Comp upgrade advice needed.

[happyhappy]

Hey guys, my computer is about 3 years old and im looking to upgrade some parts in it.

Currently I have:

Radeon 9800 pro 256.
1.5 ghz of ddr pc3200(200 mhz) 3x 512 sticks.
some sorta old asus motherboard that is a required upgrade if I want to upgrade my graphics.
and a terrible 50 gig hard drive which is also a 100% upgrade.
I also have a p4 3.0 ghz processor which im wondering, is it that bad or should I upgrade it as well.

Right now I have a ball park amount im looking to spend which is around 800 dollars so I want parts I can upgrade to get my moneys worth and get the best performance possible. I want this computer to be for gaming and to play future games if that helps at all. Thanks alot guys.

 

[j00t]

Get a new ATI. I hear you can get two and link 'em together to get insane graphics.


Maybe a RADEON 2900 HD Series

 

[happyhappy]

If I get 2 of them then I wont be able to upgrade any of the other components in my computer because it costs to much and I would need a new motherboard to support a new graphics card anyways. I need to spend the 800 bucks on all of the parts not just one area.

 

[Asus]

From the USA? Do ya mind ordering online?

Could get a $250-300 graphics card. Something like a Nvidia 8800GT or a yet-to-be-released ATI card in that range (NOV?). Personally, I wouldn't recommend SLI or Crossfire. Limited benefit but double the cost. Plus hardware (video cards especially) get obsolete so fast these days, and you would have 2 obsolete cards then... Better to just buy more frequently instead of more expensive cards.
Crysis and UT3 benchmarked with 8800GT, 8800GTX, 8800GTS and HD 2900XT (Max playable settings used based on how fast the card is. Watch for the different resolutions/settings)

I would recommend upgrading the CPU. P4 is sorta old. Any new CPU (even lower end) would be faster. e.g. Core 2 Duo E6550
2 sticks of 1GB memory (2gb total) would be awesome. Wouldn't have to upgrade later then. DDR2 is the common type boards use today.

 

[happyhappy]

Awsome thanks for the advice, what would be a decent motherboard to go along with those?