Upgrading my PC, Suggestions? Thanks!

Hey all, I recently got a new graphics card and PSU, and am wondering what I should upgrade next, my PC contains the following specifications:

AMD 2400+ @ 2.01ghz
768MB RAM
50.5gb HDD (Pwned, I know )
Radeon 9200SE 128mb (LOL! This is getting replaced by a x1600 256mb )
Mother Board : Unknown, but all I know is it's crap.
PSU : This is only 150W haha, but also getting replaced within a day or 2, with a 430 Thermaltake one.
Monitor: 17" CRT
CD-Rom: 52X (lol)

Ok, so i'm getting the video card and PSU today or tomorrow, what do you think my next upgrade should be? Thanks in advance.


EDIT: I'm not looking for OMGWTFBBQHAX LE37 gear, as i'm on abit of a budget.

~Zeth

A decent motherboard and 1GB of memory will work wonders.

Nice, thanks for the quick reply. How much of a performance increase will it produce. What about my CPU, isn't it pretty crappy also?
I don't know too much about PC's but when I hear about 4000+ or higher, it makes me cower in fear.

~Zeth

RAM definately. Upgrade to either 1gb or 2gb. Will make things run sooo much better.

On the CPU note: A better CPU would make a big difference, however, upgrading a CPU is much more expensive than adding RAM.

A new motherboard won't really produce any major performance boost, but what it will do is offer you more potential for upgrades in the future. More memory is the cheapest way to gain a performance boost. It'll allow Guild Wars, and other games, to place more data into the memory which is accessed a lot faster than if it has to keep accessing the hard drive.

A good example is Battlefield2. When I used to play with 1GB the game had to keep reading the hard-drive to access the textures on high settings, which means micro-stutters in the gameplay, as it uses roughly 1.5Gb at those settings. I dropped an extra 1GB in and now it plays as smooth as anything without a single stutter.

Of course if you do get another motherboard you may want to invest in a new CPU too, as you may not be able to get a motherboard that will take your current CPU. In the end though, it's all down to how much you want to spend.

whats your budget range?
200?
500?

id definately get 2x 1gb sticks of ddr1 ram. their very cheap right now since no new computers use them.

you should save up for a better mobo/cpu that you can get later. its very hard to upgrade your cpu since its outdated and amd does not manufacture any more socket A chips.

amd is very cheap right now, so you have two options:
1) setup a socket 939 system, which is cheaper by far than option #2
a64 4000+, an agp s939 mobo, 2x 1gb of ddr1 ram
2) buy a new socket AM2 system, which will require different ram that what you are currently using. ddr1 ram wont work in a ddr2 mobo
a64x2 3800+, 2x 1gb ddr2 ram, sAM2 mobo

I think it is best if you rethink your upgrade strategy. Upgrading incrementally at the moment must be planned out before buying anything.

I was in a similar situation about a year ago (and right now too). My motherboard died and I needed a replacement. It was an AGP/DDR1 board - the same as yours. Your AMD 2400+ is probably Socket A (462), which is equivalent to my Socket 478 P4 in terms of generation.

Since I was on a budget as well, I picked up a Socket 754 Sempron, 1 GB of DDR1 400, and a motherboard with integrated graphics (Nvidia 6100) and a PCI-E slot. Total cost: less than $200. Later put in a 7300GS because I got sick of the onboard one, bumping the cost to maybe $250. I'm planning to keep this till DX10 cards and games become more mainstream.

Now let's see why I did what I did. Socket 754 was already old a year ago, and upgrading to an old platform usually doesn't make much sense. But, I kept my system for a year already, and probably will for another. That $250 upgrade carried me for two years, making it a pretty reasonable investment. Another thing I did was pick a PCI-E motherboard. I didn't think I'd buy a new graphics card, but I'm glad that I had the option to. If I had chosen an AGP board, I'd be spending more money on an outdated standard. Sure, the 7300GS isn't worth anything if I upgrade now, but it might come in handy for troubleshooting a newer system since they only take PCI-E cards.

There are several choices for you, but I only recommend two: 1) don't upgrade anymore and save up (cost: $0), or 2) upgrade to an AM2 or Conroe system (cost: $500+)

Socket 939 is a bad choice since you'll be buying DDR1 memory that cannot be used in a newer system. Unless you actually plan to keep that system for a foreseeable future, don't do it.
A "hybrid" system (one that supports both DDR1 and DDR2 memory) is a bad choice for compatibility reasons only. Assuming it all works well after you put it together, you can get a Conroe (about $200) with one of these "hybrid" motherboards (less than $75). That way, you can keep the new AGP x1600 card and you'll end up with a decent system. Again, there's two assumptions: that your memory works with the motherboard, and that the memory doesn't bottleneck the system. I don't recommend this because it might not work, but when you upgrade later, you can re-use the processor you bought.

A cheap upgrade you might consider would be adding a DVD burner. The $30 you spend here won't make your computer any faster, but it's sure useful and re-usable when you buy a new computer.

Again, just to reiterate, I don't recommend buying any DDR1. Memory prices are pretty high now, and any DDR1 that you buy will be useless if you upgrade your motherboard again within the next few years. DDR2 may be more expensive (for the same amount and comparable quality), but at least that can be used again until DDR3 becomes mainstream (whenever that may be).

saving up is always the better option, but the wait is just so frustrating when you know that you can buy a cheap system that will be better than your own.
most of us dont have the patience O_O

I have to agree with the ram upgrade as that is the one thing that will show the most performance increase with what you have. The next thing to think about is a new video card. Get what you can afford while still stepping up. On the processor you will need to know what socket is used to upgrade that, don't waste any unecessary money than you have to.
One other thing to do is to start to save up money for a new computer when the time comes. Every little penny can help out in the long run.

Mega Mouse

Also, the best thing about saving for a new PC is that you can aim for a pretty high spec machine and by the time you've got the money together it will have dropped in price.

Going to 1Gb of ram from 768 will make absolutely no difference at all on that machine. There's very little you can do with that system other than what you already have planned. But even those will be basically wasted as neither will be very desirable on a newer system. I'd recommend you bite the bullet and hold off for a total system overhaul.

Grab a budget AMD AM2 board, an X-2 3800+ processor, 1Gb of ram, and try to swing an ATi X1950 Pro video card. You an also find some sweet deals on 120-160Gb hard drives.

He just bought a new PSU and VIDEO CARD, so he won't want to be buying another video card just now prolly.

I have to agree with Hockster on this one, upgrading the memory from 768 to 1Gb will do nothing.

My feeling is that the OPs long range goal should be the rebuild the entire system around an AM2 or LGA775 motherboard.

If he is going to be spending money now, without the new motherboard, then the OP should spend the money on stuff that can be moved to the new motherboard (when he finally gets it) BUT at the same time the stuff should provide some immediate benefits on his current system.

With all of that in mind, I would say that he should start by examining the interfaces on his current motherboard. Does the motherboard have a Serial-ATA150 interface? Prolly....a SATA 2 3/Gb HDD will run on that, but at half speed. No matter. That's the kind of thing that he should spend his money on, since it will provide immediate benefits yet still can been retained for his future system.

An OEM 250GB 7200RPM HDD costs what these days on Newegg? $60? That would be a terrific investment to my mind.