Upgrade Help

E

ew1075

n00b
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
39
Please view my system specs in signature.

I have $200-$300 budget so I can only to upgrade one major component. Where can I do the most damage? I am either going to buy a new video card or a new processor (and motherboard possibly). If a new video card I wouldn't mind having near top of the line but not the outrageous price they charge when something is first released. Something that has come down in price after a few months preferably.

If a new processor and mobo would be better, which combination would be a good one for the price range? I don't mind having either Intel or AMD, whichever would net me the best performance for the price range (and I definitely will want to be able to keep my current RAM).

My machine is used primarily for gaming. I record using FRAPS and that tends to lower my FPS a bit. I also encode videos for youtube frequently so I wouldn't mind that being a little bit more efficient as well.

Thanks in advance for the help! It is appreciated.

EDIT: It might also be helpful to know that I use a ZALMAN CNPS9700 CPU cooler, which came highly recommended at the time I put the PC together. Haven't had any cooling problems since but I don't overclock or anything like that.
 
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It would very very helpful if you told us what PSU you have so that we can determine if that also needs to be upgraded.

Also, please tell us what's the max resolution of your LCD monitor.

Assuming that your PSU is up to snuff, a GPU upgrade would not be worthwhile as it would limit the performance of most new video cards. You'll more than likely need a new mobo as your current mobo does not support any of the newer and worthwhile AMD CPUs
 
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Ahh you're in luck. I recommend this CPU + mobo combo:
$120 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard Combo

The X2 240 is significantly faster than your current AMD CPU and the mobo will allow you to reuse DDR2 RAM.

If you want better video encoding performance at the expense of some gaming performance, this combo is also a good choice:
$165 - AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU + BIOSTAR TA790GXE 128M AMD 790GX ATX Motherboard Combo
 
NP. Also if you want a nice balance between gaming performance and video encoding performance, this combo is also a good choice:
$182 - AMD Phenom II X3 720 CPU + Asus M4A785-M AMD 785G mATX motherboard
 
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