Which Upgrade Should I Choose?

[24/7 Gamer]

Right then, my kind mum has decided to buy me an upgrade for my computer for crimbo but I'm pretty stuck on what to get.

The choices I have made so far are:

X-fi Fatal1ty FPS Sound Card
2x 1gb of Performance RAM
7.1 Surround Speakers
New Hard Drive with Sata connection instead of IDE connection
New water cooling kit

Outta the lot I'm leaning towards the X-Fi as its been pretty high rated. The RAM is also important too as I only have 1gb atm which is kinda a bottleneck for BF2.

Any suggestions welcome, and no I cant have all of them

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

okay... tell us what speed your hard drive is... if it's 5400 rpm, it probably wouldn't hurt to upgrade in that department. If it's 7200, I'd look at getting the RAM upgrade.

Ryan

 

[24/7 Gamer]

Yeah my Hard Drive is 7200rpm but its a couple of years old now as my system orginally started of as an Advent 3419 and its the only thing I haven't changed. Dont know what make it is but I imagine its Maxtor or Seagate.

I was thinking of the RAM too but the X-Fi looks very tempting and from what I've heard it makes a bigger diffrence in games than more memory.

 

[3xistenc3]

For me, I would choose the RAM upgrade. 2nd, I think the speakers.

 

[Powerslave]

you don't need a super high quality soudcard, unless your an audio freak looking for those nerdy little trinkets in songs.

I would go with a ram upgrade.

 

[003]

you don't need a super high quality soudcard, unless your an audio freak looking for those nerdy little trinkets in songs.

I would go with a ram upgrade.

the x-fi fatal1ty card is not for audiophiles, it is for hardcore gamers, it has the 64mb of onboard ram for caching sounds and whatnot, and it has full eax 5.0 advanced hd support, and 128 sounds in hardware. What is your current sound card? If it's onboard sound or some cheapo $9.99 sound card, I'd opt for the x-fi, but if you already have an audigy2 zs or something similar I'd opt for the RAM. Neither of them will be a significant preformance upgrade, but with the x-fi you can enable all the fancy hardware audio and eax in games with no preformance hit. I personally just ordered an X-fi fatal1ty, it should be here next week monday or tuesday.

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

I wouldn't waste money on sound... but that's just me. I have no problem with my 7 dollar sound card. I'm still voting for the RAM. You're going to need it later even if it's not necessary now.

Ryan

 

[vaderpro]

Sound and sound cards are useless without good speakers. If you dont have good speakers, then that should be your priority. I personaly dont believe in sound cards either because the detail and quality of sound with my onboard is aewsome. I truly beleive its the speakers that make the difference.

Otherwise do the ram thing.

Otherwise for improving game loading times look at getting one or 2 of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144160

This is a great deal:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

 

[003]

I wouldn't waste money on sound... but that's just me. I have no problem with my 7 dollar sound card. I'm still voting for the RAM. You're going to need it later even if it's not necessary now.

Ryan

LOL -- you've obviously never heard EAX 4.0/5.0 on a nice set of 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. You should seriously consider investing in an Audigy2 ZS which is $70 on newegg, or even better an X-fi XtremeMusic. You will be blown away in games that support EAX (90% of them do). Both BF2 and FEAR take full advantage of an X-fi over an Audigy 2.

I truly beleive its the speakers that make the difference.

you are also somebody who has never heard an audigy 2 on a nice set of speakers with EAX. sound quality is not the difference, it's the hardware audio and EAX support.

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

lol... 003. You act like a sound upgrade is a lifechanging experience. Speakers before sound card, just like vaderpro said.

In my opinion, massive sound for a computer is a waste unless it's a media center rig.

For the record 003... you're exagerating, bigtime. It sounds good, sure, but realistically, it's all digital sound being put out by devices in a computer. The clarity improvement just isn't there to justify sound upgrades. Quit being dramatic... 'obviously...'

Ryan