does my upgrade fall short ?

If you have the money for a total overhaul, then yes, go for it.


However, if you want to squeeze more life out of your current PC, then 1GB and a X1950GT is also a fancy choice. Just make sure if you decide to upgrade your current PC, it will most likely be the last one.


Good luck.  

i would say go with the complete overhaul because upgrading it will just add to what you will have to through away later (ddr ram)

You might not even need that extra gig of RAM.

Buy the AGP card and a decent PSU (like $50 - the PSU experts on this board will steer you right) that you can use on your next build.

What are your main goals with the PC? Tom's just did a nice review of a low, mid, & high-end system with a final review of taking the low system and putting in the 8800GTX. Big improvement.

If your wanting to game, you would be able to squeeze more life out of your system by getting an X1950GT or X1950Pro.

The X1950Pro is 25 bucks more than the GT version which I think is worth it.

If you do have the money, than building a new system can be relatively inexpensive.

Memory is around 100 bucks for 2gigs. It was hovering around 200-300 back in January. I guess something good came from Vista. ;-)

If you are willing to overclock, the E4400 is a great overclocker and cheap to boot. If you are an AMD fan, you could just get an X2 3600 and an X1950XT if that would fit your budget more.

I just read about the Antec Sonata III. eWiz has it for $104 and it comes with a good 500W PSU.

A quick calculation:

2 gigs memory: $100
AMD X2 3600 CPU: $70
Mobo: $100
320GB HDD: $70
Case/PSU: $120
X1950XT: $170

Total: $630

If you plan on overclocking then get the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro. It's inexpensive (~30) and damn good for the price.

If you have a bit more of a budget, you can spend around and extra 100 or so (including more for the mobo) and get the E4400 which is what I would recommend unless you are on a tight budget. The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro is for the C2D.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Hi,

I just use my pc for office and gaming, not even much.
I have this 2years old pc with a agp socket. I was going to do a major upgrade next year and now try to hold on with these improvements.

I would change my 6600GT AGP 128mb with this new X1950GT 256mb. And, maybe, 1GB of DDR RAM.

would it be enough to hold one one more year ?

Moreover, hardware components are not that cheap in italy/europe  

If you want to hold off for one year then the best thing to do is get another gig of RAM.

As far as gaming is concerned, doesn't sound like you need anything really powerful. I was able to play Neverwinter Nights 2 with a 6600GT but I had to put it on the very lowest setting and it was just playable.

If there is a large difference in cost between the GT & Pro, then get the GT. Otherwise, get the Pro version.

This will definitely hold you over for a year. That'll give you time to see how DX10 software & hardware matures.