Upgrading and need help.

[Karus]

I've had my current system for quite a while now, (Athlon XP 3200, 1G RAM, Radeon 9800Pro) and I was looking to upgrade it to make the latest and future games run more smoothly. I was thinking of upgrading my motherboard to give me the option of buying a new PCI-E graphics card also a new CPU. I have of about £400 to spend on a motherboard, CPU and Graphics Card and as said before I'm just looking for some help on what components to buy. Any help would be a appreciated.

(Sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

 

[endyen]

For gaming, stay with single core. An A64 3200 is about 15% faster than your current chip, so a 3700 would make things interesting.
The best chipsets available today are by nvidia and Ati. The Ati 480 is looking really good. It's available on Abit's AT8 and Asus's A8R-MVP.
The nvidia nforce4 chipset is almost as good.
Bothe will allow the use of dual gfx cards, which only helps with eye candy. Ati is just releasing thier x1000 series cards, while nvidia is putting out 7000 series.
Problem is, the new chipsets do not support agp, so you will have to get a pci-express graphics card to play.
I have now idea on prices across the pond, but you should be able to get one of the Ati crossfire boards, a 3700 and something like an x1600 for your money.

 

[shata]

For a budget i believe 400pounds is like 800$ so
id go non Sli. Non-sli is better trust me on this i was thinking of gettin 2 6600gt's and they slightly out proform a 6800gt but they cost more. So id Stick with Nvidias GT series they are REALY nice i can max anything no problem

Asus A8N Premium 200$
7800GT 300$
Amd64 939 3500 is like 250$

So that puts ya right on ur budget

 

[MercilessDeadlyRaven]

This is what I would do:

AMD Athlon 3700+ Processor $234 (About 130-140 pounds)
A nVidia 6800GS Graphics Card (You can SLI later if you want. SLI-ing two of these will get you close too or better then a single 7800GTX) $209 (About 120 pounds)
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard $160 (About 90 pounds)

This will give you the option of SLI in the future, and keep you going for awhile. I got my prices from newegg.com, so just check it out, look around, and think smart. The 6800GS is probably the best performance-for-dollar card out at the moment, and SLI-ing two of them will be beautiful. The 3700+ processor can be clocked .2 or .3 GHZ higher, making it equal too or better then the 4000+. You'll probably need a new power supply, so try for a 550 watt or 600 wat PSU. Your RAM looks good, but if you want more, Corsair just lowered the prices on this RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145560