super budget upgrade

[wiouxev]

im looking on not spending much at all. I have a grand, but im saving for a car, but my computer needs upgrades to the extreme. had it for a few years, and its not running really anymore

radeon 9700 128mb
60gb 7200rpm hd
Dragon Ultra KT400 mobo
Athlon xp 1.8ghz
1gig ram

i dont run eq2 very well anymore, lag spikes and i have to run it on the "extreme performance" setting, making graphics etc suck ***.

Would it be a good idea to just get another gig of ram? would that be cheapest/best approach?

this is more of an extent upgrade, but i dunno if it would really give me a decent enough boost to last me a while until I get a car?

processor $105.99 (2.0GHz, easy overclocker)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535

vid card $149.99 (7600GT 256mb)
eVGA Geforce 7600GT 256-P2-N553-AX Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283

hd $101.99 (10krpm, 37gb)
Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144200

ram $150 (2gb)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Platinum System Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227210

and im going to keep using my 21" CRT for my monitor... i was going to really upgrade (spend about 2k) but i chose a car would be a better option first.

 

[Lord AnthraX]

Ok your card is AGP and the card you chose is PCI-E

The Processor you chose is Socket 939 and your mobo is Socket A.

I doubt your motherboard supports dual channel and Im sure its limited in terms of speed.



Lets work this out.

 

[wiouxev]

Yeah, I know i need a new mobo too if i were to get those things, I just didnt really get that far. Was kind of waiting direction/advice.

 

[Slayer]

U already have a gig of ram, just buy 1 more gig to add to it (unless you dont have any more slots for it?)

I woulnt get the raptor. although its faster for your budget u could get better performance increase by putting the money somehwere else. maybe an even faster proc.

 

[wiouxev]

How do I figure out what type of ram I have?

 

[Lord AnthraX]

it should have a little sitcker on it

 

[aliasaid]

since you're on a budget forget about the raptor. just use your existing 60gb HD. the 3500+ is only $10 more, and is worth it.

you can use cpu-z to figure out the type of ram you have.

just google then download then run it.

 

[lancec2c30]

ya I would go with new mobo, another gig of ram, AMD 3500, the 7600gt is a good card for your budget, now since your goin with such a big jump in horsepower how many watts is your power supply? it may need to be upgraded to

 

[Trotter]

Your mobo can support DDR 400/333, your AGP is 8x, and you can have up to a 333 MHz FSB on your CPU (which translates into up to a 2800+... anything over that is throttled back to 333 MHz FSB).

There were a couple of 3200+ Bartons floating around in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum. A friend was looking into buying one, so I know that two of them were available in there.

Your mobo can handle 3 DIMMs and up to 3 gigs of RAM.

As for a graphics card, the eVGA 128-A8-N374-TX Geforce 6800XT 128MB is about the biggest bang for the buck.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130268

You probably need to invest in a beefier PSU as well. The Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 ATX12V 400W is 400 watts (which should be plenty with your setup), and it has a decent pricetag.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103935

As far as hard drives go, Your mobo does not natively support SATA unless you have a riser card for it. If your hard drive is getting full, buy a larger one and transfer everything onto it (use Ghost or something). You also need to do some housekeeping... spyware scans, uninstall old programs and files, major defragging (and not with Windows defrag... try O&O - http://www.majorgeeks.com/O&O_Defrag_2000_Freeware_Edition_d4545.html {freeware}, http://www.majorgeeks.com/O&O_Defrag_Professional_Edition_d809.html{pro, 30-day trial, worth the money}).

 

[wiouxev]

for ram compatibility--

here is my current ram x2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144305

my motherboard
http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?t=d&id=176

list of supported ram
http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=73

ram I plan on getting
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144321

I was going to do this, but would shoot myself in the foot if i didnt check on the forums first, that ram is compatible and shold work, right?