First time poster: Looking for advice

[meadowlands]

Hi all, first time poster here I was looking for some advice on upgrading my 3-year old comp. I know I know, there are tons of these threads, but I need to know which option is the most viable.

First off, I play games mostly, however, am looking into using my comp to record tv shows etc and store them as well. Here is my current setup:

Athlon 2000xp+
Radeon 9500 pro
1 gig pc 2700 ram
60 gb WD HDD

I currently have a 250 gb hitachi HDD sitting on my floor waiting to be used, and it needs a home fast!

My first, and cheapest option would be getting a new video card, maybe a 6800 or something.

My second option is this:

Athlon 64 3200+
2 GB pc3200 Kingston ram
Asus Nforce 4 mother board
Geforce 7800GT

Cost of about $700

My question is, will it be worth it to upgrade my full system, or just buy the video card for my current one? I'm basically looking for most bang for the buck and am willing to spend the money if it is warranted. Also will I see a huge improvement making the new system over getting a real good AGP video card? Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are more than welcome! Again thank you!

*edit*

I did not see the Home made PC thread down there so please move it there if need be

 

[pat]

Posting in the General home built section instead of the CPU section is my first advice..

 

[meadowlands]

Not the warmest of welcomes, but I already reposted there. At least trying to answer the question may have been more productive.

 

[endyen]

For games, you would about double your framerate.
With the right video card, or a video in card, you may be able to record shows, with your current system. Having a pci-express bus would make it a sure thing, may even allow HD.

 

[DuxSyagrius]

I'll take a stb at this one. Its eazy and I am pritty stoopid.

The difference will be like night and day. You will most certainly get $700 worth of improvements that you will both see and feel. Dont delay.

 

[DavidB]

for Game framerates it really depends on the game your playing. But for the most part even with a 6800 your not gonna get "good" frame rates on a processor that old. And with recordind TV and encoding it takes a lot of processor power. I know the things have a min requirement, but to get stuff at a decent quality takes a lot more than that.

So my suggestion is it is probably worth the money to avoid the annoyance of trying to get the older system up to the task.

 

[pyrix]

depends how much cash you have. Your system is not yet at the point where i would say Not worth upgrading, however, if you do have enough cash, the second option would be best, and would last you another three years, whereas sticking in a 6800GS would probably last you a year.

 

[pat]

Not the warmest of welcomes, but I already reposted there. At least trying to answer the question may have been more productive.

I would have, it it has been in the right section. And since you've crossposted, I won't.

Sorry.

 

[luminaris]

Go for the new setup man. I have an athlon barton core xp3200 system and an X2 3800 64 setup. The difference between these two machines is pretty obvious. Not so much as far as general speed goes but in games and multitasking, its very obvious.

 

[meadowlands]

I was just curious if I could squeeze anymore out of my good ol' 2000xp. I guess it will best be served and an upgrade for my parents comp since all they do is surf and play yahoo games etc.

Is there anything I should be waiting for, like a 512 video card, or is the 256 7800GT gonna last a while?

 

[baracuda73]

If you wanna do a bunch of tv show recording i would suggest an ATI All-In-Wonder card as they are excellent card for recording and good still for gaming.

 

[meadowlands]

Yeah but they only have pizel shader 2.0. The ones with CATV are no good for gaming either I wanna run a cable from my IO digital cable box to my computer as well if at all possible.

 

[Maxiius]

Is there anything I should be waiting for, like a 512 video card, or is the 256 7800GT gonna last a while?

I think the 7800GT will last ya awhile.

 

[meadowlands]

My question then becomes: 7800GT nd a seperate CATV in tuner or a radeon all in wonder 800xl? I wanna record tv from my IO digital cable box.

 

[Vile]

Won't VIVO do the trick there?

 

[pyrix]

Go a seperate card. That way if one breaks, you dont hae to replace two.

7800GT would be kickass, if your budget fails that, go 6800GS. Failing that, switch the motherboard to an SLI, which are only like $200AUD (do your own conversions) anyways, and stick in dual 6600GT's, which will absolougtly rip shit.

 

[meadowlands]

Does the 7800GT have vivo?

 

[pyrix]

Does it need it? No

Does it have it? No

Told you, get a $99AUD HDTV card, and away you go. Leadtek's would work.

 

[apache_lives]

may i sugest save a bit more up and buy a dual core cpu for more future proofing rather then a 3200? altho i suppose the 3200 is sufficent...