Upgrade an old PC

I built this system about 2 years ago:

MB: nForce4 ATX Socket 939
CPU: Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1Ghz
Mem: Corsair 1GB 184 DDR SDRAM DDR 400
Vid: GeForce 7800 GT 256 MB PCI Express
PSU: 520W

Well, I want to play some of the newer games like CoD 4, but am unsure if this current rig will be able to run it well. I'm looking to upgrade to a dual core chip. But can I put in a AMD X2 4200 Socket 939 in this rig? Are you able to just pull the old CPU out and lock in the new one? Or are more steps needed?

My other idea is to also put in another gig of RAM. Would doing this be enough? Or should I do both, put in the new CPU and the RAM?

Lastly, should I just upgrade the video card? Or do all three?

As you can see, I'm a noob at this. I still am amazed I built the computer in one afternoon and haven't had a problem with it yet. So any help from you pros out there would be a real nice Christmas gift. Thanks.

I think people do make too big a deal about the bottleneck stuff. If you have a good video card and good amount of ram, you will be ok. Especially if you get an X2 chip, and remember, you can always overclock somewhat.

However if you are saying new video card, 1gb of ram, and new chip, I would say start looking at AM2 setups. 2gb of ddr2 ram can be had for under 50 bucks on newegg, a decent board to support all your old components also for 50. Then you should be able to find an AM2 chip for the same or less than the 4200. So it's your call there. The GPU, you probably won't play on the highest settings, but you should still have some life left in that baby.

Well, Newegg had a 4200 X2 for 69.99 but its not listed now. This is a better chip than you have for very cheap:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103222

You will also need to order the heatsink/cooler for this CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835103167

This is a very cheap upgrade. You can get a slightly faster CPU and a better cooler if you want to spend the money.

The total upgrade should cost you about 100.00 for both components. If you plan to overclock get a better cooler no matter which processor you get.

This would be a much better choice with the higher cache:

http://www.pcprogress.com/product. [...] 3800%2BOEM

I have never bought from this vendor but it says they are bizrate and cnet certified so they should be ok. Don't get the CPU cooler from them they are way too high for their selection. If you have 1G of ram you should be fine unless you find a cheap deal on memory then get another 1G.

This should give you at least an idea of what to look for if you want to search other vendors.

This is basically an answer for low budget solutions. If you aren't on a low budget definitely look at going with a completely new overhaul.

The parts I recommended will get you by for a bit longer and will play COD4 fine.

well provided that your motherboard supports the cpu, it is as easy as dropping in the new one.

To OP: regarding just dropping in the CPU: assuming the mobo/BIOS supports the new cpu, the other thing you need is to install the dual core optimizer from AMD (assuming your going dual core - you can get it off there support site, though its probably avialable on other sites as well).

I downloaded CpuZ and here is a screenshot of my CPU.

woops, thanks

Here it is, now that I'm on the right computer:

Instead of getting all these upgrades i would just recommend getting a cheapo AM2 board with a x2 5000+ and 2gb of cheapo DDR2. With an x2 4200+ you will little (if any) performance increase over your current 3500+.

All your other compenents (Hard drive, GPU, Case/PSU etc) can just be transfered over. That 7800GT should be fine for CoD4 at low resolutions. However if you're looking to have a crack at Crysis i would recommend looking at an 8800GT 512 or an HD3870.

Well, money's not a huge issue. I guess I was looking to shoot around 100 dollars. I'm trying to get by for one more year before building a whole new system. So the cheapest way to do that, maximizing performance, is what I was shooting for. The second criteria is the level of difficulty involved. I would say I'm at the beginner-medium level. I mean, I did build this system with 10 fans /speed controls, temp gauge, and case lights all by myself. I'm not one to monkey in the BIOS, though I'm sure if I learned what to tweak, my system would be performing better. Maybe I'll buy a back-up HD and save my system on it, then attack the CPU and BIOS settings. Maybe even overclock?