Upgrades...Need some opinions

[Sashswash]

Hey guys-
Before i say anything, here are the stats for my current PC:

2.8 P4 with a 533 Mhz FSB
1024 Megs DDR266 RAM
Intel D845PESV Motherboard
Two 5400 RPM 60 GB Hard Drives
ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro

Now, for my question that i need some opinions on. My current PC is no where near outdated, but as Christmas is coming, i am looking to upgrade then. By then, i will have about $650.00-$800.00 (that's the money that i've saved up, and the money my parents will chip in for something for Christmas). What do you guys suggest that i upgrade? I was thinking that i could just wait a while and get a whole new system, but many of the parts in my current system could be used in the new one. Here are some of the ideas that i had:

-Upgrade the video (my motherboard only has AGP 4x. Would an AGP version of the x800 xt work with AGP 4x?)
-Upgrade the motherboard / processor / ram. This was another thought of mine, because i thought that my processor / memory speed might bottleneck a fast video card like the x800 xt. If i do this option, though, i wouldn't be able to upgrade to an x800 xt for video.

Right now i'm leaning towards upgrading the video and using the rest of the money to get some games. Sorry for the long write-up guys

What do you guys think a worthwhile update would be?

 

[Lil' Timmy]

i'd wait and get an amd sli mobo (with a64, new mem, and the best sli nvidia card you can afford)

 

[BIG]

Invest in some AMD stock

 

[Sashswash]

Yea...but if i go AMD, i might as well just get a whole new computer, which i can't afford to do. I think that i'm going to upgrade the graphics card to an x800 xt.

[edit] Do you guys think that i could upgrade video, motherboard, and processer for about $700.00? I could get an ati 9800 xt, and a fairly decent AMD cpu...i think i'll research this more. Thanks for the input

 

[Malfunction]

Estimation:

x800 XT - $455 (Sapphire non-PE)
Mobo - $130 (Asus' one and only 939 mobo)
CPU - $300 (AMD 64 3500+)

$885 - Estimation

With s/h - $900

Yeah, so if you got those, that would run pretty much anything insanely fast, so if you can wait a little, you might want to get those. Or, if you can see if you can get cash rather than gifts from relatives, you might have enough. Enjoy.

Then again, you could always go for a nice 6800 GT and then it'll be about $800 total, depdning on which GT you get (suggested would be BFG OCed).

 

[Sashswash]

Estimation:

x800 XT - $455 (Sapphire non-PE)
Mobo - $130 (Asus' one and only 939 mobo)
CPU - $300 (AMD 64 3500+)

$885 - Estimation

With s/h - $900

Yeah, so if you got those, that would run pretty much anything insanely fast, so if you can wait a little, you might want to get those. Or, if you can see if you can get cash rather than gifts from relatives, you might have enough. Enjoy.

Then again, you could always go for a nice 6800 GT and then it'll be about $800 total, depdning on which GT you get (suggested would be BFG OCed).

i think that i might go with something like this, except with a 9800 xt. I might want to pick up a new case / games, so the the cost of those will add into the total as well. Also, i've got about another month and a half to let the prices drop

 

[BIG]

there's not gonna be that huge of a difference between your 9700 AIW and a 9800 XT.

Save the money on that purchase for something else.

 

[Dulrough]

instead of making a new thread ill just tack this here, whats the bets thing I can do to this system with only $200?

P4 2.4gh
512 DDRAM
9700pro
40gb hard dirve

Im thinkin going for a gig of ram, since for a mere $200 I wont be getting anything outstanding.

 

[h4vvok]

New harddrive and new ram.