To Upgrade or Not

[Scarlett Letterman]

Do you guys think I should upgrade my computer or sell it now while its still decent and get a new one. My processor is what worries me: Athlon 2500 1.84GHZ (not sure on the FSB), 512mb of DDR Ram, Geforce FX5200, WinXP, 40GB harddrive, 2 cd drives (ones a burner), and some sort of Asus motherboard (i can post its exact model tommorow). I just bought it summer 2004 for about 1000 canadian (including monitor, speakers, etc.)

So should I upgrade my ram and graphics card or will my processor be holding me back?

[Ragss]

Your video card is the number one bottle neck there...the 5200 is infamous for being a reallly :wub: card.
However, the 2500's are equally famous for being good overclockers...even if your multiplier is locked, you can still probably get it above 2ghz.

512 megs of ram is sufficient...though there are games coming out, and doubtless many more in the near future, that require 1024 megs to utilize the high rez texures, for instance, bf2 and hl2.

If you do a modest overclock and get something even as cheap as a 9800 pro you could like...triple your frame rate in most games.

[Custor]

AMD 2500 is 166FSB processor with a multiplier of 11. ie 11x166=1840 Mhz ish.
Your RAM should therefore also be running at 166 FSB (this is marketed as PC2700).

[Scarlett Letterman]

So upgrading is my best option then. What's the best graphics card I can get for 200$ or less (like 150american). And do you think I will be able to sell my 5200 for anything worthwhile?

[squeaky]

about the RAM, your RAM is running at its stock speed, just the CPU:RAM ratio isn't at 1:1
The best card you can get for 150USD would be the ATI Radeon 9800Pro. If you search/wait for sales and rebates, you may be able to get a 6600Gt for that price.

[Scarlett Letterman]

Hmmm, okay I will shop around for the 9800 pro and 6600gt. Squeky I didn't quite follow you on the RAM thing. And what is a reliable (and cheap webstore to buy a videocard from?

[Clibby]

http://www.newegg.com/

Newegg is the best for online computer parts, plus they are very quick.

[RudeHades]

I would say the ram is not efficient if your wanting a gaming machine... but, if its one of those deals where you are playing a game you like every once in a while, and you do other stuff (like type reports, internet research, saving records, taxes etc...) then 512 is more than enough. But, like the one dude said earlier, some games are requiring about a gig of ram now. Doom III is an enormous game which requires tons of stuff to run well, and smoothly.

[Scarlett Letterman]

Well I just bought this ATI RAdeon 9800 pro of ebay for $91 american http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

Think I got a good deal eh? Should be a solid improvement over my 5200 i hope.

[squeaky]

RAM speed won't degrade with a low FSB CPU, so don't worry about that.
Most cheap RAM is about the same price, I normally go with Corsair Value Select. 512mb will cost around 30-40$ while a gig costs about 79$

try www.zipzoomfly.com too

[MasterCommander]

well i used to have a 5200 and i overclocked it and it ran bf2 on all medium level but now i have a 6800 and it runs so good so yea get some more ramm and a better video card

[squeaky]

9800 pro is a very good card. Solid and tested by time