upgrading 2000+ XP rig

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MadJuggla9

2[H]4U
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Oct 9, 2002
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I"m upgrading my old system for a guy who bought it a couple of years ago. The current specs are:

420 Antec
AMD 2000+
MSI mobo
1.5gb DDR (3x 512mb)
Nvidia FX5200 AGP with burnt out fan
160gig master
80gig slave

I just took it from 768mb to 1.5gb in ram; the most noticable choice. I'm pretty much stuck with the CPU on this sktA mobo with it's picky-ness. Would it be beneficial to upgrade to a nice video card seeing as the CPU can not be upgraded without ditching most of the system for gaming purposes? I know it will pull 100% CPU in games but I'm hoping the CPU won't be the bottleneck.

It's mainly a favor but I want his sytem to be about as good as it can get. With the price of AGP cards, I can afford to upgrade to just about anything I hope. I was going to surf the FS/FT forum if it's worthwhile.

It will be used for WOW, vampires, oblivion, and mass storage. Not really any new games. Ideas? Is 1.5gigs of RAM a good amount for the pc? Whatever isn't used here goes into my own living room machine. which is very close spec-wise.
 
the best agp card right now is the x1950gt or pro. the gt can be easily OC'd to pro speeds, though.

1.5gb on win.xp should be fine.

he could sell the old parts to put towards a budget for a new system. a new system could be built for around $400 (before taxes and shipping) that would still outperform the athlon.xp by a large margin.
 
That is what I am wondering, How far can I go on upgrading the video card before the CPU is the weakest link.
 
TheMostWantedPolishTwin said:
I don't see a point in upgrading a socket A based config to make it a gaming rig..
Click to expand...

Neither do I, but I don't see upgrades hurting; and I sure think its going to be cheaper to spend a few bucks on cheap parts right now than building a new system which isn't an option ......

I'm helping a friend and I want the CPU to be the bottleneck. I just don't want it to already be the bottleneck. Again, this will be used for some older games and mass music storage. No internet on this machine either.

As long as the GPU can be upgraded and it helps performance, I'm going to spend the very few dollars to make it worthwhile for what gaming will be done.
 
You're in a hard spot, the same one I'm in.

I have a system with similar specs that's with my parents:

Athlon XP 1700+
Epox Mobo
1 gig of RAM
NVidia Ti4200

I bit the bullet and spent $325 to upgrade to the following:

Intel Pentium E2180
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H Mobo
2GB RAM
Samsung SATA DVD-R Drive
Antec 380W PS

The parts have yet to come in but I hope it provides a decent notch up for the sluggish family computer.
 
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