What to upgrade?

[klurg]

Heyho, this is my pretty old build:

nforce 2 ultra main-board
Athlon XP 3200+
512mb pc3200 ram
Club3d radeon 9600pro 128mb
Soundblaster Audigy 2

Now, if I should buy only one thing for this sytem what would you think I'd benefit most from upgrading? It'd be great if I could run games like BF2 and AOE III with some higher settings. I know BF2 need lots of ram but my graphics card isn't all that good either. =/ (or am I overly optimistic and should just wait and get a new computer?)

 

[Bonesdad]

if you were going to invest, I'd invest in memory...at least you can port it over to a new PC when you decide to upgrade enmass. A new vid card would only hold you for the life of that NF2 board...then you will have to upgrade it again...

how much $$ you got?

 

[chilled]

A 6600GT or better AGP card would be good. There's life in the old dog yet.

I guess it depends on when you can actually afford a new PC.

 

[halw]

More ram. The best bang for the buck if you are doing only one upgrade and you're not maxed out on memory.

 

[crownjules]

I have almost the exact setup that you do and I just upgraded to a full gig of RAM. The performance difference was tremendous. So I say get a full gig of RAM.

 

[ashakar]

all depends on how much $$ you want to spend on your upgrade. gotta give us some limits.

 

[klurg]

well I'm not from US and don't know the currency values right now but not more than $160 I guess.. I think it leans towards more ram though. I might be able to get a used 9800pro or something for not too much to go with it (it'd have to be real cheap ofcourse).

 

[NYTRIDR]

u need at least a gig to run bf2 on any reasonable level. id also spring for an nvidia 6600GT or 6800 whatever you can get your hands on.

 

[uo7]

The difference between 2 gigs and 1 gig is huge in BF-2. Fast loads, 0 stutter, alt-tab without probs the list goes on. The starting load and stuttering I had with 512 megs and 1 gig drove me nuts. 2x1gb is the way to go and it's pretty cheap now. Upgrading the vid card will depend on when you plan on upgrading the rest.

 

[pkrush]

I'd get an extra 512 megs of ram and a 6600gt for around 160 (might be a little more).

 

[klurg]

1024 ram is on it's way . I have another question though. I think I'm gonna get a really cheap sapphire x800gt 256mb. It's just that it doesn't say anywhere what kind of psu you would need for this card. As for now, I only got a 300w psu. Does anyone know if that would be sufficient?

 

[Asthmaboy]

DEFINITELY upgrade the PSU ASAP.
CPU should be fine, I just got a Venice and it's awesome.

 

[Rockhound1]

Originally posted by: Asthmaboy
DEFINITELY upgrade the PSU ASAP.
CPU should be fine, I just got a Venice and it's awesome.

I don't think there was a question regarding the PSU??

Anyway, to play the games you specified in your initial post, you will need to add another 512 MB of RAM (at least) and you would do well to add a used 9800 PRO or a 6600GT.

Good luck!