advice on a $500 upgrade

Hi,
This is my first time posting. I'm looking at the following items to upgrade my system and I'm hoping for some input. This will be used for gaming but I don't need super high end. My current system works average so I'm just looking for a little boost.

Current system:
Athlon XP 1800
1G RAM (cheapest I found, sometimes gives problems lol)
Geforce FX5200 128M AGP graphics
Don't remember the brand names...

I just bought a new IDE hard drive so I have to keep that.

So here's what I spec'd out at newegg.com for under $500
(keeping my monitor,keyboard, mouse, and case)

Power supply: Thermaltake TR2 430Watt $36.50
Motherboard: Chaintech VNF4 Ultra 939 socket $69.5
CPU: Athlon 64 3200 Venice (1G FSB) retail box w/fan/sink $152
Vid card: XFX Geforce 6600GT GDDR3 128M PCIe $147
RAM: Corsair valueselect 1G (2X512) PC3200 Dual channel DDR400 $80

Total under $500.
I'm confused about whether or not to get a PCIe graphics card now or get an AGP and upgrade to PCIe later. It seems the AGPs are cheaper right now.


Link to wish list:

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/wishlistCurrent.asp

Any input?
Thanks again.

Jeff

jscharpf said:

...
I'm confused about whether or not to get a PCIe graphics card now or get an AGP and upgrade to PCIe later. It seems the AGPs are cheaper right now...
Jeff

Click to expand...

well AGP cards might be cheaper now, but just wait until they phase them out. then you would have spent $100? on a new card, then you'd spend that or dounble that on a new PCIe card... just buy the upgrade and you wont have to worry about upgrading later. untill they make a new interface (they always seem to )

Thanks for the response. I will go with PCIe.
Can you look at this link and tell me if you think it's an ok deal?

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...shListTitle=Is+this+a+good+choice+under+$500?

Jeff

to the Forums.

If you get a PCIe vid card, you will need a PCIe mainboard, and potentially a new CPU and new RAM.