Help with upgrade path

[soccermatt34]

Hiya all!

Im looking to upgrade my computer over the next few months (no immediate hurry) to a conroe system. I have about $600-800 to spend in all. My biggest priority is a video card to power my new 24" LCD at 1920x1200 (for some gaming - CSS mostly, and general computing). After that, Im pretty much open to suggestions as to which direction I take. My current rig is about 3 years old with a P4 3.4ghz, 2gigs DDR2-667, DFI-925X -T2 mobo (not conroe compatible i believe), nVidia 5900 graphics card, Audigy 2 soundcard, Logitech 5.1 speakers, and plenty of HDDs to go around.

Im thinking of grabbing a conroe (6400 maybe?) but Im really not sure where to start.

Any suggestions for me?

Thanks!

 

[BB Gun]

Budget?

 

[soccermatt34]

$600-800

 

[engiNURD]

Use your current RAM:
$320 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz
$135 - GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$390 - PNY VCG88GTSXPB GeForce 8800GTS 640MB w/HDCP ($410 - $20MIR)

If thats over your budget, drop to an E6400 or wait a month until the E6600 drops to $225:
http://dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5414

 

[BB Gun]

whoops on budget request. Dunno how I missed it in your first post.

Anyway....

Sounds like you need only the mobo, vid card and processor, though if you want to OC, you might want some faster RAM, too.

Enginurd gives good advice. If you wait those couple months, you should be able to throw some higher speed RAM in there as well.

BB

 

[soccermatt34]

Thanks for your help so far

I just have one last question...

Im looking to get a 8800GTS but would my P4 be too much of a bottleneck on this? Should i upgrade to a c2d first and wait on a video card for a few months?

 

[engiNURD]

yes... yes