To Upgrade or not?

[Hobbs28]

I have a Pentium IV 2.8 with 2 gigs ram and a Nvidia Geforce 5200. I use my computer for a small ebay Business, and to play world of warcraft. I would also like to start storing my familys home videos and maybe doing some video editing on the movies. I have a Samsung 930b monitor which I will be keeping if I upgrade the Computer.

Do I upgrade to a higher end C2D with a 8800GTS with 2 gigs of ram or go with an E4300 with a mid range video card?

I really dont want to OC but I have someone that I can have help me with it if its seems the best option. I would like to have it last me a year at least before I get the itch to upgrade. I have around 1000 to spend but that doesnt mean I want to spend it if you know what I mean.


Also will I see a huge upgrade with either of these options?

Thanks

 

[The Green Bean]

E4300 + 2 Gigs of RAM + 7900GS/7600GT = 200% performance gain atleast.

 

[catalysts17az]

I agree with the Green Bean. the E4300 with the 790Gs (i have the BFG version of the 7900, damn good card) but you must pay attention to the motherboard. The mobo will cost you though, but the motherboard allows you to overclock the hell out of the 4300 to "almost" X6800 speeds. here is the mobo everyone enthusiast wants or has. here is the link too it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009
costly and now for the ram, these are my choices though feel free to ask around or read some reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231065
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145168
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220144
also everyone is talking about the "wow" factor in Vista, i'm staying away from it because Vista is really big on DRM. DRM has really gotten sticky and stupid, but thats my opinion. also im a GSkill fan when it comes to RAM, and i have been burned by OCZ. well thats my two cents.

 

[Hobbs28]

Well this is what i came up with any suggestions would be great.


COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card

SeaSonic S12-430 ATX12V 430W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, DEMCO, NEMCO, SEMCO, FIMCO, CB, FCC, CCC

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

BUFFALO Firestix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

NEC Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE / ATAPI DVD Burner

Thanks
Steve

 

[razor2025]

The G.skill set that catalysts17az listed has Micron D9 which is sought after for OC ability. However, you really don't need super-RAM for E4300. A DDR2-667 memory lets you move up to 3ghz (9x333) for your E4300. You easily find good set of DDR2-667 for $150 for 2GB kits.