Need Advice on an aging system!!...HELP!!

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Dadamac67

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#1 Dadamac67
Member since 2002 • 54 Posts

For the last 4 years I have been running a self built system with an Athlon 64 3200 CPU, a MSI K8N Neo Platinium MOBO (Socket 754), 1.5 GBs of Corsair PC 3200 RAM, an XFX GeForce 6800GT AGP vid card, WD Caviar 80 GB SATA HD, Augigy 2 sound card, Aerocool 450 Watt PSU and windows XP SP2........its ran just beautifully all these years........stock......and until last week when I lost my decent paying job, I was gunna build a whole new system, until my a$$*#$% of a boss ruined all that and all my other plans when he gave MY job to his out of work friend!!.....I had all my parts picked out....now I'm unemployed...possibly for some time...So...needless to say..I'm on a fixed budget.....have some money saved...but....need to conserve most of it....I wanna keep this system alive and kicking for the next 6 mos?...to a year?....but not spend more than $300 to $400 to do it......I wanna play some games that have come out in he past few months that don't run all that well on my current set-up....namely...CRYSIS (downloaded the demo...had to run it on low settings, it was playable but looked like crap!), COD4 (same deal....altho the framerate was much better), BIOSHOCK (Demo ran surprisingly well...on lower settings...decent framerate....but not good enough where I wanted to buy it) and when it's released STALKER:Clear Sky (STALKER:SOC runs Great on my system!...most settings on medium to high)...altho the new STALKER game has a beefed up engine and may struggle a bit. I was thinking of upgrading my vid card to a faster AGP card.....like a Radeon 2400-2600 or higher....or a GeForce 7300-7600....I could do that for $100 .....then I was thinking....of upgrading my CPU as well to an Athlon 64 3700.....400MHz faster....get a little boost there as well....I can get 1 of those for less than $200....throw in a bigger HD and maybe a bigger PSU for $50-$100.....and hopefully crysis,COD4 etc.....will be playable and look a little better?...good enough for me until I'm working again and can build a new system.....$300-400 is all I can spend for now...So my question is...would this make a difference?....would i see an improvement to make spending the dough worthwhile?.....I'd be happy with a 30% or so improvement.....or am I just throwing that money away?........I really dont want to upgrade the type of MOBO I have (Socket 754)...because then I have to upgrade the RAM.....too....AND the vid card...AND the CPU...and thats too much..I'd appreciate any advice.....sorry to be so long winded...but wanted to include as many details as I could...Tahnks!

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IamGrunt

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#2 IamGrunt
Member since 2006 • 239 Posts

I tried reading but its like a torture to the eyes man.

GL whoever helps this guy.

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X360PS3AMD05

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#3 X360PS3AMD05
Member since 2005 • 36320 Posts
I would just OC it and get a new video card.
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beefdog

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#4 beefdog
Member since 2004 • 9185 Posts

This video card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161225

This hdd- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148294

And if you really want a new psu get a corsair 450 watt. That leaves u with enough to get a decent heatsink to just overclock your cpu.

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andyroo08

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#5 andyroo08
Member since 2004 • 2082 Posts
It would be a waste of money upgrading that system.....especially the CPU to a 3700+ when a little overclock would be do the same thing.....the best option for you is to sell it all on ebay......and build a new system......you can build a decent machine for around $600-700.......
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Skat137321

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#6 Skat137321
Member since 2005 • 256 Posts
Here's a list of things to get: E8400, MSI P35NEO2-FR, a pair 2x2GB DDR2-800 Mushkin or Corsair and for a video card ATi HD4850 or Nvidia 8800GT. I don't really know the prices in the country you are in but try to sell you current CPU,MB, GPU and RAM and with the money you have saved plus the money you will get should cover the upgrade. There is no point in investing any money in what you have atm, it's a dead platform.
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Dadamac67

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#7 Dadamac67
Member since 2002 • 54 Posts
thanks for your constructive reply Grunt
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jjj13

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#8 jjj13
Member since 2005 • 2399 Posts

I don't think you can get too much out of that mobo. You would need to redo a lot of it to get a decent system. However you want to make it last 6 months you would just need a better gfx card since htat is the only thing that is worth an upgrade with your system.

This card is the best AGP card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730

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Dadamac67

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#9 Dadamac67
Member since 2002 • 54 Posts
Thanks on the advice so far...I checked Ebay to see what i might get for my hardware....and all together I'd get less than $100 if i sold it all....also....noone was bidding on any of my type of hardware that was up for auction...not a single bid!..So..i think selling it is not really an option......I'm leaning with getting a faster vid card...and getting the faster CPU..and then overclocking it!.....upgrading everything right now would cost too much.
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Dadamac67

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#10 Dadamac67
Member since 2002 • 54 Posts
thanks JJJ13..that card looks pretty good!....nice reviews on newegg for it....looks like a winner!