Next Upgrade? What would you do?

[Birddog1548]

I bought a stock computer last year, and have been upgrading it. I have installed an eVga 6800 GS (overclocked to 500/1300), which runs most all current games at or near full settings, and 1 Gig (2x512) PC3200 Crucial Ballistix ram, to go w/ the 2x256 generic PC3200 it came w/., and installed 3 extra 92mm fans by modding the case. I have a P4 540 LGA 775. And the limited bios on my mobo is only running my RAM at 333mhz, which can not be adjusted.

The processor is worth keeping for a year or two until software catches up w/ dual core.

So I have 2 choices on an upgrade, due to limited budget. Should I:

1.) upgrade my mobo (about $120-130), and buy 1 Gig of DDR2 at the same time (about $120);
2.) upgrade my video card to a 7900 GT KO ($250), and upgrade the mobo and ram later?

I'm going to eventually do both, but which should I do first? With the next generation of games coming soon, including Oblivion which is already out (and haven't bought yet, but could probably run at medium/high settings), I want to be able to continue to run them at max. Both options run about $250 range. Either way I have to upgrade the psu as well.

I'm thinking the mobo and Ram will improve overall system performance dramatically, including gaming. I could see a nearly 66% ram performance increase w/o overclocking by moving to PC4200, and open up more overclocking possibilities. But the video card will improve gaming NOW, w/o overclocking the rest of the system, but not much else.

What do you think?

[MadPistol]

Motherboard and ram first. You're going to see a bigger difference if you get some Good memory into that system. If you don't have to get a video card now, wait on it. I see prices falling eventually on video cards. Also, I'm not sure you're going to see that much of a difference with that type of processor.

[Birddog1548]

Yeah, I think the video card can hold out till, say Christmas, be some good deals then huh. That 7900 GT KO may be closer to $200-220 by then. Hell, maybe i'll get a fat christmas bonus and i'll be able to SLI :-).

But you think i'll see some good performace improvement w/ the mobo and ram?

What do you mean about the processor?

[MJCfromCT]

I'd get a Conroe-compatible motherboard, use your current CPU, get some DDR2 667 RAM, and when you are able, get a Core 2 Duo chip that'll knock your socks off. :)