I need to upgrade..

[gabriel]

My PC used to be great back in the day, but it is old and tired now, and in desperate need of an upgrade. Especially with all the next-gen games on the way, I fear my poor PC won't be able to handle games like it used to.

So, I was wondering if anyone has some hardware tips for me. What should I buy to upgrade my system?

Here are my current specs:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
2.21 GHz, 1GB RAM

Should I get a better processor? Most likely. What do you recommend?

Radeon 9600

Should I get a better graphics card? What do you recommend?

80GB hard drive

As of now I am using about 95% of my hard drive. Over the years, it has been cluttered with all kinds of things. Could this be affecting my PC's performance? Should I do something? Reformat? New hard drive?

Also, what are some ideas about cooling systems? I have 4 or 5 fans, but i've had problems with overheating before.

Yeah, so if anyone has any info for me about upgrading, parts, costs, places to buy, etc., that'd be great! Thanks.

 

[giant384]

i would say you need to format if you havent in awhile then it should improve performance

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

what socket are you on? Considering your athalon it's probably 939 or 940, but your board, given your card, is most likely an agp board.

It would be easier to recommend things if you tell us your mobo's socket and if your on agp or pci: express

Also open up your case and spray in there with canned air, get all the dust bunnys out that could be reduceing the effectiveness of your cooling. Dust off all your cards / mobo hardrives etc. Also i'd recommend reformatting your hdd's just to get a fresh start.

 

[Naudian]

It's most likely AGP, and the best AGP card I know of would be a 6800GT or ultra. Maybe X800 or x850 if you prefer ATi...any of those and a processor upgrade and you should be set for most next gen games...at least the ones coming out in the near future.
Need more info on your setup to be sure though.

The motherboard is prob 754 or 939, either way, I think a 3700+ would be a nice upgrade for that.
But I don't think a CPU upgrade would be necessary until around summertime...

And yea, format.

 

[gabriel]

motherboard: Epox EP-8RDA3+
socket: A
using AGP, but for some reason in device manager, it says my card is on PCI bus 2. is that strange?

here is my board: http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=229

but basically, i should upgrade my video card, and format my hard drive and i'll be set?

 

[Naudian]

motherboard: Epox EP-8RDA3+
for some reason in device manager, it says my card is on PCI bus 2. is that strange?

Not sure what it means exactly, but it seems normal..

here is my board: http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=229

It's...cute

but basically, i should upgrade my video card, and format my hard drive and i'll be set?

Yup. Your best bet would be a 6600GT, or 6800GT, whatever fits your wallet.

If you're in Canada and want to order over the net, I'd start with tigerdirect.ca or ncix.com

 

[sinkoman]

motherboard: Epox EP-8RDA3+
socket: A
using AGP, but for some reason in device manager, it says my card is on PCI bus 2. is that strange?

here is my board: http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=229

but basically, i should upgrade my video card, and format my hard drive and i'll be set?

That's normal. An AGP slot is a PCI bus.

And yeah, you've got a processor that'll last a little while longer

 

[3ssence]

As said above, a 6600GT or 6800GT would do the trick nicely for now. But why keep the old hard-drive ? Surely once you reformat and put all of the old stuff back on it you will still be nearing its capacity, and that can slow down performance, plus it's always nice to have extra storage for when needed. My personal reccomendation would be a new graphics card, backup the stuff you want to keep on your old hd and buy a new 160-250Gb sata hd and install everything on that, should notice a decent performance boost in loading times too. Just my opinion though.

 

[gabriel]

great! then it's decided. i shall get a new video card and another hard drive. thanks everyone!