NEW CPU or NEW VIDEO CARD?

[Marauder73]

I've presently got an overclocked celeron 300a to 450mhz with 128mb ram and a 32 mb ATI XPERT 2000. I can't afford to get both a new motherboard/cpu combo AND a new video card... so ... which is more important to games like Halflife's TFC?
I SHOULD add that I have a budget of $150. I've seen Duron combos for that deal, and most good cards are in that range as well. But I'm wondering if the Celeron is totally bottlenecked at this point.

 

[Mem]

You could go either way but normally the graphics card as the most effect on games so go with a new graphics card.

 

[jfall]

Personally I would get a motherboard and an AMD Duron 700, overclock it to 1GHZ and wait for the Nvidia NV20 to come out and get that when you can afford it.

 

[han888]

cpu the first thing u must upgrade

 

[office boy]

Yeah CPU.

 

[nippyjun]

Why not get a faster celeron like a 566 that you could overclock to 850 or higher. Then get a geforce 2 mx. With money you could get for your chip plus $150 this should be feasible.

 

[gittyup]

I would go with a Duron 700 / MSI board with the money. Upgrade the vid card later. Just my opinion though...

 

[JokerF15]

just get a cheap duron mobo and a duron 600, and overclock that sucker. that way you can stay under 150 bux, and later can upgrade to an mx for KYRO!!! ur video card should sell around 50 bux im guessing. and sell you existing combo for around 50-100 bux (not sure) then buy a video card. =)150 bux total, and u got urself a new video card and mobo/cpu. kinda rough prices, but it'll work somewhat like that.

 

[WDCentral]

If your looking for more gaming performance, I would go with a video card. I have a GeForce2 MX and love it -- they are usually around $100.

 

[Shu8]

i'd tell you to get a new cpu but you're limited w/ 150 bucks. you'll have to spend 200 for 800 duron and mobo [i recommend: msi k7t pro2a]

 

[WileCoyote]

theres no point in getting a better video card because the bottleneck will still be your cpu. once you upgrade your cpu, then you will use the full value of your video card. as it is now, you're probably not getting all you can get out of your ati xpert.

 

[Auric]

I have to parrot the sentiment that you can indeed afford (just barely) a new CPU and video card with $150 if you go with a Celeron 533A or 566 and a Geforce 2 MX. Get 'em second hand and I'm sure you can do it easily.

 

[GadgetGuy]

With a Celeron 450 and a new video card, you arent going to get good performance, even if it is a GF2. I would buy a PIII 700Mhz, your system will be good, even with the Expert 2000.