Need New Hardware: $700 budget.

[dhmiles]

Hi, I'm new to the whole building scene. I have been a serious gamer for quite some time now, playing mostly Counter-Strike. I have been able to run the game well for nearly four years on my Dell, but I now think it is time for an upgrade. I don't know much about what goes on inside my PC, so if this information isn't sufficient just let me know and ill try to help.

Current PC:

I have case, keyboard, mouse
Processor: 2.8 Ghz P4 no HT
Ram: 512 MB of w/e Dell sold 4 years ago
HD: Need new
Video Card: Also need new. This is my priority. Used to have an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro.
Sound Card: Works very well, I'm not thinking of replacing. Don't know the name.
Power Supply: No idea. I guess it was large enough to power all of the above.


What I need:

I must get a video card capable of handling all games out now, and many in the future.

A decent hard drive, around 80-120 Gb.

I have a total of $700 to spend, so if anyone can tell me what to purchase to make my PC run the best it possibly can under that budget, I would be very grateful. If it goes 10-20 bucks over the limit, no worries.

Thanks a lot.

 

[PoisonPorkchop]

I'm willing to bet you have PCI instead of AGP. You need to make sure because if you do, your kinda screwed....

 

[dhmiles]

I'm almost possitive i have an AGP, because the ATI 9700 Pro was one of the first to utilize it. I don't have my pc with me right now, but if you could tell me how i could find out, that would be great.

EDIT: I just checked online and the Dell 8250 has "4 PCI slots, 1 - 4x AGP slot..."

 

[weringo]

Download everest. If your card was one of the first to use AGP it is likely you have AGP 4X which means you are limited to what card you can buy

 

[dhmiles]

I have an AGP 4x slot, will I be able to use a "AGP 4x/8x" video card?

 

[Ridlyn]

Yes you will but the performance will be less with 4x then 8x