See profile for specs. If I got 512MB of DDR400 to replace my SDRAM and got a new mobo, would my CPU or video card be a bottleneck? I am looking at upgrading, perhaps with a new case like the Antec SX1040 Performance 2 Tower, looks very nice. May get a new CPU around 2.6-3.06Ghz and new speakers and soundcard, Audigy X-Gamer card and Logiteck Z-560 or 580 speakers. We'll see how the budget goes.

No, neither would be, at least not very much. Your CPU will be a bottleneck, but it really won't be as bad as you think. Your system wouldn't perform as good as it should be, and you won't see a huge increase in performance, as you're only upgrading your sysbo+RAM, and not your video card/CPU. I don't think you can go wrong with that upgrade.

So you're saying that the best way to go is to upgrade everything?

To get the most out of your system, yes. Not your video card however, you can wait as long as you want to upgrade that. It's pretty mainstream. I as well have a 1.7GHz processor, except mine's theoretically 400MHz faster than yours, and I'm anything but unsatisfied with it, even with DDR333 and a mainstream system board. If I were you, I'd wait until the 3.5GHz processor from Intel comes out, so you can double your clock speed. That's the most effective methodology of upgrading, IMHO.

I see. Will there be new RAM coming out soon too? Otherwise I may just go for DDR but maybe not. A new case is a must for me though, I'm getting tired of my little beige case. How many USB ports come with most cases? I was looking at Antec/Chenming and it seems that they have only 2 USB ports. Is the number of USB ports determined by the mobo as well?

DDR2 is up and coming. You could wait for that, as it will slaughter all who resist, make prisoners of the rest, and thank it's God to the sound of cannon.

Usually cases have no USB ports, but in some cases (no pun intended ) a case could have 2, or even 4. It depends on what system board you get. My A7V8x has 4 USB ports on the back panel, plus a plug for 2 more. It has an expansion card thing for the other 2, and I use that instead of the two USB ports (HardCano) on my case, since the cable isn't long enough. USB ports aren't available for add-on from there, with the exception of a PCI card USB controller.

convential wisdom is that upgrading a processor will only give you a noticable performace increase by upgrading to a processor 3x faster than what you currently have.

keeping your current processor and Video card your best bet would be to wait a short while and go for one of the new P4 boards that support dual channel DDR that would give you the most bang for your buck.

you could opt for a intel 850E board and use 1066 rambus but frankly Rambus doesnt have much of a future. the future is going to be DDR running on dual channel boards.

Thanks for the advice and answers. My current case has two USB ports on the front, the Antec case does as well, and my mobo has four USB ports on the back. So it looks like all will be fine!! Will be ordering a new case soon, but holding off on the other upgrades for the time being.

Thanks once again.

If your considering buying a new Motherboard soon, have a look at:-

Gigabyte's GA-8INXP
http://uk.giga-byte.com/products/8inxp.htm

Or:
Asus's P4G8X
http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/socket478/p4g8x/overview.htm

Both have Dual DDR, AGP x8, etc etc

They'll both be out very soon, and when they do - i'm gonna upgrade to one of them...

Yeah, they don't look bad. Can't wait till I get my black Antec SX1040BII!!

CPU hertz dont really matter....

WC3 recommends 256mb ram, 32mb video card, but only 600MHz for CPU!

What's the site for UT2003? I wanna check their requirements

here is the official UT 2003 website

http://www.unrealtournament2003.com/

I have a very similar system, It's not very good with WC3. I will upgrade soon to at least a 1700mhz, 512mb ddr, and 64mb video card.

which part isnt very good, the video?

well its even worse for me
my computer meets the minimum requirements...

Well, video is okay, but was at a friend's house who has DDR and only a 2GHz machine and it was far faster than mine, although the CPU is only 300Mhz faster. Mainly concerned about the CPU and RAM, but with those upgrades, a video card upgrade would also have to be necessary.

I would reccomend getting more than a 64MB video card currently, like a 128MB ATi Radeon 9500 Non/Pro. 64MB is kind of old. Get a mainstream card...really :stickout:

Hey i have a Geforce 4 Ti4200 64mb....its rather mainstream... ..

And I have a Radeon 8500 Pro 64MB.

An a$$ kicking card...with hardware capabilities to out perform a Geforce 3Ti or a Geforce4 MX.

I almost bought a new video card actually...then I realized that I couldn't get anywhere near the bargain that I got for this card...or the performance for the money.

Even if I bought it as an 8500LE...

Bah it's everything I need.