Advice for Video card, hard drive and DVD drive upgrade

[Ahiga]

This weekend I plan to update my system where it's really hurting, which is in its hard drive, video card, and DVD drive (Which is broken).

While I've done some research into video card, little in hard drive, and absolutely none in DVD drive, I was wondering if I could ask for some advice regarding the three. Keep in mind that I'm looking for budget, but not cheap. This is an upgrade for myself for the time being, but will also be for my brother come the summer or fall (or when Vista or Direct x 10 comes out), because I will be buying a new PC.

1) Video card: I'm thoroughly confused on the subject, and rather than post it in the bang for the buck I'd figure I'll post it here:

I'm upgrading my video card, which is labeled on my computer right now as an ATI Radeon X800 XT, though the papers from when I bought my PC list it as a Radeon 9800 256 mb, and I have never upgraded my video card. I'm looking for a mid-high upgrade, because I plan to buy a new system in the summer or fall, but this system itself will be going to my brother (Who has a really poor Dell), so I figure we might as well upgrade it for him early on, since my computer is seriously hurting in framerate in Half life 2, RTW, and Other games. Before I get to the specific Video cards, I'd ask if your frame rate can at all suffer because of lacking hard drive space. I have 9 to 16 gigs free, and I have noticed a dramatic slowdown ever since I have had a lot less hard drive space.

Anyway, the video cards that I've been suggested for here is the GeForce 7600 GT with a price of $189. On Tom's hardware's benchmark testings: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/...em/page11.html It scored a 4889 on 3DMarks 2005.

My friend in Sweden bought a NVidia 7800 (I believe a GT) 3 months ago, and in checking the benchmark stats on the same site, the same card but with a different ending (A BFG 7800 GS) recieved a score of 5114 on the test (1024x768 4x AA 8x AF). Not a dramatic difference.

Before I get to the question of the two cards, I'd ask - Is there a difference between the X800 and the Radeon 9800 256 mb? My Documents from when I first bought this PC in 2003 cite the Radeon 9800 as my video card, yet I open Catalyst (Program for working with ATI video cards) and right now it says I have an X800. I'm going to need to call to see if that's a mistake, but if it isnt, then the X800 is practically only a few steps below the Nvidia 7600 in 3DMark testing. X800 is 4807 and the 7600 is 4889. It wouldn't be a good upgrade but then doesnt explain why I have such a bad framerate in my games. Guess I need to reformat.

Those two cards (GeForce 7800 and 7600) are the two I am torn between upgrading to. Are either a good purchase for the price range of 200-300, or is there another card out there? I'm not married to Nvidia or ATI, but whichever is going to be smoother for most games is better for me. I remember my friend saying awhile back that Nvidia had better drivers but ATI had better cards, and I am somewhat curious if that still holds true.

I'll probably have to call Alienware tech support to make sure either cards are supported on my system anyway, but I want to make sure I do so with knowledge of what I'm going to be upgrading to.

2) Hard Drive - I'm told I should buy a Western Digital Hard Drive, and am looking for 200 gigs and in the price range of around 200 or lower. Is Western Digital a reliable company or is there another hard drive designer you'd suggest?



3) DVD drive - All I need is something to play and burn DVD's. Is there a specific brand I should look for? Does it really not matter? What would you suggest?

[rayzzz]

1) is it a 9800 or x800? if its a 9800 then you need to get an upgrade but if its a x800 then.... but are you really struggling playing games? and what socket do you have Pcie or AGP because this affects your decision on buying which vid card. 6800GS will be a good choice because it comes in pcie and Agp
2) this is a good choice maybe http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148113 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144012. 200gbs SATA each and less than a $100USD
3) asus tends to have good burners and so does pioneer, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135046