upgrading my PC.

I want to upgrade my PC, (bought new in March 2004), so that I can play Microsoft Flight Sim X, Call of Duty 4 , and other latest games. My PC spec is -Intel P4 3.2GHZ Processor, 800mhz. Asus P4S 800-SC-P4 Motherboard. 160GB HDD, 512mb PC3200 Memory. Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb Graphics card. PSU 300Watt. I know I need to add more memory,and probably a better PSU, and a better graphics card. If I keep the existing Motherboard and Processor and fit more memory, What PSU and Graphics card would be suitable with a total price of around £150.

I would start with another 512 meg stick of pc3200, assuming you already have the same installed. I say this as I have one board with 2 256 meg sticks; you want to match the same size in pairs for dual channel mode. Then try running the games in medium resolution. You want to put as little money into your current system as possible. Agp is dead; so getting a high end agp card makes little sense as your board could fail soon, forcing you to put more money into a dated system. You would be better served saving more for a proper upgrade: board, cpu, memory, power supply, and pci-e card.

I wouldn't sink more money in that system.

Can you get something like this?
GA-P35-DS3L, E2180, OCZ StealthXStream 600W, HD 3850, 2GB DDR2-800, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

I wouldn't do an upgrade. good agp cards are close to $200, while a new build can be around $300

a p35 chipset motherboard
e21xx processor
2gb ddr2 ram
~400w quality psu
8600gt gpu

not sure what your prices are, but the above cost me about $300 (or around 150 pounds).

With 3.2 ghz, 1GB of RAM and Geforce 8600 (you would have to upgrade your RAM and GPU), Call of duty 4 runs very well. But since you mentioned you'd like to play all the other latest games as well, if you want to play those games at good resolutions and playable frame rates, Geforce 8600 and 3.2ghz wont be sufficient.... go for an Intel E2100 and an ATI Radeon HD 3850.

I'm not saying Call of duty 4 would run on a lower end system because it has crappy graphics...believe me, they're bombastic. Hats off to Infinity Ward, which developed COD4, for managing to achieve the feat of running good resolutions at good frame rates for low end hardware.

BUT if u want to play Crysis or Bioshock or the upcoming Far Cry 2 or whatever, a high end rig is but needed. You wont be disappointed with the Radeon 3850. Its got great bang for buck.

Try this:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com [...] orlite.jsp

Look at these cards: 7600GT (DDR3 version, don't buy the DDR2 version), 7900GS, 2600XT, X1950Pro.

You can find some benchmarks here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=296

I definetly recommend the x1950pro! It was going to be my choice until I decided to go for a new PC overall

The x1950 pro is a fine card, but I doubt it will run on that 300w PSU. The highest I would try would be the 7600gt. Depending on the game, it will get you at least 1024x768 at med settings(COD4, Bioshock). Crysis will be more like 800x600 at low settings.

I believe you've got this mobo, or something very similar. It supports AGP 4x or 8x. Yes, all those cards are supported.
http://www.superwarehouse.com/p.cf [...] PAodVS6o6Q
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

PCI and PCI-E are different things, incompatible. Even physical size differs. There are PCI video cards but they are usually crappier even than the worst AGP cards. That is, AGP was invented especially because PCI wasn't fast enough. No PCI card can play Crysis, for example, AFAIK.

The X1950Pro is faster than the 7900GS but I'm not sure your PSU can support it, especially as PSU output becomes weaker as years go by. Also, your CPU may bottleneck the X1950Pro. I think I'd get the 7900GS.

Edit: 5 PCI slots, sweet. I wish they offered that sort of thing again. I could have my modem, X-Fi, two TV tuners, FireWire.... The current trend is to use USB, but that means a mess of cable hanging near the PC.

7900gs is the higher spec, and burns about 10 more watts than the 7600gt. If the label on the PSU lists the +12v wattage separately from the 300w, you want to divide that by 12. The remaining number will be the total amperage you have on the 12v rail. For best operation, you need about 17a minimum for the 7600gt, and 20a minimum for the 7900gs.

Have just checked my PSU. The various outputs have the Amperages listed. The 12V rail has 18 Amps, so I guess I should get the 7600GT.

I did a bit more research. The newegg specs for the eVGA card I listed above say this:

Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amps.)

You've got the absolute minimum of 18 amps, but your PSU may no longer be able to supply 18 amps because PSUs degrade in time. As for watts you've got only 300. I'm afraid even the 7600GT is too much for your PSU.

Can you get an OCZ StealthXStream 600W PSU and an x1950Pro (or 7900GS, or 7600GT)? If you've got enough saved for that, you'd have much better performance, no worries about the watts/amps, and the PSU can be reused in your next rig later.

If the PSU fits inside the case it's easy. I mentioned the StealthXStream because it happens to be small enough even for some HP prebuilt boxes, but you still need to check. What model is your case?

Well, that doesn't help much.

Measure your current PSU. If it's something like this (WxDxH) 15 cm x 14 cm x 8.6 cm it's perfect.

You need to divide those numbers by 2.54 if you prefer inches.
D means depth i.e. length; if your current PSU is longer than 14 cm that's even better.

Good!

Do you have a friend with experience at upgrading? Order pizza, buy some beer, let him connect everything. It should be about half an hour's work for somebody who has done it before.

How about some local shop? Ask them if they're willing to replace your PSU. I think they'd be willing to do it for $50 or less.

Or use a digital camera to keep track of where every cable goes right now, then use the photos to figure out what goes where.