What to upgrade?

[JoejoedamOnkey]

ok so heres my conondrum, I have almost exactly $500 saved up and ive decided its time to upgrade my computer. Right now im running a 1.7ghz p4 (400mhz fsb) and old geforce2 gts on a ECS (ick) mobo. 256 mb pc2100 too. And Im a gamer so this this thing isn't cutting it anymore. My Question is with my $500 should I get:
P4 2.4ghz 800mhz fsb/asus p4p800/ati radeon 9600pro/ comes out to be $489 and get another stick of pc2100 from officemax or compusa thats like $10 after rebate? Or would my money be better spent on higher quality video card+memory?

 

[BurnItDwn]

how about an athlon xp2500 barton ($92 on newegg right now for a retail cpu/hsf),
an nforce 2 mobo (I have a cheapo Shuttle AN35N-Ultra board ... its available at newegg for $71s ... though you may want a different brand),
a 512mb stick of PC3200 ram (about $90 on newegg for kingston)
and use the rest for a vidcard (you should be able to find a 9700 for low 200s, maybe even a refurb 9700pro)

pump up the voltage for the CPU a bit (maybe 1.75v or 1.8v ... set the FSB up from 166DDR to 200DDR ... and you will be running at XP3200 speeds.)

granted "xp3200" is really only about as fast as pIV's at between 2.8 and 3ghz ... but it s still a nice setup for a good price.

 

[JonnyBalls]

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
how about an athlon xp2500 barton ($92 on newegg right now for a retail cpu/hsf),
an nforce 2 mobo (I have a cheapo Shuttle AN35N-Ultra board ... its available at newegg for $71s ... though you may want a different brand),
a 512mb stick of PC3200 ram (about $90 on newegg for kingston)
and use the rest for a vidcard (you should be able to find a 9700 for low 200s, maybe even a refurb 9700pro)

pump up the voltage for the CPU a bit (maybe 1.75v or 1.8v ... set the FSB up from 166DDR to 200DDR ... and you will be running at XP3200 speeds.)

granted "xp3200" is really only about as fast as pIV's at between 2.8 and 3ghz ... but it s still a nice setup for a good price.

I would also suggest upgrading to Athlon XP... but then he's stuck with with an old processor AND mobo...
if thats not a problem, i'd agree 100%