some other choice that I am not thinking of right now, let me know. Thanks.

edit: I was really thinking about choice 1. My radeon 9600 might die in 5-6 months - it will be 2 years in feburary so it's an old videocard. Also, with newer games coming out, I don't know how my current videocard will be able to run the newer games coming out. FEAR barely runs on medium settings, with no AA or AF - it's pretty smooth on low settings and 2x AA with nothing else on. The problem with choice 1 is that if i waste 200-250 bucks right now, I will be screwed when I have to upgrade videocard/cpu/mobo at the same time later so I guess choice 2 is the best, thinking ahead into the future.

 

[jc9970]

I'd say Choice 2

 

[cabroker]

I agree...Choice 2.

 

[alimoalem]

well i guess the real question to ask is how much are you willing to spend and how will your budget change between now and july?

 

[Rockhound1]

Boy, that is a tough one. The 9600 non-PRO is killing you. The rest of your system is respectable. I might suggest this alternative - instead of upgrading your video card to a 6800, upgrade it to a 6600GT. Then, in one year, go with choice Number 2. Right now, you can get a 6600GT for around $120 shipped. If you are careful, you can find them for around $100 after MIR. I recently got a PNY 6600GT AGP8X for $99 shipped after MIR for a family member. The 6600GT will give you a huge jump.

 

[bladefd]

 

[bladefd]

Approximately how much will the pci-e mobos/videocards and 939 cpus go down by the end of 2006? Will it go down a lot or is it going to be a very little change(any ideas?)? If the change will be very minimal then I might have to stick with agp for quite a while. If there is such a problem, I will prolly have to buy mobo/cpu and buy an older pci-express card at that time. Perhaps, I might have to buy a combo of mobo/cpu. I really hope the prices drop on today's top of the line cpus/mobos when next generation stuff comes out.

edit: sorry about the double post. my mistake.

 

[arcenite]

Choice 5... Get a job?

 

[bladefd]

Originally posted by: arcenite
Choice 5... Get a job?

not everyone can afford a 1500+ buck computer

 

[thesurge]

Originally posted by: arcenite
Choice 5... Get a job?

Maybe has a job, just doesn't want that much spend money on a computer?

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: thesurge

Originally posted by: arcenite
Choice 5... Get a job?

Maybe has a job, just doesn't want that much spend money on a computer?

I can understand that. The way he implies he has to save up makes me think otherwise, though.

Originally posted by: bladefd

Originally posted by: arcenite
Choice 5... Get a job?

not everyone can afford a 1500+ buck computer

Quite honestly, neither can I But I believe I have a sickness. Hell, look at the rig in my sig. Recently within the past week I just bought the AX500, raptor, 7800gt, second monitor, and I have an Opteron 165 on the way.

 

[bladefd]

I was reading the threads in this forums and I saw that someone bought an Asrock 939 ULi and a 939 venice cpu. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813157081 . I could buy those two things like next week and use my current videocard. Afterwards, I can buy a PCI-Express videocard in 4-5 months. I can also get an opteron cpu later on.. How does that sound? any objections? If so, let me know the reasons.

 

[Nick5324]

Originally posted by: Rockhound1
Boy, that is a tough one. The 9600 non-PRO is killing you. The rest of your system is respectable. I might suggest this alternative - instead of upgrading your video card to a 6800, upgrade it to a 6600GT. Then, in one year, go with choice Number 2. Right now, you can get a 6600GT for around $120 shipped. If you are careful, you can find them for around $100 after MIR. I recently got a PNY 6600GT AGP8X for $99 shipped after MIR for a family member. The 6600GT will give you a huge jump.

I think this is a good choice :thumbsup:

 

[bladefd]

Before I jump on any boat, I got a last minute question. I currently got an Athlon64 2800, MSI K8N Neo platinum edition mobo and a 9600-nonpro videocard along with 640 MB of PC2700 ram. Is there any way I can make any money from that if I sell it on ebay or something? If I can make even 250-300 bucks, my budget would increase to about $600-650 budget that I can use. The cpu and mobo are 10 months old and the videocard is a little less than 2 years old - The ram is about 1.5 years old. If needed, I got a X300 pci-express card - I can put it in as well if I can get the extra money from that. If I put it on ebay or something, around how much money would I make? I currenly got a 350 buck budget that I can willing to spend on a mobo/cpu/videocard upgrade(which is not much). Any ideas?

 

[Bozono]

If I were you I'd eBay the 2 video cards and maybe the ram, and then just go buy an AGP 6800gs and a gig of PC3200. You could do all that for $300 or thereabouts. Then just overclock the CPU and you got a fairly decent PC again.

 

[bladefd]

Originally posted by: Bozono
If I were you I'd eBay the 2 video cards and maybe the ram, and then just go buy an AGP 6800gs and a gig of PC3200. You could do all that for $300 or thereabouts. Then just overclock the CPU and you got a fairly decent PC again.

I definately want to go the socket 939 path though for future upgradibility. Let me just retype the option that I am currenly thinking of so you guys don't have to read everything that I typed above. I will raise my budget from 300 to about 400 max. I can spend approximately 100 bucks on a mobo, 150 or so for opteron 144 and about 100-120 for videocard(well, 150 buck videocard but I can get discount from it if I buy it from compusa. I got a 30 buck gift-card for compusa) OR I can get the Asrock with an opteron 144 and keep my current 9600 - after 4-5 months I can get a 250 buck PCI-Express videocard.

edit: I only need to upgrade the mobo/videocard/cpu. I don't really need to upgrade anything else with the 400 bucks unless if you guys say that 450 watts is not enough power then I will upgrade the psu as well. I might not even need to sell anything and maybe pass my current mobo/cpu to someone else who needs it.