upgrading advice

[manus]

Current system :-
AMD 3000XP
1.5gig DDR400 ram
200gig HD
Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb

I want to upgrade and have the below system in mind :-
P4 3.2ghz
1gig Geil DDR2 500mhz ram
250gig SATA HD
XFX 7600GT 256mb PCI-X vid card

I just want to know if I'm going to see a big difference between my old and new. I play alot of heavy 3D games i.e. Battlefield2 - other 1stPerson shooters. Can anybody give a guage on how much better it will be ? At the moment, BF2 gets a bit jolty when the screen is busy with action... so will it be super smooth on the new system ?? thanks!!!! :)

[Shoreguy]

overall, no. With battlefield 2, no. You may load faster, and get smoother video, but BF2 relies heavily on cpu. You want a gigantic bump in performance, keep the $ burning a hole in your poket and wait until the Conroe's come to the market, then upgrade. Check out the reviews
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=191996

also, look to snag 2g ram. 2gig is BF2's sweetspot.

..and Welcome to SysOpt! :t

[MJCfromCT]

Welcome :) :t

First off, there is a difference between PCI-X and PCI Express. The 7600GT is a PCI Express card, not a PCI-X card.

If you are looking for a cheap upgrade, I'd say take a look at a x2 3800+, asus a8n-e, and a 7900GT. If you stick with s939 you can keep your current RAM. If you add a 512 stick to what you currently have and up your RAM to 2 gigs, that'll be best.

Otherwise, if you don't want to keep your current RAM, forget the P4 3.2ghz, wait for the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 to come out. That chip will blow the P4 out of the water.

[manus]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated and has helped me decide. :)

[MJCfromCT]

No problem, the more information you have the better. :)

Do you have an amount that you are willing to spend on this upgrade total? That could help us get into more specifics.

[manus]

Thanks again.. i've decided to wait a while. I've just upgraded my ram to 2 x 1gig GEIL DDR400. See how that goes. thanks again :)

[MadPistol]

Good Choice. Wait to upgrade until you can get everything you want, and not just some of the stuff you want. :t