Which upgrade will give the best results?

[bimbs]

Howdy,

My computer is slowly dying and I'm trying to decide which parts will give me the most noticeable increase in performance. I am a casual gamer and video/music editor.

My current specs:
AMD Opteron 1.8hz overclocked to 2.4hz (single core)
Epox PCI-E mobo (socket 939)
2 GB Ram (I cant remember if its DDR2)
ATI x800
-------------------------------------------------

My hard drive is dying so I will definetly be getting a new one -- I'm leaning towards a 150GB raptor? Should I look into buying a scsi or raid 0 setup? (I have my main HD and two 250GB drives for storage and scratch disks)

I'm also concerced about noise levels so I was going to upgrade to an Antec Solo (I hear these are the best for quite cases?) and a Seasonic 330 PSU.

My current case is about 7 years old and I have to turn on and off the power about 15 times before the damn computer will turn on.

Also, in terms of my video card, is it worth upgrading now or are better things coming on the horizon?

Any help / info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[SZLiao214]

Is it the gaming part that you care about or the video/music editor? What type of games do you play?

 

[bimbs]

I'd say I care about both aspects. I play games like CoH, Civ4, NWN 2, oblivion...pretty graphically intense games. I'm just not a powergamer or power editor...make any sense?

 

[w00t]

gaming is gpu dependent so getting a video card upgrade would help most in gaming
I would say No on the HD upgrade to a raptor 150GB IMO they don't offer a big enough performance increase for how much they cost you can get a large drive that is a little bit slower for cheaper.
Your ram is probably DDR btw

I have the Antec Solo I like it alot mines very quiet

If I were you I would probably get a HD for a good deal with large storage and either fix your power button on your current case or buy a new case. What monitor do you have? I know my X800XL couldn't keep up anymore @ 1680x1050 in newer games.

 

[bimbs]

Im running a dell 21in widesceen @ 1680x1050 (forget the model number).

It seems that to upgrade from the x800, I'll have to shell out some cash...is there anything affordable to upgrade to or would I be spending 300 bucks?

Thanks.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: bimbs
Im running a dell 21in widesceen @ 1680x1050 (forget the model number).

It seems that to upgrade from the x800, I'll have to shell out some cash...is there anything affordable to upgrade to or would I be spending 300 bucks?

Thanks.

I think you mean 20.1 so it's probably a 2005FPW? like mine

umm ya your probably getting low frames running at native res with your X800 if you feel it's getting slow in that area than put a new video card in it. I bought my X1900XT for 289.99 after mail in rebate :-D Do you have warranty on your HD still?

 

[benplaut]

is that a AGP or PCI-E board?