Graphics Card Upgrade Advice, Please

[drshi]

My present system:
Mobo -- Biostar U8668-D (latest AGP drivers)
G-face -- AGP 4X/8X
Memory -- 512 :-(
CPU -- Intel Celeron :-(
CPU Speed -- 2.70GHz
PS -- Thermaltake, 430 Watts, 18 Amps.
Vid Card -- ATI Radeon 9200SE :-(

I plan to eventually upgrade my CPU to a Pentium 4 and jack up my RAM to at least a gig, but meanwhile can I upgrade my vid card to an XFX GeForce 7600GT AGP while my lowly Celeron is still in residence? The GT's price is down to $110, but I don't want to humiliate my geriatric CPU.

Thanks for your sagacity!

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

Celerons aren't that bad. Gat the card you want and enjoy it. You won't be humiliating anyone. Get the best deal you can on your video card. Remember though: if you plan on a big time upgrade (meaning that you are going to make some BIG steps) you may want to start with a motherboard that can use some of the newer and much better components. I would take a look at an EVGA 650i mobo. There are so many things you can add..(one by one), this would have you on your way to the building of a more modern and great machine! I suggest that you look at Intel CPU'S that are "last year's" because you can get a fast dual or quad core processor (overclockable with that 650i motherboard) and then really get right with a graphics card. Maybe one of EVGA (lifetime warranty) grahics processors like a 7900 or a 7950. Memory is going down in price with everything else: look at 2 or 4 gigs of 800mhz... (DDR2). Eventualy get yourself a SATA hardisk. I would hate to see you get stuck in that world of "agp slots" and stuff that's just getting left behind, not competitive, not gameable, etc. Look ahead to speed and clarirty! You won't be sorry. Good Luck.

 

[kpo6969]

Get the 7600GT now, that's a good choice. Try to get another 512mb ram also. Ram is cheap now unless it's the older stuff. You can go here and have your system scanned and tell you what you have, what they have, how much, and it usually works if they say it's compatable and recommend it.

http://crucial.com/

When your ready to upgrade your cpu try here:

http://www.starmicro.net/default.aspx

 

[sghiznaneck]

I would hold on just a little longer. The GForce 8 series just announced that it's putting out that line in an AGP interface. That way, you'd be able to upgrade (if the mobo and processor are capable) to VISTA WHEN they finally fix it. The first service pack isn't slated to hit us until sometime in 2008.

 

[drshi]

Sims 2?

Thanks, everyone -- someone just offered me a Radeon 1600x Pro FREE, so I guess that will be a good enough upgrade to help me hang on till next year and plan to rebuild from the ground up. My present mobo has only 2 memory slots so there's not much growing room. For now, I'll toss in the 1600 and add more memory. D'you think I'll then be able to run something like Sims 2? My present system has done quite well on things like Riven, Myst III, Dreamfall, etc, so I'd have to agree that the Celeron ain't that bad.