Finally a decent upgrade!

I finally have enough money to do some serious upgrading. I NEED a new video card.

I also would like to upgrade some other areas of this rapidly aging machine. (I can usually only afford to upgrade one thing a year)

Here is what I do have:

AMD 64 +3000
2.00 GHz 1GB RAM
Radeon 9600 xt 128 I believe these are only AGP.
450W PS (maybe 400W, cant remember)
I've got a KV8 motherboard but im not sure if its got a PCI express or not.

Yea, thats the quick rundown. I'm sure im not putting in something there. I play a couple other games. Oblivion, BF2, HL2 and alot of Gametap games as well. Most importantly though I use Photoshop and a graphic drawing tablet ALOT. I'm sure it wont make a big difference in what I get, but it should make a bit of one.

Would it be worth it to get a duel core Proccessor?

I think I need more RAM, maybe another GB?
and my power supply already runs hot alot. perhaps I should upgrade that? its already 5 years old I think. would I need a new case to get a bigger power supply? Right now the one I have is a 350W.

thanks for your replies!

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I've got a KV8 motherboard but im not sure if its got a PCI express or not.

Most likely not, since you've got an AGP card now. Hybrid mobos are few and far between (and flaky as well).

and my power supply already runs hot alot. perhaps I should upgrade that?

Are you sure the PSU is the component generating the heat? If your PSU fan is the only exhaust on the system, the heat could be coming from a variety of components.

PSUs are generally standard sized, so most should fit fine so long as you've got a standard chassis.

If you're looking to up your gaming potential, the biggest step would be to move up to a PCIe mobo and video card. However, doing that would most likely mean changing CPU and memory as well, as sticking with Socket 939 and DDR will only mean you'll have to replace your mobo again at the next upgrade (to AM2, or to an Intel system, and DDR2 memory regardless which CPU type you choose).

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and my power supply already runs hot alot. perhaps I should upgrade that? its already 5 years old I think. would I need a new case to get a bigger power supply? Right now the one I have is a 350W.

Make this a top priority!

If you are concerned about the power supply, you might want to have it looked at. If its a problem, you should have it replaced. Its cheaper to replace a power supply now, than it is to replace a whole computer later, because the power supply shorted everything out.

AMD 64 +3000
2.00 GHz 1GB RAM
Radeon 9600 xt 128 I believe these are only AGP.
450W PS (maybe 400W, cant remember)
I've got a KV8 motherboard but im not sure if its got a PCI express or not.

Hmm... I'm not sure how long you will be able to keep upgrading this thing one part at a time. Some parts require that you replace other parts as well. In this case, if you replace the motherboard, you're going to have to replace the proccessor, video card (which you were going to anyways), and maybe memory. Please note, its better to get a video card that supports PCI-E x16, instead of AGP (Its obsolete now).

I also would like to upgrade some other areas of this rapidly aging machine.

Lucky for you, I'm currently making a draft for a new computer for a friend. Here are the core components.

Motherboard: Asus M2N-E (You're going to need a new proccessor and video card)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+
Ram: Kingston 1 GB (2x512MB) DDR 2 667 MHz (You might be able to keep your old memory)
Video Card: ATI Radeon x1600 PCI-E x16

(I can usually only afford to upgrade one thing a year)

The items listed above were selected due to a good balance between performance and price. That said, I'm not sure if you can keep the memory between the upgrade (You didn't list its speed). Once your computer has been upgraded, it should remain upgradeable for a long time after that.

Would it be worth it to get a duel core Proccessor?

Dark Avatar expansion can take advantage of a dual core proccessor. It should kick in automatically when you play the game. So, if that is reason enough, then go for it. The proccessor in the list is dual core if you are wondering.

________________
P.S. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. I hope I was of help.

P.S.S. Please list your memory speed.

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oh boy... if your mobo is old you might need more money to just completely upgrade your system, sad fact of mobo's

i don't have the time to go into it, but it might be worth just waiting a while longer to get more money and then do a complete revamp of your system, as it is not a slacker in any department (as a temp fix you might consider grabbing another half gig of RAM)

also if your machine is running really hot, try adding another chasis fan, or grabbing a fan from a closet and just taking the side off your box and blowing that sucker in there

if you want more info, whats your budget and what are you wanting? i've built 2 computers thus far and have a good deal of experience upgrading them, so i can lend a hand (in the searching and knowledge department)

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I'd wait 6 months until the DX10 video cards come out. Then I'd get a new system and toss Vista onto it...

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I have:

Amd 3200
2 sticks 512mb ram
Nvidia GEforce 7600 LS 512mb
550 watt power supply

Game runs awesomely and I have Oblivion and Rome Total Crap War as well that require a lot of graphics power and they run smoothly also. What is your virtual memory optimized at? I run mine at 3000mb and everything works so smoothly that I play. I don't have those kiddie first person shooter games except BF1942 (someone gave it to me for a present) and it runs great also.

Dual core? nah all that stuff is made to sell and only a handful of games need that kind of power, certainly not strategy or wargames for sure.

Also I would never upgrade to Vista until 2 or 3 years from now. There are NO games that use directx 10 and there won't be any for a couple of years worth it anyways. Also, directx 10 is NOT backwards compatible so that means XP or ME or 98 or NT won't run any games made specifically for directx 10. Those developers better be deciding to make 9.0c and directx 10 games switches are they are going to lose money for a long time before people upgrade to sorry Vista OS. This is Bill Gates and MS at their finest, attempting to FORCE people to upgrade OS's now instead of making a directx 10 that would work on ALL OS's past and present and future.

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