Advice on upgrading pc

A_Clock

I want to upgrade my pc, so i can play all the new games coming out. I don't want to play them on max settings, just to be able to play them would be nice:rotfl:

This is what I've got at the moment...

AMD Athlon XP, 2800+
Asus A7V8X-X
1024 MB (PC2700 DDR)
RADEON 9800 PRO (128 MB) AGP
Creative SB Live! 5.1 Sound Card
80 & 60 GB IDE hard drives

I know ill need a new motherboard and CPU, but would i be able to keep my ram? I'm on a really tight budget so just want to upgrade the basics, maybe get a mid range gfx card till i can get a better one.

Need advice on what to get...

A_Clock

*Bump bump*

Conor_3

Sell it and buy a new one. An Athlon XP isn't going to be able to play anything at a remotely decent rate that was released in the last 18 months or so.

RAM? Depends if it's DDR. If it is, you could if it were DDR400 although it'll limit you to Socket 939 motherboards which are now out of date. It's PC2700 so it's of no use really.

TBH, it really is at total upgrade point. Even the HDDs as you can buy a SATA2 250GB HDD for £30 nowadays.

banger9365

well with that set up sell it and buy totaly new .
you need a duel core cpu (intel or AMD)and at least 2GB ram not the value stuff you can get better for the same money ,
get a nice asus motherboard p5kc takes ddr2 and ddr3 ,not buy a cheap graphics card and then a good one it will cost more in the long term and new graphic card are PCI-E not AGP(so a new motherboard is a must),get a good sata hdd 160gb-250GB about £30 to £40 now(the gaming ones are not cheap{rapter's}) and do not get a case with a psu in has the psu will find it hard to run a gaming pc you will nead one about 600+watts and again not the cheap one a gaming one is not that dear £50-£60+ put will depend on your graphics card or cards(crossfire or SLI).
and before you say it DX10 games a little short on the ground at the moment put they need vista and a nvidia 8xxx graphic card or a ATI 2900 (the real gaming ones are not cheap)
i have a gaming pc and there not cheap mine cost up to now £2500 to £3000 and still growing and thats this year(i like my games)put a normal pc with an upto date graphics card will be fine for gaming for most people;)

Cerro

If you are on a budget, here is what i would go for:

CPU: Intel E4400
Mobo: MSI Neo-F OR Abit IP-35E
Ram: Corsair XMS2 DDR2 667Mhz PC5400 1Gb (If you want vista, get this instead)
Gfx Card: XFX Geforce 8600GT 256Mb
PSU: Xcilo Greatpower 550W

Its worth noting that both those motherboards have only 1 ATA connector (IDE) so if you've got more than 2 IDE devices, like your hard disks and optical drives then you will need to get some SATA devices. Either two new hard disks or two new optical drives (don't use an optical and hard disk IDE device on the same ribbon). I would recommend you replace the hard disks, perhaps buying 1 big hard disk and 1 new optical drive and reusing one of your old IDE opticals? for example:

1x Samsung Spinpoint 500Gb
1x LiteON 20X DL DVD Writer (black) OR (white)

Would be capable of playing all the latest games and has a DX10 capable card.