Affordable Upgrade Recommendation

[MrG]

Okay. Lets see. Ive got like no money to spend so want to do small upgrades piece by piece every month or so.

This is my system as it stands.

Monitor: 22" Samsung 226BW LCD
CPU: 3Ghz Pentium 4 Prescott 32Bit Socket 775
Motherboard: Gigabyte 8I915P Duo
Memory: 2x 512MB DDR 400 Ram Transcend
Graphics Card: Gainward GeForce 7600GT Golden Sample
HDD: 1x Western Digital SATA2 250GB and 1x Seagate SATA2 350GB
Drives: 1x CD-RW Drive 48x 24x 48x + 1x DVD Reader + 1x DVD-RW Drive 16x Writer
PSU: 500W Power Supply
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate 32Bit

So here is the story.

Removed a 40GB IDE Western Digital drive from it last week when the other 80GB Seagate failed. So I bought the new 350GB Seagate last week. So now at least I have some more space to work with which makes me happy.

Monitor I think im happy with. CPU no but probably not the next in line for replacement. Graphics Card still handles well but a 9600GT is at the R1600 mark... hmm.. but still I think not.

Next step probably is to get rid of the 2x 512MB Modules and buy 2x 1GB DDR2-800 modules (Transcend price R269 per module - which should clock down to 533 with this motherboard) and then next step is probably to upgrade the motherboard since the old chip will still run in a new 775 board and evetually get to upgrading CPU as well?

What u guys think. Will be a long process with a students budget being brilliant but whatever.

I mostly use the system for browsing the net, listening to music, watching series/movies and playing one game.. World of Warcraft from time to time.

 

[Sapphiron]

mmm, great that your board has both DDR2 and DDR1 slots

I would wait a bit on graphics cards, ATI's new 4850 is pwning everything in slight in bang for buck. Nvidia responded with some price cuts, but ATI is likely to follow shortly. You should be able to pickup a 4850 for somewhere between R2200-R2500 right now. That might drop to below R2000 in about 2-3 months.

Since you don't play any games except WOW, I would upgrade the CPU Motherboard combination after the RAM. At entry level (less than R2000 boards + CPU), AMD has motherboards with more features for the same performance, while at higher price levels, Intel has better performance).

I would go for 2x 2GB DDR2 667 ram. At 1333FSB 667 ram performs better than 800. This is because FSB and Memory dividers are in sync mode (4x333 FSB and 2x333 RAM). You only need 800 ram if you are going to overclock past 1333FSB.

Plus 2GB RAM is not going to last long. Vista needs some for all its stuff you don't need.

 

[MrG]

Alright. Thanks for that.

Problem though. The next board I will be looking at will probably have 4x DDR2 slots so I was thinking of getting 2x 1GB DDR2 667 then for now and later more since my current motherboard only supports a maximum of 2GB of RAM which kinda sucks, but Vista 32Bit also only registers a max of 3.5GB or something right?

or since my board can only handle 2GB should I just get one 2GB atm in Single Channel then obviously? I was just going 2x 1GB modules because of Dual Channelled.

Edit: I was looking at Cafe Vivas price list atm and cant see a 2GB DDR2 667 module on the list only a Chaintech (I dont really like them) 2GB DDR2 800 Module for R499.

 

[Sheepbot]

I would upgrade cpu and mobo first, I think that will make the biggest difference when gaming. The 7600GT is still quite a decent card and should last you until you finished upgrading the other parts in your pc.

Your board only supports DDRII 533 so you can't have 667 anyway, plus if you get more 533 ram before a new mobo you will be limited to having 533 ram in your next mobo, which is a waste when it supports DDRII 800.

Can you give us a rough estimate on what you're willing to spend on each component? That would help a lot.

-Sheep-

EDIT: Oh and are you willing to purchase from online stores? Otherwise what store are you looking to purchase from?

 

[.Froot.]

I agree with the motherboard and CPU being a priority upgrade. You should always do the following: Get a motherboard to suit your needs, then components to suit the motherboard. 1GB RAM is still acceptable, although not fun, but hey, it works.
If you are looking at 2GB 800 sticks, they shouldn't cost you more than 450 apiece if you are looking at JetRam (from Transcend, those are pretty awesome) or R550 for Corsair (better but offers similar priceerformance).

 

[.Froot.]

In terms of pricing for components for possible upgrades, the following are plausible: (prices taken as average between suppliers)
Intel Dragontail motherboard: R1000
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600: R2000
Transcend JetRam DDR2-800 (2x2GB) R900

If I am not mistaken then your CPU could still work in the Dragontail motherboard. This could sort out some money issues and then you could buy the Quad Core (personally I prefer the E8400 (E8500 is not worthy of the priceerformance when looking at E8400))