Upgrading my pc

[magiclight]

Hello id like to upgrade my pc spending around £500 can spend abit more or abit less, here is my specs so far:

Intel core 2 duo extreme x6800 duel core prosessor
aliminium ATX midi tower + 550W PSU
ASUS P5N32_E SLI nForce 680i SLI (c55XE) mainboard -core 2 duo /quad core
2048mb DDR2 900MHz Memory - (2x 1gb )
500gb serial ATA hard drive with 16mb buffer
super format sony 18x duel layer dvd writer
640mb nivida geforce 8800GTS

im looking to do gameing on the pc and want a better system.
i havent got a clue on what to upgrade so far so any advice is appreciated

thanks for all your help in advance,
magiclight

 

[SNGX1275]

Not too much you really can upgrade without just going all out. Get a GTX or an Ultra rather than the GTS I guess. But if you already have a GTS I'd just wait til the next round of cards come out.

 

[acidosmosis]

Upgrade that to 4GB and that is really all that you can do which would make much sense. The rest doesn't need upgrading.

 

[Samstoned]

yes ,for now add memory

 

[SNGX1275]

Upgrading the RAM above 2gigs isn't the best thing he could do with his money if he's not running a 64bit OS.

Personally, I'd try and sell the GTS for somethign real cheap, like 3/4 or even half its retail value right now. Then think of that as 'bonus' money, and then get 2 GTs or an Ultra or something.

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

2 things. I don't know what a 'midi-tower' is. Is it really small? If so, you should get a larger gaming type case with room to breathe, for air to pass around, room for fans, and space for components that run hot like your GPU's, to air out and cool off. #2. Also case related. The power supply may have 550 watts peak output, but that really doesn't tell one of the true specs of the unit. I have seen a Zalman PSU with 360 watts with 96% active PFC. It ran about 30 amps on the 12v rail. Just power (in watts) can be deceiving in our sometimes 80% and less PSU market. I would make sure that your PSU has enough amps on the 12v rail(s) to power whichever graphics processor(s)that you plan to use. Better to use a PSU that's about 20% more than you think you may need. Once you add all of your upgrades up during the course of time...you'll be glad that you did.

 

[SNGX1275]

Mid tower is what most of us are using, they are the ones that can take 4 optical drives, and 2 floppies, and 4 hds or so.

 

[Samstoned]

then try out 64 bit or use PAE mode it will then allow xp 32bit to use more than 4gb of memory,but where not talking about anything above 4gb
right now they have 2 gig logic to upgrade this is 2gig more
with out PAE XP 32 will still use

 

[magiclight]

i think ill upgrade to 4gig, or wait till new cards come out, thanks for your help. its appreciated

magiclight