Ya, you have to decide if you even need it first.

I used to be a Vista hater, but it seems to have gotten a lot better. My grandpa bought his mother a new machine that had vista on it, and it was great. Now its just office 2007 that I don't like.

I think I'll just do the $250 upgrade for now, then wait a year or two when I have more money and start a new rig.

I guess I'll get another 2x512 DDR, AMD 4600, and a 8800gt or 9600gt (which ever one is cheaper).

Does that sound good for a couple more years or should I just save my money?

Ray_Pisgood

Oh ya. It just depends on what quality you like to play on and what games you play. the 9600GT 512MB is cheaper by $40 and the speed of the +4600 will bottleneck the 8800GT.

A lot of people have computers that are a couple of years old that do great. They just don't show everybody their specs because it is nothing great to look at. The consoles don't run the games on max or even on all high. You just don't see the settings.

Note that if you have a case, HDD, DVD-Writer, mouse & keyboard, you will save a lot of money. I built the rig in my sig in Nov for only $460 because I had all that stuff. (monitor not included)

As for saving, it depends on how good your computer is for you. Do you mind playing games at their current quality? Would you like to wait and then get a super build? It is really something that only you can decide.

Judging from the other listings on ebay, it doesn't look like I could get much for my current hardware. Maybe a little over $100, then I'd probably end up spending $600 or more on new intel stuff rightRay_Pisgood

That sounds about right. I have been looking at getting another rig, and it looks like $600 is the average. You could get a E2160 OCed to 3.0GHz and a 9600GT system for a little under $600. You could get a E7200 OCed to 3.8GHz and a 8800GT 512MB for about $700 I think. I am probably going to get a e7200 with a 9600GT for my needs, but for most people a E2160 and a 8800GT 512MB would be best. Although, keep in mind that new cards are coming out in june, so waiting till then would be a good idea to see what will happen.

I thought DDR2 ram was for intel mobos?Ray_Pisgood

No, DDR3 is. AMD doesn't support it yet. Do you have DDR memory?

can u get a single card that would be comparable to the 9600GTs in SLI for less money. maybe an 8800GTS 512MB? one of those and an e8400 might be a better option. just a suggestion.osan0

I don't think so, but you will need a good PSU to handle SLI. That is quite a bit of money for two 9600GTs. It probably wouldn't give you much more performance than a 8800GTS 512MB.

From my understanding, my mobo will still run in dual channel with 4 sticks of 512. So I think if I get another 2x512 it wont be that much slower than 2x1gb. I have an nForce 4 SLI edition. I could be wrong thoughRay_Pisgood

Yes that would work. You would have to have your current RAM in the same color slots and the new RAM in the same color slots.

[QUOTE="Mtnes"]

I could do what u said but ive heard a lot of the E8 series cpus,ill keep what u said in mind if the budget becomes too tight tho jade ; I am swayed towards option 1

how risky is oceing a card especially in sli, also will it cause major heating as i dont have any cooling system

Penguin_dragon

OC'ing a card is nothing like OC'ing a CPU. It's a simple proccess using software and then sliding some bar, then bam its OCed, not sure about SLI though, I think you have to OC each one first. Also with that same program, you could adjust the fan speed to run it at max, obviously making it louder, but it shouldn't to too loud.

That is why I personally perfer the pre OCed cards. You don't have to mess with the software.

I could do what u said but ive heard a lot of the E8 series cpus,ill keep what u said in mind if the budget becomes too tight tho jade ; I am swayed towards option 1

how risky is oceing a card especially in sli, also will it cause major heating as i dont have any cooling system

Mtnes

OC can be risky. It will void any of your warnanties as well. Intel CPUs OC pretty well, but a better cooloer than the stock is recommended if you want to push it up there to +3.8GHz (only the 45nm chips get this fast).

As for the graphics cards, you need to read reviews of the specific model to see what people say about the stock cooler. It might be cheaper to buy the pre OCed card as long as it comes with a good cooler. If you read reviews of OCed graphics cards in the same price range as the normal speed cards, you will see that the cooler is usually not good enough.

Drop in a 2GB dual channel kit of DDR2 800 RAM for ~$45, put in a 2.4GHz dual core for $65, and either a HD 3850 256MB for $110 or a 9600GT (recommended) 512MB for $145. That would be an awesome upgrade for ~$250.

Depending on the speed of your RAM and your OS, you might be OK with only 1GB RAM or you could just plug in additional RAM, but it wouldn't run in dual channel mode.