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Time to upgrade, opinions please.

Last response: in Systems
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Ok, my computer I built about 2 years ago has been doing great up untill now. Just started playing Lord of the Rings Online with my wife and my computer just doesn't seem to be up to it. I'm getting pretty bad graphics lag and even turning off all the bells, buttons and whistles ingame and lowering the screen resolution doesn't seem to help.
I'm assuming that either my processor can't keep track of all the mobiles or the game is a ram hog.
Any sugestions would be helpfull.
Listing specs from Belark Advisor below.

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2

2.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 (AMD 3200+) (socket 939)
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

(MB) Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N5X 1.XX
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS A8N5X ACPI BIOS Revision 0401 10/11/2005

1024 Megabytes Installed Memory (mid grade, didn't go cheap but didn't buy low latency)

80.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
28.32 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT 256mb Series GPU (PCI Express x16) [Display adapter]


Nothing has been overclocked due to me just not knowing how :p 

NewEgg is having a clearance on the AMD 4000+ for like $60 so if it's the processor thats falling behind I'll prob get that to help out (unless somone has a better recomendation) or do you think it's that I only have 1 gig of ram?

Kinda short on money so would like to keep it under $120 and whatever I do I would like to not have to upgrade for atleast another year afterwards.

I know the 6800 GT is getting a little long in the tooth but since turning down the graphics didn't improve frame rate I think I can still (hopefully) get another year out of it.

If somone has a dummies guide to overclocking I might give that a try as I have a well cooled computer (processor never goes above 32, even when on full load for several hours, idle is 26 - 28)

Anyone know of a program that can determine what part of your system is bottlenecking and in need of an upgrade?

Well I've take up plenty of your time, thanks in advance for your help.

More about : time upgrade opinions

two cheap upgrades, get an AMD 64 X2 CPU. 3600+ is $70 and should double the speed, but some times it is not that high. Then the extra 1 GB will help on many things. I do not know LOTRO but WOW does not take that much to run it. Read the specs on the site to get a better idea.
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Yes there are some X2 for socket 939 but if all I'm doing is gaming wouldn't a single core serve me better for the money I would put out?

939 dual cores on New Egg. 3800+ 2.0 ($85), 4200+ 2.2 ($125), and 4600+ 2.4 ($260).

The 4600+ is out of my price range and I've heard that for gaming the single core 4000 is better then the dual 3800 but the dual 4200 is slightly better then the 4000.
Thing is, is "slightly better" worth paying twice as much ($60 vs. $125)?

Quote:
Yes there are some X2 for socket 939 but if all I'm doing is gaming wouldn't a single core serve me better for the money I would put out?

939 dual cores on New Egg. 3800+ 2.0 ($85), 4200+ 2.2 ($125), and 4600+ 2.4 ($260).

The 4600+ is out of my price range and I've heard that for gaming the single core 4000 is better then the dual 3800 but the dual 4200 is slightly better then the 4000.
Thing is, is "slightly better" worth paying twice as much ($60 vs. $125)?


Yes, it's worth it. In some games it will be a little better and in others it will be twice as good. Also, if you get an antivirus or a download or whatever running during the game, the dual core will be able to keep the game going.
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