Need advice on system upgrade....

[Major_Storm]

I just bought a 19" LCD monitor for my rig. I fired up BF2 the other day @ 1280x1024 wow what a difference. I've always been a 1024x768 fan boy, but my jaw dropped. Anyhow, all of my settings are at low, and the game runs fine. I tried Oblivion, and my system is starting to show some age.

My current specs are:

Athlon XP 3200+
Albatron GeForce 5700 w/ 256 megs - AGP 8x
2x512 Corsair valueram 2.5-3-3-8
Onboard sound
DFI Lanparty NForce II Ultra Mobo
WD 120 gig IDE
WD 80 gig IDE

I just purchased 2x1GB of Patriot ram with timings at 2-3-2-5 from Newegg. In a couple of weeks I plan on getting an eVGA 7800GS AGP vid card. My goal is to stretch the life of this computer for another year, while saving to move onto 64 bit, and PCI-E. Hopfully Vista will be running smooth by then. I'm not expecting Oblivion to run at max settings, just to run smoothly. And I'm hoping I may be able to up the graphics in BF2. So what do you think? Anymore suggestions?

[[FM]Master_Chief]

Re: Need advice on system upgrade....

Ram and video card are good upgrades. Not much else you can do without changing mobo and cpu.

AGP card though seems a bit like a waste of money since you will be going with PCI-express soon. Unless you can sell it well later on.

[d3sc3n7j]

Re: Need advice on system upgrade....

Screw upgrades....just buy a whole new system from the GODS at NewEgg (where I got mine)

[Major_Storm]

Re: Need advice on system upgrade....

I wish I could just build a new system. The next system that I build, I plan on going all out for, we're talking SLI vid cards, maxed out ram, the best CPU available. It's going to take time to save all that money. Right now I have enough to make these upgrades. One more 1GB stick of memory and I will have gone as far as I can go with this system. I plan on handing it down to my son when I build my "Dream Machine." I just need a quick fix right now. I'm also waiting to see how Vista pans out, and build my machine around it. Thanks for you replies.

[The_Misfit]

Re: Need advice on system upgrade....

Video Card 1st of all. Depending on what you want to spend, a good AGP card can be anywhere from $175-300.

Memory would be the 2nd thing. Need to be @ 2gb.

And if you're still looking to spend $, get an Audigy4 or simliar sound card. The nForce2 sound is good, and works fine w/bf2, but newer games utilize OpenAL, and nForce2 boards don't support it (I had troulbe with quake4 and battlefront2 due to a nforce2 board).

I have been upgrading my system over the last couple of months, and have something simliar to what you have. I am ditching my Saphire9800pro for a
x800gto - 256mb ddr3 - for only $150 on NewEgg. Also went from 1gb mixed ram (1x512 2x256) to 2gb GSkill ram ($130 w/rebate 3wks ago on NewEgg also). Anyways, if you need any advice/help, lemme know.. My board is an ABIT NF7S w/nForce2.

[Major_Storm]

Re: Need advice on system upgrade....

I'm going with the 7800GS, 1) because I'm an Nvidia fanboy, been using them since I started building computers, oh so many years ago, and 2) because I believe this will be as far as the AGP slot will go. I don't believe the Chip makers will make any more after this.

The ram I'm getting cost me $129.99 after rebates.

The vid card will be around $265 after rebates.

Oh as far as sound. I only use a 2.1 setup, so I don't need anything special. If I did anything I would probably put my Audigy 2 Gamer back in my system.