What would be the biggest upgrade?

So around christmas time last year I buildt a computer with upgrading in mind. It was fairly cheap around $200-$300 machine.. I got good christmas deals.

Anyways, I'm looking to upgrade a little. Nothing HUGE or anything. I'm looking to play newer games with decent graphics and frame rates... Anyways.. here is my set up.

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) x2

GeForce 7300LE 128MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card

MSI K9VGM-V AM2 VIA K8M890 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Orleans 2.0GHz Socket AM2 59W Single-Core

Rosewill R6423 SL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case+350W Power Supply

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive

Now I have a 200 gig Sata harddrive sitting in a box under by bed so don't laugh at my little HD, I'm just lazy. Anyways I'm thinking the biggest upgrade would be the video card.. But I'm not quite sure, is my processor "good enough" I don't care if its top of the line, but good enough is fine. but.... I don't want a huge bottle neck.

I know a few of you are the type that think if it didn't come out yesterday then its pure junk, please... keep that to yourself. I don't want the best of the best... just enough to do a decent job.

EDIT: I'm looking to spend around 100-150 bucks.. so keep that in mind. I'm a poor college student so most of my pay check need to go to the bank.

I'd say get this evga 8600gt and this amd X2 4200+. Comes to $139, $89 after MIR. That's prolly the best upgrades you can do with your budget, also without having to get a new PSU. You'll be able to play most recent games reasonably well.

Thank you. This was my very first self-built PC. So I picked out fairly cheap stuff to start with. Which wasn't a bad idea...

So, if I wanted to upgrade any more will I have to get a new PSU? I remember in the past I had PSU problems with dells and gateway computers.. So that fear is always in the back of my head... I don't want to be left waiting on a new PSU to come to my door step while I have no computer to waste time on.

Will this upgrade be a good one? I know in its current state I play alot of World of Warcraft, Team fortress 2, CS: S and I get some lag on TF2 and CS:S, and in warcraft my frame rate drop REALLY low in raids with medium settings.

Now, I do have more money then 150ish... but I also want to buy a new monitor.. I have this huge CRT that is almost 8 years old. I'm thinking a new LCD screen for another 150ish.

I would rather get a good GPU first, your system has plenty of life as its AM2. So invest in a good GPU, say a 9600 GT or HD3870, and then when you can, get an X2 4200Egghead360

I'm not going to pretend I know very much about computer parts.. But will having a lower end Processor hold down a high end cards ability if I go that route? I know I was told before processing power isn't really as important in gaming.

Any graphics card that requires an 8-pin PCI-e connector (like the HD3850/HD3870, 9600GT, 8800GS, 8800GT, etc.) is going to require a new power supply as well. A bit step up graphically isn't an option given your power supply.

The processor could use an upgrade as well, but AM2 isn't going anywhere for a while. I'd hold off on it for the moment.

To be quite honest with you, I'd say stick with the CRT screen for right now, and spend around $250 on a new power supply and graphics card. CRT screens offer great response times (they're so fast that response time isn't even measured) and exceptional color reproduction. They take up a lot of space and have their own little issues, but I'd stick with the CRT until you get the rest of that rig up to snuff.

$250 will get you a Corsair VX550w power supply along with a very nice medium-high end card like the 9600GT. Save the other $50 for a while, and when you get another $150 or so on top of that, you can pick up a new screen and monitor.

Sure upgrade the psu and gpu firs imo that is what you should do cause you keep on saying you would like to play games at a decent level and you have a limited amount of money at the moment and so you have to make a dission on if you want a better processor orand gpu or a lcd and something else like that.

If all your monitor is is bulky and just plain ugly but yet it works then you should imo go for the processor or the psu and gpu for now and then worrie about the rest later.

How does this look..

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Car

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor

Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB ATX V2.2 500W Power Suppl

After the MIR is just over 220 bucks... Which I was planning on spending almost 300 on LCD + Upgrades... For the Video card I don't think my Motherboard will support anything higher.. I'm not sure but I don't think it has a PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot.

After I upgrade how would you guys rate my PC, does anything really need big improving? Is that PSU a high enough voltage?

PCI-e 2.0 is backwards-compatible with PCI-e 1.1. You can go ahead and spring for a 9600GT or even 8800GT (or HD3870 if ATI tickles your fancy). The power supply is...mediocre, but will probably be okay.

And if your'e talking about your PC after those upgrades...well, the processor could probably use a bit of a kick. Maybe wait for some Tri-core Phenoms, or save up for a higher-clocked dual-core chip?

[QUOTE="Egghead360"]I would rather get a good GPU first, your system has plenty of life as its AM2. So invest in a good GPU, say a 9600 GT or HD3870, and then when you can, get an X2 4200SinfulPotato

I'm not going to pretend I know very much about computer parts.. But will having a lower end Processor hold down a high end cards ability if I go that route? I know I was told before processing power isn't really as important in gaming.

Regardless, go ahead and get a 9600 GT/HD 3870 and youll be fine, youll lose a tiny bit of performance, but as somebody has said, youre going to absolutely need a new PSU

Right now I'm torn between.

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

And

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Not sure which will be better for me. Considering I don't have a PCI-e 2.0 x16. Just a normal PCI-e x16... Don't know if that will effect performance. And besides the ram on the card they look the same.

Right now I'm torn between.

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

And

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Not sure which will be better for me. Considering I don't have a PCI-e 2.0 x16. Just a normal PCI-e x16... Don't know if that will effect performance. And besides the ram on the card they look the same.

SinfulPotato

Right now I'm torn between.

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

And

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Not sure which will be better for me. Considering I don't have a PCI-e 2.0 x16. Just a normal PCI-e x16... Don't know if that will effect performance. And besides the ram on the card they look the same.

SinfulPotato

In my opinion anything less then the 9600gt is not worth the upgrade. At $150 the 9600gt is an amazing card that will give you a huge performance increase and is quite a bit better then the 8800gts 320mb. Don't worry about pci-e 2.0, it is backwards compatible and will work fine with your motherboard.

I would take 9600gt, the PSU you listed, and the CPU you listed before upgrading the monitor. I still use a my viewsonic G90fb CRT and see absolutely no reason to upgrade it. Besides the size (I never move it anyway) there is nothing wrong with it. Not only that, but if you have a decent CRT it will most likely be better then a $150 LCD.

In my opinion anything less then the 9600gt is not worth the upgrade. At $150 the 9600gt is an amazing card that will give you a huge performance increase and is quite a bit better then the 8800gts 320mb. Don't worry about pci-e 2.0, it is backwards compatible and will work fine with your motherboard.

I would take 9600gt, the PSU you listed, and the CPU you listed before upgrading the monitor. I still use a my viewsonic G90fb CRT and see absolutely no reason to upgrade it. Besides the size (I never move it anyway) there is nothing wrong with it. Not only that, but if you have a decent CRT it will most likely be better then a $150 LCD.

andyjl

Thank you! I think I will go this route! :)

One final question, how long do you guys think this build will last in todays gaming world. I don't think I'll be upgrading it again. I'll just build a new PC in the future... Do you think it will last maybe a year or a year and a half before it has a hard time handling new games? (Keep in mind i have a 200gig sata drive that I have yet to install, I'm to lazy to install things like WoW again.)

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core

Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB ATX V2.2 500W Power Supply

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) x2

MSI K9VGM-V AM2 VIA K8M890 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive

Also, can someone who is more experienced check things over and make sure this all works together well? Also.. I may have forgotten to say.. I use Win XP.. Although I can buy Vista for like 30 bucks from my school.

EDIT: Also anyone want to recoment a good game to go along with this upgrade? I only have the orange box, CS:S, and WoW.

[QUOTE="andyjl"]In my opinion anything less then the 9600gt is not worth the upgrade. At $150 the 9600gt is an amazing card that will give you a huge performance increase and is quite a bit better then the 8800gts 320mb. Don't worry about pci-e 2.0, it is backwards compatible and will work fine with your motherboard.

I would take 9600gt, the PSU you listed, and the CPU you listed before upgrading the monitor. I still use a my viewsonic G90fb CRT and see absolutely no reason to upgrade it. Besides the size (I never move it anyway) there is nothing wrong with it. Not only that, but if you have a decent CRT it will most likely be better then a $150 LCD.

SinfulPotato

Thank you! I think I will go this route! :)

One final question, how long do you guys think this build will last in todays gaming world. I don't think I'll be upgrading it again. I'll just build a new PC in the future... Do you think it will last maybe a year or a year and a half before it has a hard time handling new games? (Keep in mind i have a 200gig sata drive that I have yet to install, I'm to lazy to install things like WoW again.)

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Brisbane 2.2GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core

Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2DB ATX V2.2 500W Power Supply

Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) x2

MSI K9VGM-V AM2 VIA K8M890 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive

Also, can someone who is more experienced check things over and make sure this all works together well? Also.. I may have forgotten to say.. I use Win XP.. Although I can buy Vista for like 30 bucks from my school.

EDIT: Also anyone want to recoment a good game to go along with this upgrade? I only have the orange box, CS:S, and WoW.

That build should last 2 years solid, and if you think youre falling behind, theres isnt a reason as AM2 has got Quads on it so its not a problem