So, what should I upgrade first?

[itakeyourbullets]

Well, well, well...2004 is shaping up to be, The Year of the First-Person-Shooter. With games like Doom III, Halo 2, Half Life 2, and Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines, just around the corner, my PC may need a serious upgrade. And the already-released Painkiller and Far Cry seem to be a problem, too, with my last-years PC. So, what I am asking from all of you, or anyone, is what should I upgrade first to be able to run those upcoming games at high detail (excluding Halo 2, of course)? But I do have one minor query, my budget is $150.

Here are my current PC specs:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Pentium 4 Processor
2.26 GHz
768 MB RAM (I am not sure if it is either DDR or RD)
7200 RPM 30 GB HDD (I have filled up around half of it)
Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 128 MB RAM (I purchased it on September of 2003)
Compaq CV735 Monitor (Manufactured: October 2000) [I run all of my games at 1024x768]
Netzero DIALUP (Soon to be either Comcast High Speed Internet or Verizon DSL)
52X CD/RW Drive
4X DVD/RW Drive
Logitech Z-340 (2.1 speakers) [But I do have a spare Logitech Z-540 (4.1 speakers)]

*If a video card is next in line for an upgrade, I prefer Nvidia over ATI.

BTW: Does anyone know the official release date of Half Life 2? No, it is not June.

 

[Reaperman]

overall your looking pretty good, if you have money to blow get more ram...

you can NEVER Have too much ram, i have 1ghz DDR

EDIT: oh, and a new Hard drive, 30 gigs just wont cut it, some of these mods may top 1.5-2.0 gigs... (BF1942 already has mods approaching the 1Gig download limit

Get
1.More ram (1 gig should do it)

2.Bigger Hard drive

 

[creed]

P4 should be enough, you will need more memory at least 1 gig and of course new card which ever you prefer, if you decide to upgrade hard drive then go with
10 000rpm 8mb bufer

 

[Gorgon]

get ATI 9700PRO

 

[jonnyapps]

my guess is on the day hl2's released you could prolly get a 9600 (xt?) and a new hd for $200 or less. so hold tight for a month or two - you definitely need to kick out that fx5200. i had one and it's crap.

pretty sure if you stick in a 9600xt and a nice hard drive (go larger cache over more gigs if money is an issue that way you get faster loading) then your pc's gonna play hl2 on high settings. I wouldn't worry about ram until you've got rid of the fx5200.

I've just built a pc purely for hl2 so if you have any more enquiries just pm me or ask here.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Closed.

There's a thread in the Hardware forum for upgrade questions. Use it please.