Should I bother upgrading yet?

[rashod0]

I'm half tempted to upgrade my computer. It's a decent setup but i'm noticing video lag in some games like battlefield 2 from time to time and it's annoying!
Here is what I currently have:

AMD 64 3200+ Socket 754 (doesn't support dual ram)
Gigabyte K8ns pro
2x 512 (1gb) geil pc 3200 ddr 400 ram
Maxtor (6Y120M0) 120 gb 7200rpmhard drive (I do have 3 partitions)
ATI x700 (agp) 256 mb ram video card
Power Supply is at least 400 watts (can't think of the name/brand)

Regardless of what I do, I am going to buy 2x WD 74 gb 10,000 rpm raptor drives and run them in a raid0 configuration. I'm not sure if that that would be enough of an improvement not to upgrade, but here is what i'm thinking about upgrading to:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Proc
eVGA 133-K8-NF41 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Mobo
2x 512 (1gb) geil pc 3200 ddr 400 ram
2x WD 74 gb 10,000 rpm raptor drives (raid0)
eVGA 256-P2-N518 Geforce 7800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card (mobo is free with the video card, thats why i'm picking that mobo)

So what should I do, but the raptor drives and see if that helps much? Or just go for it? Any feedback is appriciated!

Thanks!

P.S. If I dont' upgrade now, I plan on using the money to buy a 24" widescreen Acer® AL2416Wd LCD or a Dell 2405fpw monitor. (currently have a very nice 21" silicon graphics monitor)

 

[mdd1963]

The Raptors alone might help in level *load* times 'somewhat', but your video card and having 'only' 1 gb of RAM installed are the largest factors holding you back in BF2, and many BF2 users recommend 2 GB for this system-resource hog of a game...(a recent review on this game even implied that some hitching/stutter issues with 2 gb installed disappeared when 4 gb was installed, but I cannot comment on the articles' validity)

You're left with a tough choice...

Find a 6800GS or X800GTO in AGP, and slap in another gb of RAM, extending the life of your current rig for at least 8-10 months for about $330, or, spend over $1000-$1200 on a new rig...if you could sell/trade your X700 based card, personally, thats the route I'd take, saving for a total revamp later...

A pair of RAID 0 RAPTORS won't help you much in BF2...save that money towards a PCI-e rig in the future....

(THe 7800 GT is a nice upper-mid range card , though! I have one myself and love it!)

 

[rashod0]

I'll def try the ram option first and see how much that helps, thanks for the info!