Upgrading my computer
 

I'm thinking to upgrade a little my computer, even if it still good, I think a little power would be good, but i'm not sure of what I should really change, or if I should wait a little.

here my specs:

AMD 64 3200+
1gRAM (2x512 dual channel HyperX)
Radeon X800 pro
motherboard Asus K8N-e Deluxe

i'm not sure if you need any other infrmation but I think it's probably in there that we should change something.

me I was thinking of upgrading my 3200+ for something more. My graphic card is somewaht new (less then 6 month) so I think i'll probably want to keep it, and that my motherboard is still in AGP...

so the question is probablye: should I get more ram in there or should I upgrade my processor?

oh and btw, the next time I will want to change my video card I will probably have no choice but to go in PCIexpress, but in every computer I had, I was always with an ATI video card, so should I go with Nvidia? I really don't know anything about nvidia card so I doN't know like which one is as powerfull as the X800 pro (all I know is that the 7800 somthing is like the one of the top card for now)

so anyway i'm just looking for advice to what I should change and if possible, for what I should change ^^

You're sure you need to change anything? That system looks fine. It's not the hottest gaming system on the block, that's for sure, but it's a good solid rig.

yes I know but I just want to know that if I want to change something, is what i should change. this probably not be a big upgrade, juste to keep a little up to date. thoe change will probably occur this summer or fall, I know it a little far, but i'm not sure what I should change.

(like should I go and change my motherboard to go PCIe with nvidia card, or change my processor, something like that. i'm not very good in computer so I don,t know what could be the most important to change)

Assuming your CPU to be socket 939, I'd probably swap out the motherboard for a PCIe board if you've got the money to switch both that and the graphics card at the same time. Then you can just throw a CPU upgrade at it in another 6 months when you have the money, and you've stayed on top of the game. I think socket 939 will probably remain standard for a while. On the subject of graphics cards, nVidia are the clear market leader at the moment, but only at the top end. ATI still have the better cost/benefit ratio in the mid-range of the market.

Having said that, though, there are a very small number of games that will run faster with 2GB of RAM. There are going to be more as time progresses. That's another upgrade you could perform. If your mainly a gamer, I don't see that the benefit from that is big enough just yet, though. Then again, if you're more a productivity-user like myself, who likes to keep a lot of applications open at once, then I'd say that it could be very much worth your while.

ok thanks a lot ^^

if your athlon 64 is a venice core or is 90nm, you could try overclocking it after getting a PCI-E board. that will add a lot of power to it (mine went from a 1.8ghz 3000+ to 2.5ghz, and there is a very noticeable difference in cpu-intensive games and encoding programs). if your ram can take it, i'd recommend overclocking it too, though you can use a divider if you want if it can't take the stress.

as for a video card, you probably don't want a midrange part, but i'd recommend the x850xt if you're short on cash. your x800pro has 12 pipelines and is clocked at 475gpu and 900ddr, and a x850xt has 16 pipes, clocked at 520gpu and 1080ddr. it's about $165.

if you're wanting high-end, the ati x1800xt is a good deal now for $349, and the geforce 7900gt is a steal at around $309. take your pick with those; they're all very well-priced. i'd go for the 7900gt... best performance at that price--it's the same as a 7800GTX, except its core clock is a bit faster and it's over $100 cheaper.

if you want super-high-end, there's always the 7900GTX and X1900XTX, but those are ~500 dollars.

as for memory, if you are doing some rather memory-intensive things (doom on ultra, half life 2, photoshopping large pictures, video editing) then more ram certainly can't hurt. just keep in mind that on an athlon 64 system, you get worse timings with 2gb than with one.

I did not know that. I suppose there's not a damn thing that can be done to compensate?

well, specifically, when you use four dimms to make 2gb. there are a couple of motherboards that can run 1gb dimms at 1T command rates, but they are pretty rare now. currently, the only way to get 1T command rates is to use 2 512mb sticks. using 4 makes it go back to 2T, but it's not a huge deal really.

if you overclock your ram a good amount, it should negate any timing issues with normal usage. with tons of small bits of data going through the ram, better timings is great, but if there are bigger files / more continuous things going through it, it shouldn't matter as much.

My motherboard doesn't even have four slots, just the two. Options are limited.

well I doN,t want to go in overclocking, mainly because I don't know enought in that and don,t want to do anything to damage my computer.

Well thanks for all the information, I think I,ll savea little more to change my motherboard and my processor and to go with an nvidia card (there are some thing that ATI card bother me like there's some feature they don't support or I saw in a game that there some feature that can't be used together...)

you might be thinking of crossfire, the ati version of nvidia's sli. you might also be thinking of pixel shader 3.0, which the x800 line of cards don't support- the x1800/1900 cards do though.

well I don't know, like the HDR feature in Oblivion, my video card don't support it, and like in City of Heroes there like a bloom feature or something that can be mix with FSAA at the same time, so I don't know I was happy with ATI card till now that I found Nvidia that seem to support more thing.

well you I really stay with ATI or go Nvidia? (btw i didn,t say it but it's pretty obvious now but this is a Game Computer >.>)

I've had cards from both manufacturers, and ATI has screwed me over sooo many times in the past (pre-Radeon days). nVidia was way ahead in their support for stuff like Linux, and hasn't burned me with driver support yet, so that's who I'll buy for now.

Upgrading that thing is a waste of money.

pre-radeon driver support was hideous. don't judge a company based on mistakes made 6 years ago that have been corrected-- i get whoever is the best for the cost of the card.

right now, i'd say that nvidia's 7900gt is probably the best card for the money you'll pay for it right now.

(actually, i like ati more because the tv output isn't as bad as nvidia in my experience! but whatever, i've played off of both companies pretty equally).

Double Post:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/...k_frequencies/

i haven't read it yet, but it addresses this very issue.

And I'll stick with the company that hasn't let me down up until the time that they do. Then give the other one a shot. But that doesn't mean that I'm exclusive. I mean, my current machine has a 9200 in it.