Budget Upgrade

[4ILY45]

I have $250 to spend on my rig. What should I buy?

Specs of rig:
Intel dual-core E2160@2.56Ghz
4 gb Kingston DDR2 rams @800Mhz
Nvidia 9500Gt
Huntkey 550watts
320wd hard drive

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

That's a hard one, you could go for a better video card. But I think I'd also consider a better power supply if you go that route.

Here's something else you could consider if you want to reuse the memory you have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.293300

Combo for 163 gets you a new Athlon 2 quad core processor with an asus mobo.

Or here is a 2.9 ghz athlon 2 triple core with ecs motherboard(granted not a big ecs fan myself, but the price is good, and it's 125 for both after rebate. About 140 before.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.289560


With your budget, I'd be thinking about maybe the triple core.

So 125 there.

Was looking at a 4850, but saw a gts 250 for 100 after rebate, 115 on sale.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162034

Some reviews said they've had problems with the card, I don't have that card, I've actually got a 9600 gt from galaxy and have had no problems on the 9600.

So 225 so far

If you go with these upgrades, consider a new power supply.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

Puts you a little overbudget and don't know the specs of your huntkey, it's your call whether or not to take a chance on it. But if you go with these parts, reuse your ram, case, optical drives and hard drives, it may be a good upgrade. Should definitely see some improvement on the video performance.

 

[dndhatcher]

The CPU is already a 2.5GHz dual core. Going to a 2.9 3 core wont be much of a boost for gaming performance (for multitasking it would be). Replacing the graphics card with a decent one would do more good, but we need to be sure you have a PCIE x16 slot for it and if your power supply has a pcie power cable or not. You might have to get a different power supply to power a better graphics card.

 

[tecmo34]

Adding to what dndhatcher said, I think an upgrade to your GPU & PSU is the way to go. Here is a good combo that comes in right at $250... http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.274502

 

[4ILY45]

Adding to what dndhatcher said, I think an upgrade to your GPU & PSU is the way to go. Here is a good combo that comes in right at $250... http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.274502

Thanks for the tip.