Budget upgrade

[raanemaan]

I am going to upgrade in the next few weeks. My specs now are

OS 2000 pro
3700+ San Diego core
ASUS A8N-E
1GB pc3200 corsair value select (2x512)
x800gto pci-e
Ide hdd and optical

What I want to upgrade to is

e21xx
p31 or p35 based motherboard
Gigabyte GA P31 DS3L http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128062
ABIT IP35E http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127031
2GB ddr2 800 Adata
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820211066

I use the computer mainly for gaming (Command & Conquer) and internet browsing.

Is there much difference in the two boards I listed above or will either one work for what I want?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I prefer the Gigabyte board but either will do fine.

If gaming and surfing are your main tasks, you won't see much improvement with that upgrade though. You would see much more improvement by swapping the x800gto for and 8800gt. Gaming is still very GPU dependent, upgrading the CPU doesn't do much.

I just upgraded my son's gaming rig a couple of months ago and his specs were almost identical to yours. I swapped the CPU to an x2 4200 for $70, added 1gb of DDR400 for $45 and swapped the x800gto to an 8800gts 320mb (8800gt wasn't out yet) and it made a huge improvement.

 

[raanemaan]

I know the video card can be improved. I thought I would upgrade the cpu mobo first and then move to a better video card.