Mobo/cpu or video card first?Follow

If you are primarlily looking for gaming performance you should skip intel all together. AMD makes better gaming performance cpu's by far. Look into the FX-53's and 55's.

I would save up a little while longer and get a motherboard that has PCI-ex for video and a new vid card at the same time. If you buy a new video card now it's probably just going to be a waste of money because when you upgrade the rest of your system next year with the newer chipsets, the motherboard you get may not have an AGP slot.

The main thing you want to remember is you don't want to get crap components just to save money so that you can get something bigger and better than what you currently own. You definitely want to get something that is going to grow into the future with you. We are on the brink of a big change in components, SATA is becoming the standard, AGP is going away and PCI-x16 is taking its place. Intel just rolled out a 1066 GSB and the Prescott chips where the pins are on the mobo and not on the chip. I'm doing research right now on what I want to upgrade...it looks like at the moment to get something that will keep you current for the next couple of years you're going to need to spend about $600-700 to get good qulaity parts, you're getting a new chip, so you'll need a new motherboard, chances are pretty good that your new motherboard won't be able to use your current RAM so you'll have to replace that too. If you go intel, you'll more than likely be getting a mobo which doesn't have AGP but PCI-x16. My advice is take your time with this upgrade, Something new and better is always coming out, but you want to make sure that the new and better is compatible with what you are going to drop a large sum of money on.

I would suggest.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=241115

and

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80661-1

and

whatever video card you want.

Personally I like Ati and have a radeon 9800 pro.



Edited, Thu Dec 2 23:45:12 2004 by neban

Hmmm. I don't know too much about the pci-16 yet but based on the price of that video card u linked I'd look into it. That card seems very cheap so not sure if its any good.

Also its best to buy ram kits. They come in packs of 2 and are tested to perform very well togeather. Although honestly not sure if ddr2 is dual channel so it may not matter.

but i guess this would be what I'm talking about in your scenario.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1056177

Thats one expensive PC your making there.

Edited, Fri Dec 3 00:03:50 2004 by neban

RAM

:)

Well this is my first post and I made my account just so I could help you with your problem :) If you are going to upgrade it would be a good idea to go with pcix mobo and vid card because of future upgradeablity (like others have said before me). Check out this web site for good info www.anandtech.com when they give awards out for editors choice it seems the makers like to talk about it on the net. Save your money if you can for the new one and by then there will be alot more choices out there. So far the pcix of now really only gives you like a 3-5 % diff in frame rates compaired to agp cards. In some games it may be alittle more but not much to talk about. The diff wouldnt really even be noticeable. Also on that web site they have a real time pricing engine that will tell you if the item you are looking at has increased or decreasd in price. I like AMD and there 64bit processors which is also becoming a standered for computing eg. windows going to 64bit in the future. In most test ive seen the amd64bit proc. work better in gaming. Intel usally works better if your codeing or decodeing files like changing formats on a movie or sound file ect ect. You should be able to find good prices on an AMD 64bit 3000+ or 3200+ now and if you do go that way go with a board that is of 939 type stay away from the 754 or something like type cause i think you need registered ram for it,its alot more money for that type. Shop around, do alot of research so you will be comfortable with what you decide on buying. Get a gig of ram if you can that helps out a whole lot in gaming. What vid card do you have now. If you think it will take to long for you to save up enough money and want better preformance now you could go with an ati 9800pro or XT that might help alot if you have an older card but then you would be traped in having an agp card and board makers are going the way of pcix. Also amd is cheaper than intel if your tight on money. I just bought a laptop for my GF to play the game with me it has an AMD64bit 3200+ and a 9700pro 128mg with 512 ram and the game runs good going to upgrade it to a gig of ram soon and the game will run great then. I hope you find what your looking for GL :)