What to Upgrade for X-mas?

[LyL18]

So you can see my current setup in my sig...

I planned on asking for a DFI Lanparty nF3 250Gb and a Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 754) but I was told that socket 939 is the way to go if im going to get 64-bit. But if I was to get a 939, to wait a couple months for the prices to drop/bugs to fix. So im stuck with all this holiday income!

here is the list of possible things i could do:
-DFI Lanparty nF3 250Gb and A64 3000+ (754)
-[Not sure what mobo. Suggestions?] and A64 3000+
-2 WD 80GB SATA (RAID)
-1 WD 36.7GB Raptor
-Video card? (Possibly x700)

Feel free to make any other suggestions to my setup... What would YOU do?
I probably wont be able to get morethan $250

Help! Thanks guys

 

[Snobok]

Well, 939 is the way to go in my opinion since most future AMD CPUs should use that socket(at least the desktop models anyway). Video-card-wise, the X700 series vid card will only work in a PCI-E slot as ATi has yet to make an AGP version of the X700 series. You could wait till January or February when the Nforce4 comes out in to the mainstream(maybe sooner) and get the X700. You should get a 6600GT (AGP version; about $240) if you opt for the video card. The DFI mobo and A643000 would not be a bad option, but there is not much of an upgrade path(I think that they will have a version of Nforce4 for s754 with PCI-E, but no SLI.). If you go the s939 route, get the MSI K8N Neo2 and the A64 3000. It's a good combo and would last you for a while (save maybe graphics-wise since you will need PCI-E in the future.).

Just my 2 pesos(~$0.08 I reckon)

 

[LyL18]

Thanks for you opinion. I thought when they were making PCI-E they said it would be backwards compatible? You can only use a PCI-E card in a PCI-E slot?

What do you think about the hard drives?

 

[Mojo]

Is your 2500+ overclocked? If it is, I wouldn't upgrade your CPU yet. That being said, I would probably buy a better video card.

 

[LyL18]

Its slightly overclocked. I never really got into pushing it to the limit. I have been thinking about it lately though

 

[jterrell]

I'd sell the 9600 for whatever you can get and add that to the 250 and buy the best agp vid card you can.

That should last you another 6 months or so when nf4 will be out and readily available as well as have bugs worked out.

 

[DFranch]

I would not get the x700 every review I have read says it gets its a$$ kicked by the 6600gt. As far as whether to upgrade your 2500+, I have an 2500+ overclocked to 3000+ and I just ordered a a64 3200+ which I hope to get overclocked to around 3800+. I will probably have to wait until after Xmas to get the nforce4 motherboard though unless they start showing up within the next week..

 

[bountyhunter]

^it doesn't get its ass kicked in anything............but the 6600gt is better in absolutely every game....

$250 just isn't going to cut it. That's enough to purchase a cpu and a motherboard. That would leave nothing for the video card

 

[DFranch]

^it doesn't get its ass kicked in anything............but the 6600gt is better in absolutely every game....

It does not get it's a$$ kicked in any single game, but I would call being slower in every game getting your a$$ kicked.

$250 just isn't going to cut it. That's enough to purchase a cpu and a motherboard. That would leave nothing for the video card

I overlooked the 250 spending limit. You are right there is not enough money to get a processor, motherboard, and video card. I would have to say get the video card. the 9600 pro is probably the weakest part of the system. It just seems to be a shame to invest the money in AGP components now with the whole industry moving to PCI-E.

LyL18:
Don't bother with the Raptor. I have 2 36Gb raptors on a raid and it does not make the system much faster. About the biggest improvement is the system boots faster, & you can install Windows XP in about 15 minutes.