What would be the best upgrade?

[Binow]

in the $200-$300 range. My current system specs are:
--P4 2.53Ghz CPU
--Motherboard (http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=6)
--Video Card (http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/vga/specification.asp?pro_id=52)
--1 gig of memory. Cheap brand. One is 2100 and other is 2700.
--WD 160 gig HD.


I don't do much gaming at all on my computer. I mostly use it for school and message boards. The programs I often use are Photoshop, Matlab, F@H, AIM, Maya, Office XP Apps. For my type of use what would benefit me the most?

[dead_man311]

first off what are your spec's you have right now ?

[Binow]

Originally posted by dead_man311
first off what are your spec's you have right now ?
Specs as in? What else do you need to know to help me make a choice other than what I listed in the original post? Let me know so I can add to it.

[lancingfury]

you have a pretty good system right now, i say leave it and save up for when you WILL need to upgrade(the "next big thing" stuff, which will be 5 completely new technologies all at once... new btx form factor, pci express, new ati and nvidia video cards, organic crystal displays... etc.)

[Cjwinnit]

Originally posted by Binow
Specs as in? What else do you need to know to help me make a choice other than what I listed in the original post? Let me know so I can add to it.

Well, if you had SCSI RAID, GeForce 2 and 64Mb of SDRAM, it would make more sense to get more memory and a vid card than if you had a Radeon 9800 , 2 Gig of ECC DDR4000 and a 10 Gig ATA33 drive. ;) But I think you listed what you want possibly upgraded so that's fine. What's your sound card?

Just an idea, sell the 2100 stick and get a 2700 stick, then get a Raptor (possibly RAID, SATA RAID cards aren't expensive)?

[dead_man311]

Binow , sorry read it wrong. was thinking thos where the upgraded parts , do know why for some reason

only thing id change is the PC-2100 to PC-2700, or look at the price of some higher up like PC-3200 and if there close get that

[Hagakure]

When you said your price range is $200 - $300 you did mean that was the range in which you wanted to spend on upgrade right?

If so I’d personally take out the memory you have now and upgrade to a 1 gig PC-3200 and call it a day. That’s the one thing you could upgrade right now and still be fine with 6 – 7 months from now and for the apps you run normal (or at least listed) I think the memory upgrade would probably net you the biggest gain.

[Binow]

I don’t have a sound card now. I barely have things that could be considered as speakers ;). I could get a gig of the Adata ram for less than $300 that everyone is having good luck with. I don't know if I could really OC it that much more because of lack of options with my mobo. New memory would net the biggest gain in overall performance?