Possible upgrade question

Hello everyone,
Maybe you are bored of these questions but I really need some help to make my decision. I bought a system 2 years ago, and I upgraded some of its components, so this is my system now:
Asus a7n8x-e deluxe
Amd Sempron 2600+@1.8ghz l2 256kb cache
1024(2*512)MB Ram
HIS Ati Radeon 9600 xt 256 mb 128 bit
WD 250 GB HDD 7200 rpm, 8 MB cache, normal ata
LG Combo
MSI Dvd writer
I think I have a 400W power supply which came mounted in the case.

I usually watch movies, listen to music, surf on the internet, and I like to play games too. Most of the newer games like NFS Carbon can be played with 30 fps in 640*480 with quite a few options used at max with 4xAA. To improve game performance I have 2 alternatives.
1)Buy a new AGP graphics card
2)Upgrade most of my system keeping the case, the HDD and the optical drives.
For the 1st alternative I thought an Nvidia 6800 gs would be enough for me but if you have other suggestions feel free to tell it.
For the 2nd alternative I chose 2 different "systems"
"System A"
Asus m2n4-sli
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (L2 1 MB cache) Windsor
Asus En 7600 GS TOP-Silent/HTD/512M
1GB Corsair TWIN2X1024A-6400 -800mhz
This costs 686 $

"System B"
Asus M2v-MX
Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (L2-512kb) Windsor
Asus Radeon x1600 PRO 512 MB
A-Data 1 Gb Ram
This costs 543$

What do you think of both alternatives and which one is the best for me? or should I wait for a year or two until things get cheaper and probably get dx 10 hardware and maybe better stuff for this amount of money. By the way because I don't have enough money for it now I thought to sell the old components if I go with alternative 2.
Thanks for the help.
Peet

Well I have max 700$ for a systemas the 2 systems(A&B) suggest. ,

http://www.shopit.ro/
This is a romanian IT site so I don't know if you will understand it. By the way you have to divide the sum of money written in RON with 2.6 to get the product's value in USD.

WOW. This mobo is pretty good. With this I could have new e6300 and keep most of my stuff just for around 390$. This is the cheapest solution so far because I have plenty room to upgrade it later. Thanks. Could you suggest something similar with socket AM2?
Thanks a lot.
Peet

This is a budget AM2 board, but the PCI-E is x8. From the benchmarks, it is about the same as other boards at stock speed. It overclocks a bit.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/as [...] STA/b2.htm

Recommended:
AM2 X2 3600+ 434.76 RON
ASUS M2N-E 328.50 RON
Corsair VS1GBKIT667D2 2x512 667 357.95 RON
ASUS 7600GT 524.31 RON

About 1650 RON / 630 USD

The 3600+ performs about the same as 3800+ for much less.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/c [...] 600_5.html

M2N-E is a very popular budget board in north america. It overclocks quite well. Oh, it's nForce 570. M2N4-SLI is nForce4 SLI MCP. They're different.

The Corsair ram is 100% compatible with the board. You can find compatible Cosair ram in the middle of the page.

http://www.corsairmemory.com/

For M2N-E:
CM2X1024-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 1GB 4-4-4-12-2T
CM2X1024-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 1GB 5-5-5-15-2T
CM2X1024-6400PRO DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 1GB 5-5-5-15-2T
CM2X512-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 512MB 4-4-4-12-2T
CM2X512-5400C4PRO DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 512MB 4-4-4-12-2T
CM2X512A-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 512MB 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X1024-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X1024-8500 DDR2-1066 (XM2S-8500) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X1024A-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF DDR2-1250 (XMS2-10000) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-18-2T
TWIN2X2048-5400C4 DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-5400C4PRO DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-5400C4PT DDR2-675 (XM2S-5400C4) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-6400 DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-6400C4D DDR2-800 C4 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2X2048-6400PRO DDR2-800 (XM2S-6400) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2-1066 (XM2S-8500) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-8500C5D DDR2-1066 (XM2S-8500) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF DDR2-1111 (XMS2-8888) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
VS1GB533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 1GB 4-4-4-12-2T
VS1GB667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 1GB 5-5-5-15-2T
VS1GBKIT533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 4-4-4-12-2T
VS1GBKIT667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) 5-5-5-15-2T
VS256MB533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 256MB 4-4-4-12-2T
VS2GBKIT533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 4-4-4-12-2T
VS2GBKIT667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 2GB Kit (2 x 1GB) 5-5-5-15-2T
VS512MB667D2 DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) 512MB 5-5-5-15-2T
VS512MBKIT533D2 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) 512MB Kit (2 x 256MB) 4-4-4-12-2T

Thanks for your suggestion. I'll think about it.
Peet

ASUS M2N4-SLI or ASUS M2V mobos have 2 IDE connectors, so I could keep all of my drives(optical&HDD). These are a bit cheaper than the M2N-E. I don't know if I will ever use SLI but I only need the 2 ide connectors of that board. By the way I don't plan to overlock anything because it has to last for at least 3 years or even more, and to be sincere I'm afraid that I'll mess up my CPU
Peet

Go for M2V for lower price & 2 IDEs.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx [...] 101&l3=323

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx [...] 101&l3=305

1) Corsair 1 GB kit 667 mhz- 138$ USD
2) ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M 679.66 RON - about 150 RON more than x1650xt - worth the money

Didn't you say you had issues with ATI driver? You might want to consider:

Gainward BLISS 7900GS 633.35 RON

Somewhat slower than X1950PRO. No driver issues for you.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006 [...] dex.x?pg=6

640x480!!! 8O That's crap! This is what I'd buy.

CPU
Mobo
Memory
Video Card
PSU

Let me know what you think about these.

I know it's crap,this is why I try to get advices on how to upgrade my system.
First of all thanks for the advices, they are pretty good. I'm an AMD fan so maybe I'll stick with 3600+ even if C2D is superior. The 3600+X2 will be lot faster than my Sempron now so that would be ok. I don't know if I really need 2 GB of ram. I have never had a Gigabyte mobo. I'm using an Asus mobo now and I like it this is why I thought of Asus. Perhaps I should try other mobos as well. BTW I need 2 IDE connectors because I have 3 drives on normal ata. (1 HDD and 2 optical drives)

CPU - 611.65 RON-> 234$
Mobo- 361.20 RON -> 138$
Memory - here they don't sell a 2 GB kit so this would mean I have to buy 2 1Gb sticks-> 2* 300=600RON -> 230$
Videocard. -> 726.69 RON -> 278.42$
PSU -> this is really expensive here. -> 358.2 RON something similar to what you suggested-> 137.24$
This would mean 1000$ which is way over my max 700$ budget.
Peet

Took a look at you choices there in Romania and you certinly don't have a large variety of cards like we get here in the US. The ASUS card is an overclocked version and thus the premium price (if you want to fork out for something like that just get a better card) of the remainders the 512 memory versions don't actually perform a lot better than the 256 versions so drop those. Of the remainder I would recommend the Gainward BLISS 7900GS Golden Sample the BFG OC card is ok but doesn't have a D-Sub 15 pin connection which could be a problem unless your monitor has a DVI input.