Build or upgrade?

[Acoustic5679]

I recently bought a couple games that have finally made my PC of 6 years look old.

I have a,
Soyo Fire dragon Mobo
512 ddr266
128 mb Geforce4 ti4200
Pentium 4 2.4 (not overclocked)

I bought oblivion and fear. I have read everything about oblivion so I know why it doesn't work, but fear at least plays although choppy.

I really don't want to build another PC yet becuase I have IDE HD's that won't work with new SATA mobos. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a new video card to make these games more playable. my budget is around 70-100. I know its not much for a video card, but thats what I have to work with. I have to use AGP as well. I plan on gettig 1 gig or two gigs or ram versus my 512 and a new video card and hopefully I will be OK for a another year or 2. What do you guys think I should do? Is it worth upgrading those two things? or should I just start planning on building a whole new system?

Is this card good enough for oblivion?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16814140067R

 

[dcc]

With a six year old machine I wouldn't invest in any parts that you wouldn't be able to use in a new build later, it would just be an expensive stop gap.

 

[hmammen]

well......that newegg page doesnt exist...
but....i would say go ahead and save up to upgrade. that system is just old. and you would be happy with a couple brand new sata or ATA hdds. performance of your new system depends on your budget of course

 

[Ste]

Thats definitly a new Builder right there.
You won't really enjoy those games if you just upgrade it.

 

[b1gapl]

I would just build a new computer, 6 years is very old and probably not worth upgrading.

 

[Acoustic5679]

Yea I was thinking that was probably the best route. Well, that was the first system I ever built so in my opinion it lasted way longer then any company built one for the price. I was thinking of getting a dual processor mobo when the next best thing comes out and they go down. I have a 160 gig and a 320 gig IDE HD's. The newer sata mobos will except these HD's right? I would hate to have to buy new HD's again. All I am looking at as far as upgrading is a new Video card, new processor, new memory, and mobo. And fans, cooling system, and little things. I would like to stay in a $800 budget if I were to rebuild. I have a 42 inch 1080p display I am using now as my pc is now a living room entertainment peice. Fear has 1920x1080 res so that would look pretty nice. Anyway, thanks for the advise you guys.

 

[Acoustic5679]

Its funny, I built this machine so I could upgrade it down the road, but I never needed more then 512 ram and a pentium 2.4 until now. Now, everything has changed, socket types, storage device cables, system memory has changed many times, etc... I wish they would have mobos that could always take what ever newer technology that comes. New socket type? replace the socket type in the mobo, newer memory sticks? replace the dimm slots, etc.. I guess it just doesn't work that way...

 

[TheDiceman]

If you actually poke around the mobos on newegg you will find that a lot of them still have IDE plugs available (at least one). **** my brand new KA3 has 2 on top of my sata and raid ports.

 

[M0rga]

I would at least get a new dual core CPU. They are reasonably cheap and would give you a huge boast. A new graphics card wouldn't go a miss either. :bald: - He's so cool!