PC Hardware Upgrade Recommendations?

[Phil3]

I built my own computer 4+ years ago, and thought about upgrading the motherboard and CPU. The rest of it is probably fine for Internet surfing, MS Office, minimal photo editing, and some limited games (Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo, etc.). I may want to do more with games.

Here are the components I have. I have not kept up on PC hardware, so what might be worthwhile upgrades for good game performance and fast response time on application loading and response? Maybe it needs nothing at all, but after this period, expect it could. ??? These are the specs as I recall them.

PC currently has.

Lian Li aluminum case (PC-V1200Aplus II Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower)
Antec 450+ watt power supply
ASUS A8V motherboard (AMD socket 939, 8x AGP, 400DDR memory)
Corsair 2 x 512 meg RAM (their highest performing stuff at the time)
AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 3500+ processor
ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256 meg video card
Plextor PX-712SA DVD burner SATA
Western Digital Raptor 74 GB 10,000 rpm drive (SATA)

Thanks.

- Phil

[bigmike82]

Well...what's your budget? You'll want a recent production motherboard, and AGP has really gone out of style. The only things that I would personally keep is the case, the hard drive, the power supply and the dvd drive.

[Scratch705]

actually not even the power supply if he wants to run a decent mobo/cpu and video card.

dual core cpu's are cheap now since the quadcores are out in force. and nvidia/ati have finally understood that people can't pay $500+ for video cards each year so they have really good budget level cards ($200 range)that can run most games with good visual quality.

[Phil3]

Budget? Pretty open. $600 for motherboard, CPU, 1G RAM, and video card. Can do more, just not sure what is optimal.

- Phil

[cyphr02]

gigabyte mobo, Phenom 2 CPU, OCZ 1333 ddr ram, and AMD Radio 5770 gpu you should be in business

[bigmike82]

I prefer Asus/Intel/NVidia myself...

100 bucks great motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232

170 for the proc:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

170 for 8G of RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

140 for the video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339

Just some options. EVERYONE is going to have different tastes...I'm quite surprised we haven't gotten into the entire Intel vs AMD/ATI vs Nvidia debates here (for the record, Intel cleans AMDs clocks and ATI is Nvidia's b***).

[Phil3]

Thanks for the links. The CPU you suggested is old, but highly regarded. Appears more than sufficient for what I will be doing. I can get some of the newer Intel i5 series for little more. Does that make sense or does the E8400 you referenced better work for my needs?

Thanks.

- Phil

[bigmike82]

A 3 gig CoreDuo should be perfect for what you want. If you don't mind spending some more cash, however (about another 200 bucks or so), definitely go with the i5/i7 series (and a different mobo). If you get a quality motherboard, you'll be fairly future proof for the next few years, if you end up wanting to upgrade your processors.

[Mute]

If you're going to get an i5, I suggest the 750. It overclocks well if you need the extra juice.

[Darklyte27]

Intel i7 920 should be good enough for another 5 years or so.