What card for this system to make it a few more yrs?

I have a 700x Gateway with a 2.4 P4 512 RDRAM (going to 1 gig for 200 bucks). It has a 250w power supply which I am switching out with this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817104952

I hope this PSU and a new card will last me a little longer with this PC.
I'm currently running a buddies 9600 because my 4600ti fried on me awhile ago.

I was looking at getting a x850 pro but all are but gone and the ones that are left are selling for around 200.

My question is What card for this system(AGP) for 100-130 and is that PSU im looking at going to be alright?

I see there is a 1300 pro... Does this card perform like the x850 pro?

Anyway suggestions would be great..

AGP ! Most of the time all I play is Counter Strike Source. I may get a new game within a yrs time but mostly want to play CSS with everything maxed out and have some new technology for maybe some new game.

you want everything maxed out on a one hundred dollar AGP card built in a 2.4ghz Pentium 4 system? uhm...yeah. I'm not even sure a 7600gs can run CSS maxed, but your best bet is to overclock the hell out of it.

ROFL. Although I did once send a coworker an Excel spreadsheet with cells sized and colored to spell "WHATEVER."

Make sure your [older] system doesn't still require a -5v rail; the PSU you selected doesn't have it.

If you need that rail, your PSU choices are really limited (especially among high-quality brands), but with some reservation, I will suggest this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817148027

It's Aspire, and a lot of people will tell you it is a low-quality PSU, BUT, I used two of them recently, one for about 8 months (in my .sig rig); I'd still be using it but thought a fan was dying and replaced it with a locally-bought Coolermaster. Turns out the fan wasn't dying (it was my chipset cooler), but being deaf in one ear I have NO sense of direction of sound, and it is too intermittent to reliably repeat. The rails on the Aspire were solid. Some of the criticism I've read suggests that it shouldn't be rated at 500W, but it should be fine for your system.

For the video card, a 6600GT would be a nice choice in the lower end your price range, and doesn't require an auxiliary power connection. I'm not sure an AGP 7600GS is in that range. Your existing PSU may be enough for the 6600GT.

The new X1300 XTs are pretty decent for cheap actually, basically rebadged X1600 PROs. They'll perform close to a 6600 GT. Don't know if they're in AGP yet though.

But id go with at least 7600 GS or X1650 PRO on that system.

I suggest u look at the 7300GT AGP its only 80$ /W MIR good buy good card run your nicely maybe not everything maxxed but you'll get better FPS then the X1300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814145139

I would reconsider the PSU... it only has 70% effeciency rating and you should really aim for at least 80% I feel.

The X800GTO and X850Pros are both great cards for the low bucks... I have a system running the 800GTO that will OC over 20% core. Plays anything Out there right now (well... at least out of the games I have / All FPS'ers)

And of course I only say this if you plan to fully upgrade New within a year or so.

Don't break "The Rule Of 4"; a pc that is four years old, or if you're changing 4 more things to upgrade, it's just better to invest in a new computer. Especially with vendor pc's like HP, Dell, etc. that typically don't let you insert standard parts.

$200 just for the memory upgrade......really, I wouldn't put more into this pc. I'd recommend you limp along for now, and take advantage of holiday sales. Put the cash into buying a new pc. For your current needs, you can spend enough to get you to a PCI-e system as a foundation, and then add on and upgrade the next year or two as you feel the need.

I agree, if you're talking about the 7300GT with GDDR2. The 7300GT GDDR3s have higher core clock speeds, 8 pipes, and are pretty decent budget cards.

7300GT arent lame card, there LOW END CARD FOR PEOPLE who dont have the powersupply or budget for some like the 7600 series.

"eVGA also recommends a minimum 350W power supply with 18A for the 7300GT"

"BFG recommends a 350W power supply with 20A on the +12v rail for the 7600GT"

You may come out cheaper buying a new mobo for your CPU to get away from rdram.

alright lets go this route. I want to give my buddy back his 9600. What card is better than the 9600 and I can still keep my 250W PSU? I have 1 hard drive 2 cdroms and maybe 2 things in usb. So im not using much power. Anyway some suggestions for some cards better than the 9600 and only need a 250w psu.

The new ati[amd] 1950pro agp is a great upgrade for your system, and they're at a good price point too. If you prefer nvidia, the 7600gt agp is a great card too! Good luck to you man!

Yes, but the 6600GT uses a lot more power than a 7300GT. The OP has a rather old Gateway 250W PSU. In another thread I recommended he go with a 7600GS but Crashman wasn't certain the PSU could handle it. I in turn recommended the 7300GT as the safer bet then. The 7600GS uses a little bit more power than the 7300GT but less than the 6600GT. So I'm thinking the 7600GS may in fact be the sweet spot and it's more than capable of handling CS:S, even though the 7300GT would work for that too. Remember that the OP is upgrading from a 9600 which he doesn't think is a PRO or an XT version. I think either 7300GT or 7600GS would be an improvement over what they're currently used to.

My bad! I too over-looked the 250w psu. However he has is enough to run the 7600gs and 7600gt. Remember that he's running 2.4 p4 and 1 pair rd-ram. Unless he has more than 2 hard drives, he has enough power. If he were to upgrade his psu to a 350w, the 1950pro would run fine. If you doubt this statement use your favorite wattage calculator, it will confirm this.

And if the entire system burns out you'd know who to blame D