What would you upgrade on my rig for $250-300?

[Jeffrock]

Hey everyone,
I have a little bit of cheddar to spend on my PC and am trying to decide what to upgrade.
Here is my system:

Pentium 4 3.0 Northwood (Oc'd to 3.6)
Zalman alu/cu heatsink/fan

built by ATI Radeon 9800pro, bios flashed to XT
Zalman VGA cooler with optional slimfan

1 GB OCZ performance series PC3200 ram dual-channel (2-3-3-6)

Western Digital 7200 rpm ide hd 80gb

Asus p4p800e dlx mobo

Raidmax scorpio case with plenty of bling blizzle


I use my machine for gaming, and will be doing some video encoding when I get the time.

Currently I am leaning towards a couple Raptor HDs, or a new vidcard (although I know it will be more than 3 bills.) Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[beedubaya]

I would save a little longer and get a GeForce 6800 Ultra. If you don't want to do that, then I would go with the Raptor HDs.

 

[lev2323]

Definatley the raptors...your 9800 pro should be able wat through any game...those things are fast...and if not, i would get agood sound card...i assume that you are using the intergrated sound. I got an audigy 2 zs a little while back, and the sound is so much better. I have some logitech z-640's on them and the sound difference is intense. Doom3 scares the crap out of me even more with that. A good vid card is only half of todays games, sound is huge!!! Thats my two cents.

 

[Jeffrock]

Thx for the replies. Forgot to mention that I do have the SB audigy zs sound card too. And yes, Doom 3 scares the hell out of me too.
My only concern with a vid card is the whole PCI express change. Then again, I guess my mobo would be obsolete if I went that route. Would it not just be more cost-effective to get a 6800gt and oc it to ultra speeds? I am assuming that they would perform relatively similar.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

If your going to start doing Video encoding you will whip through that 80GB in a day ;-) I would purchase some more drive space at least 200GB.

 

[DaShizNit609]

yah dont get the ultra. get 400 dollars and buy a gt and oc it.

 

[beedubaya]

yah dont get the ultra. get 400 dollars and buy a gt and oc it.

Yea, that would work. I've thought about doing that myself because of I am really not impressed with my X800 Pro, but I don't really want to pay another $400 when the next generation cards will be out in 2005. Plus, the X800 cards are supposed to be the best for HL2.

 

[Nubius]

yah dont get the ultra. get 400 dollars and buy a gt and oc it

Gotta agree there, get the eVGA brand because they put the heavy duty heatsinks on all 3 of their cards not just the ultra so it should be easier to OC.

Plus, the X800 cards are supposed to be the best for HL2.

.....where exactly are your sources for that? I doubt that'll be the case unless they write all the HL code to go better with the ATI brand card or something...it seems to me ATI just rushed out their version to try and compete with nvidia.....or justification of your spent money =P Sorry beedub

EDIT: Oh yeah, the 6600's will be coming out and those will wipe the floor with the previous generations and probably be comparable to the X800.....a review said the X600 from ATI is completely blown out of the water compared to the 6600 which will have 8 pipelines and 128mb of DDR3 memory, the 128mb of the 6800 doesnt have DDR3 memory.

 

[beedubaya]

EDIT: Oh yeah, the 6600's will be coming out and those will wipe the floor with the previous generations and probably be comparable to the X800.....a review said the X600 from ATI is completely blown out of the water compared to the 6600 which will have 8 pipelines and 128mb of DDR3 memory, the 128mb of the 6800 doesnt have DDR3 memory.

Actually, the 6600GT will beat the X800 Pro, and not just by a little. I have decided to start my savings and get a 6800 GT, then overclock it the ultra speeds. Because the is just plain rediculous....I spent $400 dollars on a video card and there is not one recent game I can play with AA turned on, and even with it turned off I get a crappy framerate. Why didn't anybody here try to tell me that the X800 was crap?

 

[Raekwon]

Why didn't anybody here try to tell me that the X800 was crap?

i doubt anyone knew... u must be so pissed off now Beedubaya.

im glad u r going to go with the superior card i dont have anything against ATi, unless we are talking about the X800 series...