Best upgrade for stepdads comp?? Help me decide!

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Davenow

Gawd
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Messages
955
Ok so his main thing is Microsoft flight simulator. (the newest version, whatever that is).
He also plays battlefield vietnam a bit. He only has a 17" monitor, and never plays at anything over 1024x768. His upgrade budget is VERY limited to say the least, this machine is already 90% my handmedowns to get it where it is now. It started as a Duron 850, then1100, then xp2000.

His current setup (the important stuff)

Athlon XP2100+
384 megs DDR (1x256, 1x128)
Geforce4 ti4400 128ddr
SBlive


Aside from the obvious bump to 512megs of ram (I can scrounge another 128 stick, but thats all I got) which would be a better bump for him?
New mb/proccy (I was thinking XP 2600+ "barton" as its got double the cache and a 333fsb as opposed to his 266fsb)
OR
New video card. Nothing super high end, maybe a GF5200 or 5700 if I can find a good deal on one. Or like a Radeon 9600pro. Something in the right around $100 range.

Which way should I go?
 
I'd lean towards video card + RAM, perhaps another 17" for dual monitor action in the flight sim.
 
Go for the video card and bump the ram up to 512mb. The processor is powerful enough to play both those games. If he plays Battlefield Vietnam alot go with a GeForce because I think that game is designed to run with it.
 
Ok what geforce would be a good, but cheap upgrade to his ti4400?


I guess I should post that question in the vid card forum...

I found him a 512 stick DIRT cheap (bought it with beer from a buddy lol)
So he will now have 768mb. Too bad his mb only has 2 slots. I could have gotten him up to a gig total.
 
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