The Never Ending Question: Upgrade?

[[XC] MarioMaster]

Well I'm sitting here with no idea what I should do, my main rig (in signature) is getting pretty dated and almost no upgrades are really worth the money any more. My computer works ok with most games but stuff like CS:S and Quake 4 force me to run at 1024x768 or lower and still have framerates dropping below 30 at times. The main problem with upgrading is I'll have to buy mostly new hardware, especially with having to jump aboard the PCI-Express train. So this means new MB GFX and CPU. Not going to be a small pricetag for anything that's half decent. I also plan to get a new case as well so that's an additional $100-200. So running socket A, AGP, and not even dual channel ram, should I upgrade? I've got an approximate budget of about 1 grand.

Edit - I don't plan on going Conroe

[[XC] leviathan18]

am2 go for it cheap and nice mobo cheap semprons buy 2gigs of ram value a nice video 7600gt a case and i think you will be under the grand mark and you will be able to play any game and besides that you also can upgrade to dual core if you want i think is the best upgrade and if you upgrade run rosetta :P

[kyleslater]

Kinda like this?

$983.95


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130281
$274 eVGA 7900 GT (500/1500)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133157
$96 ThermalTake Soprano w/430 TT PSU (silver only black sold out)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103633
$199 AMD 64 3500+ AM2 Orleans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130049
$114.99 MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231064
$126 G.Skill 2X512 MB 4-4-4-12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
$89.99 Western Digital Caviar SE16 250 GB SATA II
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058
$33.99 NEC Black DVD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126167
$9.99 Logitech Internet Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826104178
$39.99 Logitech MX 518 (good gaming mouse)

[ludeboy12]

Kinda like this?

$983.95


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130281
$274 eVGA 7900 GT (500/1500)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133157
$96 ThermalTake Soprano w/430 TT PSU (silver only black sold out)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103633
$199 AMD 64 3500+ AM2 Orleans
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130049
$114.99 MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231064
$126 G.Skill 2X512 MB 4-4-4-12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701
$89.99 Western Digital Caviar SE16 250 GB SATA II
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058
$33.99 NEC Black DVD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126167
$9.99 Logitech Internet Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826104178
$39.99 Logitech MX 518 (good gaming mouse)



ya depending on how big your monitor is you could play all the latest games on Max settings with this rig i think.

only suggestion is i would get a 2gb kit rather than just 1gb of ram.

[[XC] MarioMaster]

yea i've got a dvd drive floating around here as well as a keyboard and a logitech g5, so that knocks it back to about $900, the pricetag is a lot better than i expected, thanks guys the list has helped me out a bit, give me something to fiddle around with instead of starting from the ground up. the socket am2 is also a good idea for upgrading. does that motherboard do SLI? it has two x16 slots but it doesn't say it's sli compatible

edit - i've got a 19" viewsonic E90

[[XC] leviathan18]

yes it can do sli

you will have a nice machine for 900$ perhaps change the mem and buy 2gb kit it will be closer to the 1000 mark again but you will have a nice setup

[[XC] MarioMaster]

i'm having trouble deciding between socket 939 and AM2, you think it would be worth getting the AM2 for being able to upgrade the cpu in the future?

[[XC] leviathan18]

thats the idea u can upgrade with am2

[2fink]

why not buy an am2-sempron? they are not much slower and way cheaper... if you overclock you wont find a diffrence.
im am2-athlon than directly dual-core... everything else is not worth the money in my opinion!