Upgrading: What's the weakest link(s)?

[qk232]

I'm not sure if my system is considered "high end" at all but I'm looking for the weak link in my system and want to upgrade one or two things. I am running Vista 32-bit. I'm not a heavy gamer at all. I play COD4 every now and then, but that's it other than a few old games. Is this system able to be overclocked at all? Thanks in advance.

MB: Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

CPU Cooler: Newegg.com - Rosewill RCX-Z775-SL 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

RAM (2): Newegg.com - Patriot 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail

GPU: Newegg.com - EVGA 128-P2-N441-LX GeForce 7300GT 128MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

PS: Newegg.com - KINGWIN ABT-520CW ATX 12V Ver.2.2 520W Modular Power Supply 115-120V/200-240V - Retail

 

[Ronnie]

the weakest link in your system is the video card
if i were you i would look into looking around for a used x1900xtx or something for around 150

 

[qk232]

the weakest link in your system is the video card
if i were you i would look into looking around for a used x1900xtx or something for around 150

I thought that could be it, but is it still the weakest link since I don't do really any gaming? I am using DVI right now and things look fine to me. It is definitely a HUGE increase over D-sub. Will I see a medium increase in video quality if I upgrade to a bit nicer card using DVI? Is there a noticeable difference in between direct x9 and x10?

Thanks

 

[Invisible]

stick with the vid card then
what would you like to improve?

 

[qk232]

stick with the vid card then
what would you like to improve?

I was wondering if this system could be overclocked at least a little so that I could learn hands on about overclocking.

I looked for a x1900xtx ish card and I couldn't find anything. Is it suppose to be 1900? I found this video card with DX10 and 512ram. Is this an ok video card?
Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P2-N757-TR GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Is there a noticeable difference from DX9 over DX10?

 

[Invisible]

if your not gaming then probably not
again what is the use of your system and what would you like to improve on it?

 

[qk232]

if your not gaming then probably not
again what is the use of your system and what would you like to improve on it?

I would like to improve the speed even though it is fast as it is, but I am looking into doing more resource intensive things such as running virtual PC (or other related programs for running/learning LINUX), heavy multitasking, overclocking to learn, faster bootup speeds are always nicer, faster data transfer rates from SATAII hd to hd (not sure if cpu and ram can be limiting factors in this case), etc.

I guess there isn't a huge weak link since I'm not a gamer, but I've never had a nicer system than this so I don't know how great graphics can be to see if I would want a nicer video card or not.

Thanks for the help. I hope all that makes sense.

 

[Nukem]

tweaking windows will get you the faster boot times, and faster response you want without having to buy anything new. You can also:
Defrag
Anti-virus/Spyware checks
Ccleaner/easycleaner (ccleaner is good for unused temp files, etc..., and easycleaner is good for finding unused registry edits that can take up resources.)
getting rid of some of the Vista eye candy will help as well...

 

[qk232]

tweaking windows will get you the faster boot times, and faster response you want without having to buy anything new. You can also:
Defrag
Anti-virus/Spyware checks
Ccleaner/easycleaner (ccleaner is good for unused temp files, etc..., and easycleaner is good for finding unused registry edits that can take up resources.)
getting rid of some of the Vista eye candy will help as well...

I've defragged and at work all I do is remove viruses/spyware and misc to pc's without being able to reformat so I've got all that good stuff taken care of, but I have a good bit of programs that I believe could be the cause of a ~2min startup time even with the mentioned resources, adjusted boot order, and sataII hd.

Thanks for the help.