$200 Upgrade

[poptarthunter]

Hey everyone I'm looking to upgrade my PC a bit but I only have a budget of $200.00. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction of what to upgrade.

Processor:Core 2 Duo e6600 @ 2.4 ghz
RAM:1 gb Corsair XMS DDR400
Mobo: GA-965P-DS3(pretty good for overclocking and has socket LGA775, want to keep this)
Video: NViDia 7800gt
Sound: X-Fi Soundblaster
HDD: 500 GB 7200 RPM

I'm primarily in the market for a video card but i didn't know if i should just spend all of the 200 on a video card or some on the card and some on other parts.

Thanks in advance.

[Bad_Motha]

Are you sure you listed your specs. correctly?
If your CPU and Motherboard are Socket-775 then you're ram should either be DDR-667 or DDR-800

Also check your motherboard/video card, clarify that it is either AGP or PCI-Express. I know a few older 775 boards had AGP when they first released so I just want to be sure.

Please check the specs and clarify it here plz. before we help or make any suggestions. Thanx!

[poptarthunter]

Are you sure you listed your specs. correctly?
If your CPU and Motherboard are Socket-775 then you're ram should either be DDR-667 or DDR-800

Also check your motherboard/video card, clarify that it is either AGP or PCI-Express. I know a few older 775 boards had AGP when they first released so I just want to be sure.

Please check the specs and clarify it here plz. before we help or make any suggestions. Thanx!

Sorry. It is indeed DDR-400 and PCI-E. Are you sure that the motherboard isn't backwards compatible with DDR-400? It was one of the first 775 mobos released. I got it right when the Conroes first came out. I also forgot to mention that its all running on a 550 Watt Enermax PSU.

[Scholzpdx]

This was probably one of the Frankenstein boards. I've seen Q6700 rigs w/ DDR 333 and cheap AGP graphic cards.

[Suresh0t]

CPU:
- Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056)

GPU
- SAPPHIRE 100254HDMI Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102843&cm_re=ATI-_-14-102-843-_-Product)

RAM
- G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231087&cm_re=2_GB_DDR2_RAM-_-20-231-087-_-Product)

Total: $216.97

Goes $16.97 over your budget but for that price its a really good upgrade

[poptarthunter]

CPU:
- Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056)

GPU
- SAPPHIRE 100254HDMI Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102843&cm_re=ATI-_-14-102-843-_-Product)

RAM
- G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231087&cm_re=2_GB_DDR2_RAM-_-20-231-087-_-Product)

Total: $216.97

Goes $16.97 over your budget but for that price its a really good upgrade

Okay so do you imagine, game-wise, that I would get better results with these upgrades than with just getting $200 graphics card?

[Scholzpdx]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012&cm_re=GA-965P-DS3-_-13-128-012-_-Product

Is this your current motherboard?

[poptarthunter]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012&cm_re=GA-965P-DS3-_-13-128-012-_-Product

Is this your current motherboard?

Thats the one.

[Bad_Motha]

I have a much older machine then yours that runs both Stalker games just fine. But I will say playing with 1GB just isn't going to work out well. That's what I had in it when Stalker: SOC first came out, then updated it to 2GB. Ran way better after that.

I would get something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130457&cm_re=evga-_-14-130-457-_-Product

and some ram...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145579

It should pretty much top out your current setup. Although you could go higher with graphics card. It will put you near or over $200 just for a good card. The 9800 GTX+ is great, I have one in my later AMD machine and it runs both Stalker games on nearly maxed out graphics settings @ 1920x1080

But the extra graphics won't help you very much if you don't upgrade the ram too.

[sideways]

GIGABYTE GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125236)

A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model ADQVE1B16K - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211188)