Time to Upgrade?

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BoostedCruiser

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Oct 6, 2005
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Thought I would make this post and get some advice on whether to stick with my current system and upgrade the video card or should I build a new system. My current system has the following specs...

Dell Dimension 4600

Processor- Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz with 800mhz FSB
Ram- 1 GB of PC2700 DDR
Main HD- Maxtor 6Y200P0 200gb 7200 RPM with 8mb Cache
Secondary HD- Maxtor 40gb 7200 RPM
Video Card- ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
Sound Card- Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2
Drives- Standard CD-Rom and a Sony CDRW

So my question to you guys is do I build a new system or upgrade what I have now? Currently this system runs great but the newest games like Half-Life 2, CS:S, DOD:S, and Battlefield 2 dont run as good as I would like them to. Would it be safe to say I need to atleast upgrade my video card? I think for the moment I would like to stay with what I have and get a new system later on down the line.

What do you reccomend? If I should upgrade what I have, list some parts that would make this thing run better in the games listed.


Thanks!
 
Really depends how much cash you have. Doing a major performance-enhancing upgrade to that would be almost like buying a new rig (new mobo if u choose amd, new cpu, new graphics card etc.).

I have a 2.8C with 1gig of ram and it runs most current games are max or near-max graphics at "decent" resolutions. If I were you I'd do a minor upgrade to graphics card (nothing major as when you do a major upgrade you will be likely to be changing mobo to pci-e). Either that OR you could wait till you have a little more cash and do a major upgrade with new cpu, mobo and graphics card.
 
i have a similar setup which currently isn't working...which makes me wanna save up like....600$ for a new mobo/processor and gpu but with the current trend of cheap ultra high-end graphics cards, i wanna save up more money. but the more and more i think about it, the more and more i realize that my current setup can STILL play bf2 at relatively high settings and pretty darn fast. it's just a matter of HOW fast you need it to be.
 
Even if you upgrade your graphics card to one of the highest AGP models, chances are the newest games out there like BF2 will not run as awesome as you want it. It will improve peformance a lot dont get me wrong, but you may want to consider making a new computer. Again I suppose it depends on how much money you want to spend and if your looking for just an improvement in performance or being able to play the games at the highest settings.
 
After thinking about this some more it would make the most sense to build a new computer. If possible I would like to keep the costs to about 800 or less which I dont think will be a problem seeing as how I already have an Audigy 2 sound card, 200gb hard drive, Network Adapter, and keyboard/mouse/monitor/speakers. This system would primarily be used for gaming and it needs to run BF2/HL2/CS:S/DOD:S well. What parts/configuration would you reccomend?

Heres a rough list of some parts that I would want in a new system

Motherboard- Something with PCI-express and possibly SLi for later on down the road.
CPU- AMD 64
RAM- 2gb
Video- For now just a single 6800GT
And utilizing the parts I already have

Keep in mind that I just want to go with a basic no frills case with good cooling. Im thinking that I just need about a 500watt PSU.

Your thoughts?
 
Well I've decided to go ahead and get a new video card for this system. Im going with an eVGA GeForce 6800GT 256mb AGP with a Zalman Copper 2 Ball Bearing cooling system. Its used, never OC'd and the guys got excellent feedback so I figured why not. So needless to say theres a 9800 Pro that im going to need to get rid of soon...
 
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