Upgrade path for a 2 year old system

[afoygel]

I have the following system:

eVGA 133-K8-NF41-AX sli Motherboard
Amd 3200+ venice core socket 939 CPU
eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256 ddr3 VGA
2x 1gb OCZ Value Series 1GB pc3200 ram
19" lcd with vga connector
raidmax 450w PSU
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

I'm thinking about making some inexpensive upgrades. I do a lot of office type work, multitasking, occasional adobe cs use, I'm on my computer a lot. I also do some Battlefield 2, and might play other games in the future. Here are some possibilties:

An extra gig of ram for $50, not sure it'll make a difference or not.
A new CPU, some options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103053
A new GFX card, a 8600gts, or a x1950 pro or gt
A better PSU (I'd like to keep my computer fairly energy efficient and not waste too much electricity)
A faster HD? Not sure if that would speed up my system.

Any bang for the buck suggestions?

 

[themisfit610]

I basically had the same system.

Get a dual core 939. They're stupid cheap. Maybe even an Opty.

This will make a huge difference for content creation stuff. Getting up to 3gb won't make too much difference. I went from 1 to 2 recently and that helped me a lot, but you have 2 already.

Get the X2 / Opteron.

~MiSfit

 

[afoygel]

These are all the processors still available for my socket:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...707439&name=Socket+939

I don't know much about Opterons other than that they are for servers, and I haven't been able to find any benchmark comparisons for them. Maybe there are faster socket 939 chips available somewhere else...

 

[themisfit610]

Opteron's aren't "For servers". They're cherry picked Athlon64's (or X2s) with extra cache that are run at lower voltage and multiplier settings than normal to maximize stability. They overclock like mad and are clock per clock a bit faster than your vanilla 64 / X2. They're a great value!

Don't put a lot of money into a DDR1 / 939 platform. It's very much outdated. Grab a cheap dually for now, or save up for a LGA775 / AM2 platform, depending on where your loyalties / pocketbook lies 😉

~MiSfit

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

I had the same system as you. Got a dual 3800+ OC to 4200+ levels. Pumped it up to 2GB and now im looking at a video card. Seems like an entire new system to me!

I use it for a HTPC, so I got a corsair HX520 PSU, a fanless CPU cooler and a WD500GB silent drive. Love it.