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[UnfaTeFuL]

Ok, it's been a while since I posted on Hard forums and upgraded my system (almost 2 years). I thought it'll be time to upgrade my system but I'm low on cash so I'm slowly upgrading my system so I can play UT2k7 decently when it comes out.

The 2 main parts I want to upgrade are the memory and video card. I have 1x512 and 1 x256 PC 3200 Kingston for ram, 768 in total. And I have a Chaintech Geforce FX5500 256MB card that I bought about two years ago.

But atm I'm playing WoW for now. Everything is fine but all the settings are at medium (nothing high, as my comp would lag in heavily populated areas). Should I get more ram or a better graphics card first?

 

[G'ßöö]

for those components? I'd go ram, especially if the mobo supports duel channel

 

[quadnad]

If I were you, I'd first sell the motherboard, videocard, and the 256 stick. Next I'd grab this motherboard to allow the purchase of a PCI-E video card. Then I'd buy another matching 512 stick of kingston. Alternatively you could sell all the RAM you have now and move to a 2 gig kit like this one.

Next I'd check out the budget I'd be looking to spend for the video card. You may want to consider buying from the FS/FT forums.
$150-$200: 7600GT,X1800XT 256, 7900GS.
$200-$250:7900GT, AIW X1900.

If your budget is beyond that, your options go like this: x1900XT->7900GTX->x1900xtx->7950GX2.

Finally, I'd overclock that processor, as I'm sure there is a lot of untapped potential in there....grab a Scythe Ninja and get going.

In the end, I believe you could probably get a total of $100 from selling the motherboard, videocard and RAM, and therefore your out-of-pocket cost would only be the new videocard. Not a bad deal if you ask me!

 

[UnfaTeFuL]

Thanks quadnad for the suggestions. I've been researching on some hardware since I was out of the comp/technology world for a while and might be force to switch to a PCI-e mobo sometime in the future.

And yea, my mobo supports dual channel ram. But would I have to get a whole set of dual channel ram? I'm not sure if the 512 Kingston ram I have now supports dual channelling or not.

 

[quadnad]

Thanks quadnad for the suggestions. I've been researching on some hardware since I was out of the comp/technology world for a while and might be force to switch to a PCI-e mobo sometime in the future.

And yea, my mobo supports dual channel ram. But would I have to get a whole set of dual channel ram? I'm not sure if the 512 Kingston ram I have now supports dual channelling or not.

Dual channel doesn't require special RAM; it just needs two similar sticks in the correct slots. However, it doesn't give much of a performance boost anywhere but in benchmarks.