Low budget advice

[EntropicTempest]

I have had this system for around 4 or 5 years now and since I've finished building it I haven't upgraded it at all. To give everyone a clear picture of what it is I'm using right now, here it is:

Motherboard: MSI k9n2 SLI Platinum
Socket: AM2+
Chipset: nvidia nForce 750a SLI
Memory Supported: DDR2 667/600/1066 up to 8Gb
More info at: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/K9N2-SLI-Platinum---K9N2-Zilent.html#/?div=Basic

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ Dual Core
Clock speed: 3100MHz

Memory:DDR2 Patriot Memory PC2-6400 (x2)
Size: 2Gb

Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
Memory Size (According to CPUz): 896MBytes
Core Clock: 300Mhz
Shaders: 600 Mhz
Memory: 100 Mhz

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

As you can see, my hardware is pretty dated. I do not have the money to upgrade everything, so I'm looking to perform a cheap upgrade (around $100) but I want to make sure that performance would increase. Specifically, for Guild Wars 2. I played the stress test on Tuesday and my system had a hard time keeping up in intense fighting even on low settings. At the time, I was using a 32 bit operating system (Yes, just upgraded the operating system last night. Student discounts rock). I did not get a chance to see if there was any difference while using a 64bit, though after playing Counter Strike Global Offensive this morning I was able to crank everything on max and did not suffer any stuttering or FPS lag like I did during the Beta a week before release.

Here is a brief list of cheap CPUs and Memory sticks I found and I just wanted everyones input if they thought it would be worth the upgrade. Again, I know my budget is cheap so I don't expect to see any ground breaking difference in performance, but just enough to justify spending the money to hold me over for another 6 months-year before I do serious upgrading.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana Triple-Core
Socket: AM3
Clock speed: 3.2 Ghz
Price: 69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886

Memory: 2Gb DDR2 PC2-6400
Price: 24.99
If you think it would be worth it to go ahead and go all the way to 8gigs, let me know. I figured I might sit on that if it would just be a minor increase.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231203

 

[sadams04]

I don't think you would see a huge difference between AM2+ @ 3.0GHz and AM3 @ 3.2GHz (espexcially on an AM2+ motherboard). I would also NOT invest in DDR2 memory... Do you have a Microcenter near you?

CPU & MB - FX 4100 + GA-78LMT-S2P Socket AM3+ 760G mATX - $90 after rebate
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

MEM - Crucial 2x2GB DDR3-1600 - $27
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0382074

Either way you go the GPU would ideally need an upgrade as well...

 

[EntropicTempest]

Thanks for the reply.

That seems like a pretty nice deal. I might have to go that route. Yes, I do want to upgrade the GPU, but unfortunately it will have to be something I do later rather than sooner. I don't have a microcenter near me (San Antonio) but if I can't find a better deal at least they can ship it to me

 

[sadams04]

...but if I can't find a better deal at least they can ship it to me

Nope. In store / pick up only. If you knew someone in Dallas then could buy then ship...

 

[AntiZig]

260 should be ok to run the game on minimum. So, I'd take the advice and upgrade the CPU