PC Component upgrades

[flministock2]

Hi All,

I would like your recommendations to upgrade my current PC. I have always built my own PCs over the years but technology has moved faster than I have kept up, so I need some help in selecting components to update my current desktop. My current configuration has provided me with quite of few years of game play, surfing the web, email, video editing, etc, but has finally given up the ghost. My current specs are:

Full size tower case
500 Watt P/S
Epox EP-RDA8+ Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ CPU
XFX Geforce 7800GS Video Card
Seagate 360GB Hard Drive
Pioneer CD/DVD Slot Drive
Pioneer DVD-RW + Burner Drive
Windows XP Pro 32-bit

I plan on using the current Case & 500 Watt P/S and I might even continue using the Slot Drive and Burner even though they are PATA, I understand that I can easily use a cable converter to use them in a SATA setup.

So I’d like some recommendations on CPU/Motherboard/Graphics Card/Memory. I want to be able to not only reasonably play some new games, but I definitely want it to be compatible with playing the older games I already have. These are:

Medal of Honor (all up to and including Pacific Assault)
Call of Duty (1, 2, Airborne & World at War – W@W did not play with current config)
Janes WWII Fighters
Microsoft Combat Simulator 1, 2 & 3
Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Nascar SimRacing
F1 Racing

Ability to play newer 1st person shooter games & racing simulators.

Current processor under consideration is the AMD Phenom II 955/965 Black Edition
Current memory under consideration is 8 GB
Motherboard still TBD
Current graphics card under consideration is the Radeon HD 7750 (but does not currently support Win XP and I may make this a dual boot machine with Win 7 & Win XP)

One other consideration for CPU/MB selection is that I may want to install a second video card with a TV/FM tuner as I use my HD TV as my computer monitor as well.

So give me your recommendations, list your pros & cons!!!

 

[gussrtk]

I think.... you should go with new build, your old build is a bit... old...

what's your budget really?

you're looking at something like... i5 with about 100-150$mobo some 212 hyper evo cpu cooler, 8gb ram, maybe 7850 would be way nicer for gpu, don't know if your current PSU will actually support new set up wattage may be just just adequate but, the connectors what style are they? (maybe dont support new plugs)

now i dont see what the worry is with this xp comparability, for example.

- when using win7

right click on icon of your game => properties => select COMPATIBILITY tab => and check off the part where it says "run this program in compatibility mode for" and drop down windows winXP

let us know your budget

 

[koudou]

You might not need a TV tuner as most modern TVs support HDMI, if that's not an option, there's plenty of converters.

The Phenom II is a rather outdated processor at this point, and I would suggest a LGA 1155 socket processor, and Tom's Hardware's own bench marking suggests that even the i3 can outperform the Phenom in terms of gaming.

As for the motherboard (and in some ways, the CPU), it all depends on your budget. The Z chipsets are still rather expensive, and you might be able to save quite a bit of money by simply using a motherboard with the B75 chipset which at this current time costs about 60 dollars.