Best upgrade at the moment for $150?

[woknblues]

Hello,

I have a system here running lots of WoW and movies. I am considering doing a small upgrade to keep things as "current" as possible.

AMD BE550 phenom 2 (can't unlock cores)
GeForce 8500GT
4gigs ram (No empty slots for more ram)
Win7 64
Thermaltake 430W PSU
37" Vizio "monitor"

Just want another year or two out of this set up. Any ideas?

 

[wielander]

You don't need more ram (4GB is plenty for what you use the computer for) so don't worry about not being able to add any more.

Your graphics card stands out the most to me. I would look to upgrade that first. A Radeon HD 5770 is probably the best card you can afford. Any of the faster cards would also require a better power supply.

Have you overclocked the CPU at all?

 

[woknblues]

I honestly wasn't. I just put that in so people don't ask me if I only have 1 or 2 gigs, etc.

 

[wielander]

If you are just gaming and watching movies, you won't miss having a better processor that much, especially if you overclock yours. The graphics cards in your budget probably won't be able to outperform your CPU in gaming.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Yep, graphics card. That one is terrible, especially for playing games.

 

[wielander]

Radeon HD 5770s start at around $130.

Here is a decent one for $135:

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-100283-3L/dp/B0035K6H2C/ref=sr_1_1?tag=slickdeals&s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1282264004&sr=1-1&prv=forums&cur=forums&ses=

Sapphire is a trustworthy brand.

 

[woknblues]

Best answer selected by woknblues.

 

[woknblues]

That will probably do. Looks good to me. Now to get my FIL to buy my old card to put in his onboard graphics rig, and I am all set!

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Depending on the IGP, it may not be worth bothering to add it. But if it's an intel IGP, then yeah definitely.