upgrade or new build??

[j12]

i currently have a budget "gaming rig" if you could call it that. it has a lga 775 p4 506 oc'd to 3.0ghz. geforce 6600 afp 4x/8x 128mb and 1gb of ram. i want to get sli because my geforce 6600 isnt fast enough anymore and neither is my proccessor. i could upgrade to an sli motherboard but i think my proccessor is still too slow. i was thinking about the pentium d 940 lga775. but i know that amd is better for gaming so i think that i should just save my money and build a new rig when DX10 comes out so my videocards wont be outdated in a few months.

i want the amd athlon 4000 64bit socket 939 or should i get AM2 if i build a new computer. is the athlon 4000 good for oc ing. i chose mainly because of the pricedrop. i would put 2gb's of ram , but i dunno what is good and cheap fast ram. and hopefully 2 7600gs' or 2 7600gt's in sli. it depends on the price whether i get the gs or the gt. i would also want to use the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540)
i'm also not in a rush to build this system also.


i will gladly accept any advice/suggestions.

 

[b1gapl]

If you're going AMD, definitely go AM2...939 is getting old. What about Conroe?

 

[Ronnie]

also there really is no need for 2 7600's youd be better of getting one 7900gt for like 240 bucks

 

[Dr DMoney]

Get a ko from evga because they are not defective. Thay won't crash like other 7900s.

 

[j12]

so would one 7900gt be faster than 2 7600gt's in sli??

 

[AnthraX]

i want to get sli because my geforce 6600 isnt fast enough anymore and neither is my proccessor. i could upgrade to an sli motherboard but i think my proccessor is still too slow.

The only thing holding your processor back is the 533MHz FSB. I honestly doubt your processor is slowing your system down so much that you have to upgrade. You said you have a "gaming rig" so I assume you game. In that case, the only thing, potentially, holding you back is your video card.

Since you have AGP, there isn't much you can upgrade to for much longer. I recommend getting the 7800GS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130269. It's the best AGP card you can get.

Upgrading to a PCIe board would end up costing you more money, if you chose to achieve the same or greater performance. If you do upgrade your board, I would get a 7600GT or a 7900GT, depending on how much money you have. (To answer your other question, yes a 7900GT is faster than 7600GT's SLI'd.) You may have to switch to DDR2 RAM, if you currently have DDR.
I personally recommend upgrading your video card right now, then saving for a new system in about a year when you need it more.

 

[j12]

is it true that DX10 will be comming out in the middle of next year? i have seen the 7800gs agp but it was 300$ when i looked at it last time, i guessed the price dropped. but if i do get a new card it will only last me about 9 months. so i dont really want to spend 200$ a much on a video card that lasts a little over half a year. i was already thinking about getting a new motherboard to get pci-e, but i think i can wait for DX10. some people have told me both my proccessor and my videocard were slowing down my comp.

 

[AnthraX]

What games do you play?

The X850Pro is another good option to consider. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102606

 

[j12]

bf2, call of duty, quake 4, and hopefully crysis

 

[maroon1]

Re: Re: upgrade or new build??

To answer your other question, yes a 7900GT is faster than 7600GT's SLI'd

According to this benchmark, two 7600GT in SLI is better than a 7900GT by a little bit.
But for the price i would go with one 7900GT card http://img450.imageshack.us/my.php?image=oblivionhighend6an.png