Upgrade order

[lifeblood]

I am trying to decide what item should be upgraded next. MB/RAM/CPU, video card, monitor, hard drive, etc. My rig is:

Athlon 64 X2 3800, 2 GB PC3200 RAM
GeForse 6600 GT
Three 80 GB PATA drives*
NEC MultiSync 1700m+ 17" LCD display
Sony DVD RW

* I have 3 swappable drives (1x wife, 1x work, 1x game) in removable caddy's. If I decide to replace them with SATA I must buy all three simultaniously plus SATA capable caddy's to put them in.

I haven't decided what I will replace them with yet, I'm just trying to decide what to replace first (ie, what will give me the biggest bang for the buck). I do office productivity (Vista/Office07), games, and GIS (ArcView, etc). Anyone have any sugestions for the order in which I upgrade?

 

[DSF]

I suppose your question depends on what your current computer isn't doing for you that you want it to do. If you're looking for more gaming performance, the culprit is most likely the video card.

By the way...your post says 2GB of DDR400, but your sig says 2x512, which would be 1GB. Which is it? If you only have 1 GB of RAM, that might be the spot to upgrade, depending on what your memory usage looks like.

 

[lifeblood]

Your right, I added a 2nd GB of RAM when I went to Vista. All slots are full now at 4x512mb. Time to update my sig. I guess my priority is games as I'm not having issues running my work apps.

 

[Denithor]

If your priority is gaming, video card will give the most response for your money. Based on the fact you are gaming on a 17" monitor you are running fairly low resolution (probably 1024x768 or at 1280x1024 at most) so a Radeon HD 3850 (around $165) will probably suit you very well.

See if you can OC your 3800+ to get a bit more performance out of it, at stock speeds it won't push even a 3850 to full potential.

Your second update, if that doesn't give you the performance you want, would be a C2D cpu/motherboard and 2GB DDR2 (total upgrade, in other words). However, you may be perfectly satisfied with your current rig after replacing your 6600GT with a 3850.

Two things to consider. You might want to get an LCD monitor (19" models can be found for $150 or less these days, I got a Westinghouse at BB last week for $130 + tax). As long as you keep it to 19" or below a 3850 will be excellent and do the job perfectly. If you go to a 22" or 24" with higher resolution you are going to want a 3870 or 8800GT and you will also definitely need more processor power to push those cards.

The same cards may be a better choice if you decide a full upgrade is in your immediate future.