Stay with what I got or...

Any upgrade to that system worth doing would mean a new motherboard, RAM, CPU, graphics and likely PSU too.

How much do you have to spend?

Well without knowing a budget or a purpose it's kinda difficult to say.

As a base, an AM2 3800+ X2 is one of the best value CPUs you can get, so building around that CPU could be a good place to start. If you have a bit more cash, a Core 2 Duo 6300 could be a good option.

Pentium D was the name of all the old dual core CPUs. Basically, Pentium is now dead and Core 2 is the new CPU. It's way better in every way.

An E6300 is a great CPU, and can overclock loads if that's your bag. They're pretty cheap, too.

Look for motherboards with a 965 chipset, they're cheaper than 975 and you'll not notice the difference.

Go for 2gb RAM if you can.

What are you going to be primarily using this system for?

Since you have 2GB DDR your best bet would be this

Gigabyte

4200+

The two together are around $250..

You could also replace the mobo for cheaper but you at least get an automatic upgrade to dual core for $250. I don't think anyone here would recommend staying with P4 though.

There's actually a decent number of motherboards out there that does support the Core 2 Duo. Click on the following list:

List of C2D compatible motherboards. - This list doesn't provide all the compatible mobos, but it is a start.

Another list of mobo using the P965 chipset.

There are a few chipsets used by these mobos. It would be best to go with the P965 or the 975X chipset. But those can be relatively expensive especially a mobo using the 975X chipset.

If I was on a budget, I would probably get the ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A motherboard (click here). It is $80 after a $20 mail-in rebate. However, it will only work with DDR2 533 or DDR2 667 RAM that only needs 1.8v, any RAM requiring 1.9v or more will not work on this mobo.

Another mobo you may want to consider if $80 is too much and you don't want to deal with mail-in rebates is the ECS P4M890T-M2 Micro-ATX mobo (click here) for $52. The good thing about this mobo is that you can use DDR 400 RAM and DDR2 533 RAM. But there are only 2 slot for each type of RAM, therefore you will only have 1GB of RAM should you decide to use the DDR 400 you have right now.

If it was me who had to selected a cheap motherboard, then I guess I would go for the ECS P965T-A ATX mobo for $65 after a $20 rebate. The P965 chipset is designed with Core 2 Duo in mind. It supports up to DDR2 800 RAM.

I have no experience with the motherboards I mentioned above. I merely selected them based on price and user reviews. So read the reviews and decide for yourself which best fits your budget and needs.

Me? I have the MSI 975X Platinum (Rev. 2) mobo, but it is $170. Then again it was $200 when I bought it.

It looks like a good board.

The Core 2 build I did used Corsair RAM and worked very nicely indeed.

I hear that OCZ isn't great with Core 2 CPUs, so perhaps steer clear of that.

All Core 2 Duo processors are faster than all Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors (I'm pretty sure that's right, anyhow it's faster than your old 478 socket 3.2)

Seriously, you're gonna get a better system.

It seems to be a good board. I didn't recommend it because it got 3 stars from newegg reviewers, but that's not totally reliable source of info. It seems most of the complaints are about the JMicron chipset for drives. But those complaints would be true for any mobo using that chipset, not just this board.

Newegg customer reviews

Just be aware to two minor issues with MSI mobos:

1. The utility programs that comes with the MSI mobos are crap. Google a program called Core Temp 0.9 if you want to measure CPU temperatures.

2. The BIOS has a small glitch. Your RAM will be reported slower than it actually is. No big deal really, all you would need to do is manually adjust the FSB setting. For example, I have DDR2 667 RAM, but BIOS detects it as DDR2 533 and sets the FSB to 266 (533 / 2). To fix that I merely increased the FSB to 333 (667 / 2). Not a big deal.

If you go with Core 2 you will need a new GPU also. Only a few companies still have mobos with AGP.

You might as well plan on a total upgrade.

Ok, I think I've settled..

E6400 C2D

Maybe a Radeon X1800 GTO, or the X1900GT
supposedly I can offset $50 by trading in my old GPU... "supposedly"


Antec Sonata II Case

MSI p965 neo-f board

Kingston 2gb 667

I don't plan to OC, but would this leave room for minor OCing?

Just remember if the BIOS is as quirky as the BIOS in the 975X Platinum, then your DDR2 667 will default to DDR2 533 speed. You'll see the FSB set to 266.

That's fine if you don't plan on overclocking, but if you want to OC, then just manually change the FSB setting of 266 to 333 and you'll be all set.

If you hurry to fry's they have the E6300+mobo for $169 , E6400+mobo for $349 and 2gb of ddr2 PC6400 FOR $239 with a $40mail rebate. Darn good deal. The sales ends Nov. 7th.