Limited upgrade, what should be replaced?

Hey everyone,

I moved a few months back and had to shelf my homebuilt PC. I just dusted her off and fired her up (surprisingly without a hitch). I've been using a decent Lenovo laptop in the interim, and sad to say, the laptop is faster than my outdated PC (which is 5-6 years old at this point).

I've always been an avid PC gamer, so I'd like to get the old girl back to fighting weight. However, I have a limited budget (<$500). I also haven't been following the component market lately, so I'm out of the loop. What should I upgrade or should I save up money and replace the entire system?

Current Build

- Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.66 Ghz (I used to have her at 3.2 but I can't get the system stable at that speed now).

- MSI P6N Platinum Mobo, LGA 775, 4 x DDR2 800, 2x PCI-e 1.0, FSB 1333/1066

- Radeon HD 2900 (!)

- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistic DDR2 800 (!!!!)

- Soundblaster Audigy (which I'm not even using)

- PC Power and Cooling Silencer 610W PS

- A 11 year full tower case which is missing the front panel. I have to hotwire my tower to get my PC started. It also sounds like there's a jet fighter in my room.

- An aging copy of Windows XP Pro.


I definitely want to upgrade to Windows 7 (for added memory capacity and DX11 support). That would mean I also need to up my memory total. I priced some decent RAM at ~$60 for 2 x 2 GB. That brings my budget to $350ish.

I think the logical step is to then throw in a new graphics card. I heard that the PCI-e 2.0 cards are backwards compatible, so my mobo should theoretically handle the newer GPUs. I was thinking something like the GTX 560 Ti (which I priced at $250ish). Is my PS enough to handle a card of this type?

So what do you think? Is there a better path to take with my budget? Will my mobo/RAM speed/CPU combo severely limit the bandwidth of a newer gen video card? Any thoughts you all have would be helpful.

That ram for $60 is probably DDR3, so not compatible with your motherboard.. so you'd need a new Motherboard for that. ($100ish)
Get the AMD 6850 Graphics card its about $200ish with IMO better performance then the 560.
You could go completely AMD and get a AMD3 mobo with a Dual-core CPU (get a mobo that can unlock it to a quad core)

So:
RAM- $60
Motherboard - $120
CPU - $100-120
GPU - $200

Total - $480-500

If you want specific models just ask and i can get you them


ps. Not saying you should do this
but you COULD get a pirated copy of windows 7 instead >_>

The RAM I priced is DDR2, so it should be compatible with my mobo. I know its old memory, but at that price I'll just toss it when I build my next system.

My goal is to be able to play current PC games at reasonable settings and framerate, I'm not going for anything extreme. I have a spec sheet for a brand new system, but it is floating around $1300, so it's not something I can afford at the moment. I figure I can piece together the system with some components now and add the rest later on when I fully upgrade. At the very least, the $100 copy of Windows 7, the graphics card, my DVD burner, and possible the PS can go into my next system. As for pirating Windows 7, it's possible that I've gone that route before but I'd rather pay for a Systems Builder copy than go through all that hassle again.

I guess my main question is: will I see any remarkable difference over my current system if I upgrade to a current gen graphics card and add memory/Windows 7?

With the CPU in question I would be afraid the CPU would bottleneck the GPU.

The question I'd pose to the OP would be "how soon in the future do you plan to upgrade the whole thing?" If you don't see yourself doing it in the next 6 months, I think throwing $250 at a GPU (or even $200) is just pissing money away.... IF my pre-a-full-cup-of-coffee brain is correct that you're going to get a CPU bottleneck. I would also be concerned about any issues with the aging PSU. I'm also concerned since you say the system isn't stabled clocked anymore your hardware is tottering.

OP, IF my assumption is correct, and you do not see yourself doing a more signifcant upgrade for 6+ months, I would just go out and buy a $100 "grunter" GPU to see you through. It will be a major step up from your 2900, and be balanced against your CPU's limitations, as well as (perhaps) not tax what is probably an aging PSU. Throw another $60 at the RAM and just call it a day for now. Pocket the difference towards a whole new machine.

Unless you want to go into SSDs, SLI/Xfire, monitors and what not, you can get into a whole new rig for ~$900 or possibly even less. So a major upgrade is potentially not as far out of your reach as you might think. I would say the better money spent would be "just enough" to get you through and accepting you can only coax so much out of your current system.