Upgrade Suggestions

[foothead]

you can upgrade. It just isn't going to help gaming performance a ton.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Since you say you're starting to get lag and slowdowns in more current games, start with a video card upgrade. It will give you more overhead for the more demanding games, and then you can always save up for a new mobo/CPU/memory combo down the road.

 

[TCO]

Thanks for your suggestions!

One last question: I've been offered a rather good deal via Craigslist on an AMD motherboard, and was wondering if it was decent. It is a ECS IC780M-A (specifications). I would just hold on to it for awhile until I could afford a processor, but I can't figure out whether it would support an X4. Besides that, is this a decent board for a future upgrade?

 

[foothead]

What is the price?

That board will support an x4. It just has a kinda meh chipset.

 

[TCO]

$25. I've never considered motherboard chip set before. Does it matter that much? What should I look for? With all the different brands its hard to compare different north bridges. I'm not going to be OCing. Also, I'll probably be using an Athlon 64, which has a built-in memory controller.

 

[foothead]

If you stick to one video card, stock clocks, no RAID, then it will be fine. Awesome deal too.

 

[TCO]

If you stick to one video card, stock clocks, no RAID, then it will be fine. Awesome deal too.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[TCO]

Since you say you're starting to get lag and slowdowns in more current games, start with a video card upgrade. It will give you more overhead for the more demanding games, and then you can always save up for a new mobo/CPU/memory combo down the road.

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but if I upgraded only the video card, which of the following would be the best choice?

• Radeon HD 4830
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850
• Radeon HD 4770
• GeForce GTS 250

Also, do you know of any websites that will buy back my old card? Is Sapphire a good video card maker?

Thanks!