Need help chosing!

[leo_vader]

Hello, i was thinking of upgrading my pc and i've been having a hard time deciding, i have the following setup: athlon 62 3500+,350w ps,2*512 mb of cheap ram,250 gb maxtor hd,asus a8n-sli premium mb.I want to play videogames(i'm curently mad about OBLIVION) with mid-high graphics settings for about 2 years, max 3, from now. What should i upgrade for that purpose, my bugget is only limited by my good sense(i'm not looking for a reason to sell my house :lol: ).Sow what do you guys think?

P.S. I just joined, greatings!!!
And sorry about any spelling errors, english is my third language.

 

[Shad]

You are going to need to upgrade your power supply if you plan on getting a high end card. I suggest you do that first then look into a X1800XT for around 300 or a X1900XT for around 500.

 

[mationman]

If you want something cheaper than what shad suggested go for a 7600gt and it should be ok with your power supply unless youve got about 8 hard drives

 

[techtre2003]

don't get cheap ram!

 

[simplyput]

Well the biggest issue when playing video games IS going to be the video card... and I didn't even see you list one. As for upgrades, I have a few ideas.

1) A 7900gt is a great card for the price (about $300). If you want to go ape, get a 7900gtx. (about $500)

2) Up the power supply if you can. 500w is usually good. I really prefer modular (less cables) and sli-ready (cables that actually go into what you want)

3) Get another gig of ram, preferably low-latency DDR-400. (or just lower the latency yourself on a gig of regular ram)

 

[leo_vader]

sorry, i have an ati x1600 pro 512 mb, and would higher frequency ram work on this mb, like 500 mhz,will it help?

 

[simplyput]

More RAM will almost definately help with oblivion's frequent loading. Although I don't have the article handy THG recently compared lower latency memory with higher speed memory. It ends up being about the same, so you might just lower the latencies on your memory... At least if you bought some quality memory and not the value stuff. Also consider overclocking everything a little bit. Most likely you won't get a big difference in framerate, but it's something.

 

[shabodah]

More Ram (2GB is nice), faster hard drive (Bethesda themselves recommend a higher transfer rates for loads. I run Oblivion on a budget style system EXCEPT for the raptor. Loads are hardly noticable at all (about 100X less noiticable than Morrowind, too! )

 

[FITCamaro]

More Ram (2GB is nice), faster hard drive (Bethesda themselves recommend a higher transfer rates for loads. I run Oblivion on a budget style system EXCEPT for the raptor. Loads are hardly noticable at all (about 100X less noiticable than Morrowind, too! )

Seriously. 2GB of RAM and a fast hard drive for Oblivion. I run it off 2 SATA 160GBs in RAID 0. I wouldn't even notice the loading if it didn't tell me every time it did it. Think theres an ini mod to change that....

 

[shabodah]

7200 is fine? Oh, well. then, my mistake.

 

[Nil]

7200 is fine? Oh, well. then, my mistake.

7200 on mine and it works pretty darn well, but you do see the loading screen.

Of course, for me, my craptacular ram (1.5 gig (don't ask) PC2700) is probably part of the reason.

 

[bluntside]

Cheap parts for cheap people :twisted:
High end parts for smart people :twisted: