Upgrade Performance

[Kutai]

Firstly, just wanted to say that everything on this site from the "official" articles to the members on the forums have very helpful and informative to me, and I need to give a big thank you for that.

Now, onto the topic.

My current computer is starting to show its age and I think its time for an upgrade. However, being a student means that I also need to save money as much as possible. So the question arises as to whether or not to upgrade the whole system or just a key component like the graphics card. My computer is used mainly for schoolwork, TV/movie watching, and World of Warcraft, but some Video/Audio ripping/burning/encoding is not out of the question either. I'd also like the ability to run Vista nicely and play future games without turning everything down to minimum. My monitor is a Dell 2005WFP (1680 x 1050 native res) My current computer has the following specs:

Asus A8N-E Socket 939 PCI-e mobo.
AMD Athlon 3000+
Radeon X800 XL
2GB mismatched PC-3200 RAM
Creative X-Fi ExtremeMusic
Antec SOHO Case
Antec TruePower 430W PSU

And the upgrade im currently thinking of is:

ASUS P5B-E ($190)
Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 ($280)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 ($40)
2GB OCZ PC2-6400 Gold Dual Channel Kit ($260)
Antec P180 Case ($160)
Antec NeoHE 550W PSU ($130)
eVGA 8800 GTS ($570)
Creative X-Fi Extreme Music (From old comp)

I'm also planning on OC'ing that system to ~3.2GHz.

All prices are in CDN. I'm thinking I can get $600-700 for my old computer, so around $800 for this new rig. I'm also planning on waiting till the R600 (late January) to purchase, at the very least it will drive down the price of the 8800 or possibly even offer better performance for similar price.

So, would I notice a considerable performance boost from the new CPU/Mobo/DDR2, or should I just upgrade the vid card come late January? Any critiques on the proposed new system are welcome too.

Thanks.

 

[deathsupport]

First of all, hi
Secondly, not sure where you are buying your stuff from, but I recommend you check out www.directcanada.com
Cheapest prices, and no PST, only the 6% GST.
However, if you upgrade to everything you listed... you'll have one heck of a system suited for much more than just palying World of Warcraft, which is the only graphic intensive thing you listed.
I would try to sell the CPU and mobo and buy the Conroe and P5B. I'm not sure about the RAM (just not technically knowledgable about RAM) and I think you can find a better PSU for that price.

 

[Kutai]

Hey thanks for the reply.

Those prices are from memoryexpress.com, which is local so I won't have to pay shipping. Thanks for the link though, im going to try and get them to pricematch things from there. As for games, WoW isnt the only thing. I would pick up FEAR and Half Life 2 again with a good video card, and lets not forget Crysis and UT2k7 coming out soonish.