How far can $500 go??

[fjp2552]

I have a 3 y/o alienware that i want to upgrade for gaming purposes.. I have about $500 to spew here but not sure which route to take.. Any advice would be welcome.. I was thinking about a gpu and monitor but what do i know.. Thanks!!

ASUS a8n-SLI N-Force4 2mb
athlon 64 x2 4800+ 2x1mb (2.41ghz)
2gb RAM
Nvidia Geforce 7800GTX KO 256mb
raptor 74gb sata 10krpm x 2
xp pro
19'' Samsung syncmaster 1280x1024 @ 4ms
650 watt power supply

 

[spathotan]

P45 Mobo and a Q9550.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041 - $320

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359 - $109
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299 - $115

Newegg has a spike in motherboard and processor prices on a few select models since friday. Not to mention their black friday and cyber monday "sales" were pretty ****.

I would susgest a new video card and motherboard, but that 4800X2 is ahh...

 

[fjp2552]

Thanks for the quick response.. I know, the 4800x2 is bananas. I gotta settle for less tho :/ I was looking at the geforce 260 but dunno if i should upgrade the mobo first or not

 

[radguy]

The question is do you want to upgrade the monitor or not? Decent 20-22 inches runs 150-200?
A 4670 is the best deal on a gpu you could go after without upgrading the cpu. Still a very significant upgrade though.

Without a monitor I woud go after
GA-EP45-UD3R-109 with 10 mir
E7300 ~ 110 at the moment
4gb gskill ddr2 800 ~40
your choice of video card 260 for up to roughly 240 bucks
all at the egg

With a monitor I would probably just buy the 4670 (you won't be too disappointed unless your expecting miracles) and wait till I had more money to upgrade everything later. Thats just me though

 

[homerdog]

Upgrade the mobo, processor, RAM, and video card. You might as well move to Vista 64 bit while you're at it. It is possible to do this excluding the Vista for around $500 if you are careful about your component selection. Add in a little overclocking and you'll have a heck of a system.

GTX 260
2x2GB DDR2-800
P43
Q6600

Sorry I busted your budget a little

 

[megamanx00]

I think it's kinda late to SLi that system. Anyway if you upgrade your monitor now you will definitely need to upgrade your GPU to cope, but of course upgrading to something like a Radeon 4830 or nVidia 9800GT may not result in much of an FPS boost at the higher resolution settings of your new monitor especially with that CPU bottleneck. You could try and overclock the system to cope, but that CPU may not go too far, especially with stock cooling.

Since you want to upgrade your monitor anyway I think you should first get the monitor you want and upgrade the video card and overclock your CPU. Save the money left over and then upgrade your motherboard and CPU in a few months, which will also of course require new RAM.

 

[Ryun]

GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

$86.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Brisbane 2.9GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5600DOBOX

$69.00

-OR-

MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

$84.99

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200
$82.99

=============================================================================

-AND-

SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

$149.99

Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor

$159.00

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2N5K2/2G

$24.49



AMD Build: $497.72 (after Shipping)
Intel Build: $504.26 (after shipping and $10 MIR)

For gaming these two will perform about the same. In other areas the Intel CPU wins hands down in overclocking potential, and energy consumption. Only cons being the LGA775 platform will eventually wither away in favor of the Core i7 platform, so you might find yourself wanting to upgrade your CPU and no place to get an upgrade other than eBay, whereas your chances of getting an upgrade down the road with AMD is greater with their continued "support" for the AM2+ platform which will wither and fade in favor of whatever is after the AM3 platform (as AM3 processors are supposed to be compatible with AM2+).

That's if you really want to get a new system though. Personally, your system is fine the way it is. If I were you I'd throw my money at a 4870 1GB/GTX 260 and a bigger monitor. Then upgrade down the road again to something better. You'll probably see a bigger jump from a better video card then upgrading most of your system, plus it's more fun upgrading down the road I think. =)

 

[fjp2552]

You guys have pleased the forum gods.. Thanks a ton. I believe the gpu/monitor/oc combo will work for now. Maybe when the new windows comes out i'll do another changearoo with the mobo, cpu, and switch to pbj's for a month or two.

 

[lounge lizard]

stick with the original monitor...

add a P45, E8500, 2-4Gb RAM and a 4850

and sell your old equipment on ebay..! i guarentee you'll get $50 for the processor and the same again for the GPU

you'll be able to play with all the eye candy at your monitors optimal resolution with a little OCing

 

[Shadow703793]

P45-DS3L or ASUS P5Q Pro

E5200 (if OCing and want to be in tight budget)/ E8400 (gaming) or Q6600 (if video editing/multi tasking)

9800GT (less than $100 after MIRs @ Newegg) or ATI 4850 (imo, the 4850 is kind of an overkill at 1280*1024) or if you are happy with the 7800 use that.

2*2GB DDR2 800 RAM (Usually less than $50 for a good set)

For OCing: XIGMATEK S1283 + bolt in kit

**@OP: List exact PSU

Re use everything else.

E8400 OC = 3.6Ghz is pretty much given. Higher than that depends on if the RAM you choose can OC or get DDR2 1066 RAM.
E5200 OC = 3.2-3.8Ghz.
Q6600 OC = 3.3-3.8Ghz. (Usually max out on air at 3.6Ghz)

 

[kyosho]

Gigabyte motherboard 137. before $20. rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

Intel e7300 overclockable to 4ghz. 120. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115132

G Skill memory 4g. 60. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231148

Xigmatic cpu cooler 40. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233012

Ati 4830 110. before $20. rebate. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161260

$467. before rebates

The motherboard, ram and memory should keep you for a while. You can upgrade to a quad core later if you have the need.
This gpu is close to the performance of the 8800gt and is very overclockable. It's no slouch on it's own as you can see. You can add a second later when you upgrade your monitor. Two overclocked 4830's in crossfire will beat a 4870 in most benchmarks and as you can see here it gives the GTX 280 a great run. Also your power supply is ample. Here is the 4830 review at Hexus. http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16300

 

[reconviperone1]

If its am2, id add some memory and a 4870 video card, if its a socket 939, id just add the video card and call it a day. You can always save more and upgrade to something better, but your video card is pretty ancient, your cpu should be fine though.