Upgrade current system or Build a new one??

[Shadow03]

I am planning on upgrading my current system sometime in the next couple of weeks. The question I have is: Do I upgrade what I have, or would it just be better to build a new system completely? I need something that can handle video editing and gaming smoothly. If it is cheap enough to just upgrade, then what should I get? If it turns out too expensive, then I would rather just build a new system (any recommendations?). I'm willing to spend at most 400$ to upgrade. Any more than that, and it's just not worth it to me. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

My Current System:

AMD Athlon XP 2200+
40 gig HD + 160 gig HD
Mobo: MSI MS-6712
1536 MB DDR-SDRAM
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB

 

[905it]

Try to find someone to buy your old machine and build a new one.

If your RAM is DDR400, your system hard drive (where windows is installed) is 7200RPM ATA100 or ATA133 then it would be worth it to upgrade your motherboard and CPU.

Keep in mind that if you would like to keep your current video card, you will have to buy a board that supports AGP, not a PCI-Express board. Otherwise, you will have to buy a new video card too.

If you upgrade your motherboard and CPU while leaving an older hard drive, slower RAM, etc. in the machine, you will be hampering the performance.

Also, have you formatted your drive and reinstalled lately? That may give you back alot of that performance that seems to be missing without any hardware upgrade required.

 

[PZEROFGH]

build a new one

you will need a new mobo which equals a new cpu which equals a new gpu which equals a new psu which equals a new case and hdd which equals a new build

 

[dnoch]

You are probably looking at replacing most of your computer, anyway, so you may as well build a new one.

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

I vote upgrade. You can get a solid XP processor for a decent price, then e-bay yours since you won't be needing it. Your price turnaround won't be too much. Get yourself a 6600GT and you'll be fine for a while longer. Then, you're good.

Ryan

 

[Shadow03]

That's about what I figured. I think I'll just deal with what I have for now and build a new one for christmas. Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it. (I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again when it comes time to build.)

 

[Static_11]

we'll be glad to help.. is this comp SOLELY going to be video editing?