COD4 quality suggestions with 8500gt and pentium 4?

[janyhero]

OK, so i know my rig is kinda old ( it used to be powerful, not until 8800gt reigned king...)...but i've just got COD4 and everything worked out smoothly with the default settings. However, i don't feel satisfied, u know, i juz wanna put everything to the max and...do u guys know which settings should i choose?
NOTE: i'm a 13 year old vietnamese kid with no hardware experience, plz help, and also, i'm planning on a new rig within 1000$ range. Any suggestions?
My current rig is: Pentium 4 ( da' goodold kentsfield )
ASUS 8500gt ( a li' bit underclocked, by the manufacturer )
2gigs of ddr2 RAM ( CPU-Z shows DDRAM clock : 160mhz )
PSU : No idea.
Mainboard: intel D915GAV
PLZ help, i appreciate every suggestions. THX

 

[C-Winters]

im pretty sure that the pentum 4 uses the sokect 775. if so, u can just upgrade that to a Core 2 quad something. and im looking at ur mobo, i see 1 PCIe x16 slot...right? (if ur just using a PCI 8500gt, than just make a new system). if so, u can buy a good graphics card for cheap now. i have a ATI radeon 4850hd, got it recently for $140, and it runs CoD4 at about 100fps, works great.

im kinda out of it rite now, so if u dont understand, ill try to explain.

in summary:
ur p4 uses socket 775 (i may be wrong). so u can upgrade to a core 2 quad. i use a AMD phenom so i dont have much experiance with intel chips

the 8500gt is really outdated. depending on how much u want to spend, if only about $100 a 9600gt or 9800gt are really good choices. if $200 u can get a ATI radeon 4870 or a Geforce GTX260. just make sure ur psu can support it. check how many watts it is and how many amps on the 12V rail. if u dont have enough power, than a good psu is only about $80.

and im sorry to break it to u, the 8500gt was never really a good graphics card. it was a low-mid end card for its generation. in the same generation, the 8800gtx was king. later, 8800gt came out to replace the 8800gts (it was cheaper and faster) and offered almost GTX performasnce for $200, midrange priceing.

.btw, the pricing examples i used are in the US. im not sure how much they cost wherever u live/

 

[janyhero]

im pretty sure that the pentum 4 uses the sokect 775. if so, u can just upgrade that to a Core 2 quad something. and im looking at ur mobo, i see 1 PCIe x16 slot...right? (if ur just using a PCI 8500gt, than just make a new system). if so, u can buy a good graphics card for cheap now. i have a ATI radeon 4850hd, got it recently for $140, and it runs CoD4 at about 100fps, works great.

im kinda out of it rite now, so if u dont understand, ill try to explain.

in summary:
ur p4 uses socket 775 (i may be wrong). so u can upgrade to a core 2 quad. i use a AMD phenom so i dont have much experiance with intel chips

the 8500gt is really outdated. depending on how much u want to spend, if only about $100 a 9600gt or 9800gt are really good choices. if $200 u can get a ATI radeon 4870 or a Geforce GTX260. just make sure ur psu can support it. check how many watts it is and how many amps on the 12V rail. if u dont have enough power, than a good psu is only about $80.

and im sorry to break it to u, the 8500gt was never really a good graphics card. it was a low-mid end card for its generation. in the same generation, the 8800gtx was king. later, 8800gt came out to replace the 8800gts (it was cheaper and faster) and offered almost GTX performasnce for $200, midrange priceing.

.btw, the pricing examples i used are in the US. im not sure how much they cost wherever u live/

Thanks for the info, dude . The fact is that my main doesn't support C2D although it's LGA775 based. But an enthusiast core i7 build may be what i need. I'm just worried about the ddr3 ram...they cost alot in my country, and hd4870 cards are outragously priced at $300. I can get " suitcase - products " for a lesser price ( about 250$ ). Anyway, the onlt thing that i worry about is the CPU power...From benchmarks, i see that core i7 makes no sisnificant differences from q9450, infact the g'old c2q out-performs the core i7.....So, should i get a q9550 or core i7, for maximum efficiency?

 

[C-Winters]

umm... i would go for the q9550 just cus the mobos made for that are cheaper and so is the RAM. check ur psu rite now. if it's some generic 300W psu, then get a new one. now, tell me what graphics card u plan to buy and where do u live (like, just country, im not a stalker)

also, what moniter do u have, tell me the size, and max resolution. a 4870 would be a waste of money on medium moniters.

 

[janyhero]

umm... i would go for the q9550 just cus the mobos made for that are cheaper and so is the RAM. check ur psu rite now. if it's some generic 300W psu, then get a new one. now, tell me what graphics card u plan to buy and where do u live (like, just country, im not a stalker)

also, what moniter do u have, tell me the size, and max resolution. a 4870 would be a waste of money on medium moniters.

Uhh. it's a Viewsonic 17" with max resolution of 1400x900, pretty pathetic, isn't it. Also, i'm 13, i live in Viet Nam, and i planned to buy a hd4870 for that resolution. A 550W psu may do just fine as it's the minimum requirement for today's graphic cards. So, should i buy it, or save my money for sth else and grab a hd4850 instead. ( limited budget, my parents only allow me around 1000 bucks, so things must be selectively-picked ) Thx.

 

[C-Winters]

ok, i have a moniter that 19" but has the same exact res. anything i play at max res (i dont own crysis) is well above 30fps (correction to above statment, i actually get about 160fps on CoD4, i needed to raise the fps limit) with my phenom 9550 and 4850hd.

so rite now, if u dont plan on getting a new moniter, go for the 4850, and spend alittle more on the psu. get one that has 2 6-pin power cables, so u can have the power to crossfire later on.