Sage Advice re My System Appreciated
Wow -- you guys are a godsend! I'd really appreciate your takes on my present system (details below). It's three years old and I'm not a cutting-edge-type-guy, so I'd like to hang on to this system as long as possible without it becoming a dinosaur.
I just got a good deal on upgrading my graphics card to a Radeon 1600X Pro which hopefully will max out the longevity of my doomed AGP interface. I'd be grateful for your take on my present system vis-a-vis the PC game world. I'm not interested in shooters but enjoy Dreamfall-quality graphics and complex variables a la Sims 2. (Surprisingly, my old Radeon 9200 ran Dreamfall, Riven, Myst III amd others with hardly a hitch, but I think it would have a coronary if I asked it to run with the latest Sims.)
Also, I'd appreciate any cost-effective recommendations you can offer re future upgrades to help delay the onset of Jurassic-itis.
Here's my present system, including upgrades and updates:
Motherboard -- Biostar U8668-D (latest AGP drivers)
Graphic interface -- AGP 4X/8X
Memory -- 512, 1 Channel
CPU -- Intel Celeron 2.70GHz
Power Supply -- Thermaltake, 430 Watts, 18 Amps (new)
Graphics Card -- ATI Radeon 1600X Pro; 512 mb, AGP (latest drivers) -- May I assume it's okay that the card's memory is DDR2 and my RAM is DDR? (C'mon, what's a little "2" between friends?)
Monitor -- ViewSonic Digital LCD; 1280 x 1024 (new)
CD-DVD -- Combo Drive: 52X CD-RW & 16X DVD-ROM (new)
Sound Card -- Integrated Sound Blaster -- Audigy AC97 -- (basic, but no complaints so far)
HD --80 GB
Platform -- XP Home SP2
Country -- USA
Thanks for any feedback anyone cares to offer, either here or by e-mail to "drshi[at]optonline.net"