what do i need to up my system?!

[AFIsoldier]

aight, my motorcycle just blew another top end so there went any cahnce of a new system....
my current setup is
MOBO:MSI KT3 Ultra2-c MS-6593
CPU:AMD 2000+
PSU:Turbo 350watt
RAM:Samsung pc2700 512mb
COOLING:5 80mm case fans at low cfm
CPU COOLING:Stock HS 60mm blowing straight on, 40mm blowing through fins(sideways)
HD:Western Digital 80gb
VID CARD:Geforce4 MX440

willing to cut holes for better case cooling and i guess i have a $500 spending limit seeing as that is all my rents will spend on this comp for christmas plus a few bucks that i might have leftover in my wallet

wanting to keep it aircooled and i don't mind filling it with tornados to do so...bought one for my dad's hp single fan cooled system that was getting too hot...doesen't bother him and he hates small humming/buzzing like it put out want REALLY low temps as this thing puts off alot of heat and makes a great space heater for the coldest room in the house which is mine lol

really think i need new mobo and want to get another half gig of ram or a new 1gb set of ram(2x512mb)

i am looking for a new cd burner and maybe even a dvd burner if it is inexpensive and black...

new video card is almost inevitable, don't need the best and greatest but something to play bf1942 on with as little lag as possible at medium settings

need good sound(maybe better onboard than the ac 97 on the current board) but somehting to support my creative 4400 4.1 speakers

another exact hd on a raid config sounds good...or just as a slave if funds are there of course seeing as it isn't necessary with this hd not filled and a reformat top clear it off is comming soon

thanks in advance for all help...hopefully i will be able to rock bf1942 without lag out the a-hole like i have now

 

[Cyberwiz01]

When it comes to gaming, it seems like your vid card is what is really holding you back. Your ram seems ok. Sure you could use a faster processor/better mobo, etc, but it seems like your video card is really your bottleneck there. A nice match for your system would be a TI4200, you can get the 128 meg one for less than a hundred I think and the 64 meg one for somewhere around 70, I think.

Edit: i just looked at your sig, is the card you are using the GF2 or GF4?

Edit2: Ok, so it is the GF4, well the TI4200 is a better card, but of course not as much of a difference than a GF2 to a GF4TI

 

[Deathknight]

Well for performance that will strictly help your gaming a new video card would certainly help. The rest of your system would hold back a truley state of the art card though.

Here is 1 possible configuration you could go with:

Abit NF7-S - this is the best amd overclocking board. Plus it comes with onboard raid and soundstorm audio, which is far superior to ac97 audio. $112

Barton 2500+ or 1700+/1800+ DLT3C. Choice is yours. If you go with the 1700+ or 1800+ I would order from a place that can gaurantee the DLT3C. $88

Memory: Your choice here. I would suggest buffalo tech pc3700 512mb for around $100, although I am not sure its in stock.

heatsink - I think svc is still running a deal on the slk-900 for $20, might want to check on that. Then you need a fan that suits your noise and cooling preferences.

That leaves around $160 or so for a video card. Maybe a radeon 9600? save up a bit more money and you might be able to afford a 9800np. maybe ebay some of the parts you would be replacing for some extra cash?

Anyways thats my suggestion. It will OC extremely well. You may need to invest in a new PSU if you really push the oc. That PSU you have there doesn't sound like a quality brand. Consider the 350w Fortron with 120mm fan ($36 at newegg).

 

[AFIsoldier]

so 512mb or ram is enough? i was thinkin about another stick of the sam ram i have since i heard it overclocks well. i really don't know if i need all that high mhz ram IF the samsung o/c's well, do you think it would work with a NFS-7/Barton system? or is high pc3000+ the only way to go..my vidcard is a geforece4, i saw geforce2 mx440 at wal-mart so i figured mine was also, but sandra says it's a 4 so i will change the original post.

 

[donny_paycheck]

Going from 512 to 1024mb is a big difference. After you get a new video card, look at that next. Especially for memory hungry games like Battlefield. My BF1942 load times were cut by 3/4 when I went up to 1 gig of RAM.

 

[AFIsoldier]

well, that didn't answer the question....pc3200 512 or pc2700 1024?

 

[Cyrix_2k]

512 pc3200, the lower latency will be worth it.

 

[AFIsoldier]

what is latency? what does it affect...i'm not ram savvy

 

[mayagrafix]

Something else that really increases performance is an RAID 0 array. I am real impressed at how much better my systems rocks now with R-O array.

 

[donny_paycheck]

512 pc3200, the lower latency will be worth it.

I'm going to have to go the other way and say that the extra 512 of PC2700 will reduce reliance on virtual memory, translating into greater overall system improvement.

Plus, quality PC2700 will overclock significantly anyway. Especially nowadays that chips are higher quality than when the PC2700 standard first came out.

 

[AFIsoldier]

i think i will listen to donny, it will be cheaper and i really could use the extra money i would save