Thinking of Upgrading.

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Casper312

[H]ard|Gawd
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So ived had my rig since Mid 2006, Im just 17. So my Budget is kinda Tight sometimes, Meaning working offtimes, School, etc. Well basically, I was wondering how my rig will do for my needs, my needs are basically playing Any game With Mid Settings @ 1280x1024. Everything higher is mehish to me. My rig is as follows, Ived been upgrading slowly since i got the rig in 06.

Amd Athlon 3800x2 @ Stock Speeds- Thermaltake CL-P0114
Gigabyte Ga-K8n-Sli
3G Ram 2Gb+512Mbx2 @ 2.5-2-2-6-7 2T Dual channel
Western Digital EIDE 250g 8Mb Cache/100 Mb/s
XFX 8600Gt XXX Edition 256Mb @ 700Mhz 1800Mhz- Zulman Fs-V7 2
Ocz StealthXStream 600W
Sound Blaster Audigy2zs

So how much more will this rig take with the new games in the future coming? I was thinking of Upgrading Mobo+Ram+Cpu and Upgrade to a Better Video Card later down the road, but like i said, I dont plan to play at higher Resolutions than 1280x1024. Any Suggestions? I was looking at upgrading just my cpu to be a quick fix. The thing is, 939 stuff is overpriced and it costs 120+ to find a better Cpu. Im sure i can overclock it a bit, But i have no idea how to. I have tried to in the past but my Motherboard has this thing to ''Skip Over Cpu Freq'' thing and i just gave up on it. If anyone has had this Mobo before and Can tell me what i need to do, Ill Appreciate it.
 
If you want our help with recommendations, we need to know what your budget is and which games you're planning to play. (Other considerations, like whether or not you're going to overclock this new system, would help immensely. Better yet....

You may be able to prolong the (eventual) upgrading a bit by going with a better video card. You could find either the 9600GT or the 8800GT, both of which would play games well at your current resolution, for around $95-$150. If you aren't going to upgrade the monitor any time soon, you could transfer the new video card over to your new build.
 
Im pretty much into Fps Games and some Rts, The major reason im thinking of upgrading, is cause of worries that my cpu will bottleneck any future upgrades i might get.

I was actually thinking of upgrading to a Evga 9800GTX

To be more Specific so people can help me.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
-Pc gaming, Web Browsing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
- I can prob afford around $250-350 for upgrades.
3) Where do you live?
-Chicago
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
- I plan or wish to upgrade Mobo/Cpu/Ram and Video Card later down the road.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
- Like i said on the above post, Just planning or deciding over getting a more up to date Mobo/Cpu/Ram
6) Will you be overclocking?
- Once i can learn more about it and how to do it, without screwing anything up, Sure.
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
- 19 Inc Lcd Max rez of 1280x1024
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
-Hopefully in less than a month
 
If you get the 9800GTX, the X2 3800 will be a huge bottleneck. My old X2 3800 bottlenecked my 8800GT.

 
With $350, you can easily get a GPU, CPU, RAM and mobo upgrade:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 CPU - $120
Gigabyte GA-EG31M-S2 Intel G31 mATX Motherboard - $53
G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $60
PNY VCG98512GXEB GeForce 9800 GT 512MB PCI-E Video Card - $120
---
Total: $353 plus tax and shipping

The 9800GT is more than enough for many games at 1280x1024. The E7200 is a big jump over your current CPU in games. While you will only be able to use about 3GB to 3.5GB of that 4GB of RAM due to 32bit OS limitations, 4GB of RAM is dirt cheap and more RAM rarely hurts.
 
Hold off on CPU. Just go for a 4670 and get a CPU upgrade perhaps next year. (Yes, the 4670 is more than enough, certainly a better midrange card than the 8600 ever was)

Do not upgrade your CPU because you think it will bottleneck a video card later. A video card is still going to give you the most improvement of anything you can do. A later CPU upgrade will just help even more.
 
Danny Bui said:
With $350, you can easily get a GPU, CPU, RAM and mobo upgrade:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 CPU - $120
Gigabyte GA-EG31M-S2 Intel G31 mATX Motherboard - $53
G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $60
PNY VCG98512GXEB GeForce 9800 GT 512MB PCI-E Video Card - $120
---
Total: $353 plus tax and shipping

The 9800GT is more than enough for many games at 1280x1024. The E7200 is a big jump over your current CPU in games. While you will only be able to use about 3GB to 3.5GB of that 4GB of RAM due to 32bit OS limitations, 4GB of RAM is dirt cheap and more RAM rarely hurts.
Click to expand...

What if i skip the video card for now? What good Cpu/Ram/Mobo combo can i get for around $300-350, I can prob get a decent/high end video card late December.
 
Do you need to buy a os also?If so then that comes into play around $100 of your budget.
Get what danny bui reccommended.I am thinking of doing what he suggested for you this january.

I am running a 64x2 5000+ stock gateway pc with 2gog ram,320gig hd and with a 8800gt I got good framerates.I sold the 8800gt and am about to get a hd4850.

In january I am going to go for the system upgrade.I need ram,cpu,mobo,case and os so my build price will be more then yours.Mine is around $500 but I will already have my video card,a HDD,dvd drive and psu
 
see with danny bui suggested comes up to $407 for me without the video card but with a rc 690 case and a os.Thanks danny bui
 
dandragonrage said:
Do not upgrade your CPU because you think it will bottleneck a video card later. A video card is still going to give you the most improvement of anything you can do. A later CPU upgrade will just help even more.
Click to expand...

I agree. If your system can handle what you do now, then no need for an upgrade just yet.
 
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