What would be the best way to upgrade my PC now?

[kingduskwolf]

Ever sense i first got my dell 4600(i would have bought a better pc but its all i could afford between school) i have been slowly upgradeing it with new video cards and ram because i like gaming on my pc. Now i have what i think is the best stuff my old pc can handle and im not sure if i should alvage the parts and buy a newer pc and use some of my parts or just keep upgradeing heres a list of my parts
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Motherboard model: 0F4491 (can only hold 4 1 GB ram)
RAM: 2 256mb sticks, 2 1 GB sticks DDR Whole amount of memory: 2560 mb
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4600 1 GB memory
Id like your opinion on what would be the best thing to do to upgrade my pc and thanks for your input and if you need more info just ask.

 

[cliffordcooley]

With a Socket-478 motherboard, P4 is as high as you can go with CPU.
With an AGP card slot the HD 4600 is about as high as you can go. Thats not to mention the bottleneck a P4 would have with higher graphics performing cards.
I personally don't think you would need more RAM with the system.

It looks to me you have exhausted all your upgrade options. It's time to move on to bigger and better things. I suggest building a PC because you obviously know your PC components. When purchasing a cheap pre-built PC, you almost always get old and cheaply made components. Set your sites on todays CPU architect and built a PC around a motherboard that supports it. I wouldn't recommend it unless you had a way to test each component but you could always purchase one component at a time as finances permit.

P.S. - A socket-478 system will just about require everything to be upgraded:

1. CPU change from Socket-478 to LGA-1155 (or AMD's AM3 and FM1 designs)
2. Memory change from DDR to DDR3
3. GPU change from AGP to PCIe
4. HDD and DVD possible change from IDE to SATA (Motherboards tend not to support IDE on-board and if not an IDE card can be used but for the most part IDE is dead)
5. Power Supply probably needs to be upgraded to support a 24pin power connection as well as any graphics card you may opt to select.
6. One good note but nothing to cheer about, you appear to have a standard micro-ATX case instead of Dell's proprietary BTX form factor.

 

[kingduskwolf]

Thanks for the reply so i am going to have to buy a newer mother board and i cant use a lot of the stuff on my old pc? and about the case, did you mean that it can fit most new motherboard? also the memory Change, does than mean that i am going to have to buy new ddr 3 memory? Thanks for all the info and sorry to ask but could you possibly make a list of suggestions for what i should buy?(remember that i want a gaming pc)

 

[cliffordcooley]

Thanks for the reply so i am going to have to buy a newer mother board and i cant use a lot of the stuff on my old pc?

True but that all depends on your needs.

and about the case, did you mean that it can fit most new motherboard?

Yes, as long as you pick a micro-ATX case not a standard ATX case. That is if your case only has room for 4 card slots. Judging by your motherboard that is generally what OEM's use when packaging micro-ATX motherboards.

also the memory Change, does than mean that i am going to have to buy new ddr 3 memory?

That will depend on the motherboard you choose and which RAM generation it supports.

Thanks for all the info and sorry to ask but could you possibly make a list of suggestions for what i should buy?(remember that i want a gaming pc)

People have different gaming needs. Some members of the gaming community think that gaming is staying on the bleeding edge. Technically this is true if you are playing the latest games at the highest of resolutions. However judging from you PC as it stands now, I will suggest at least a current generation dual core (for Intel if AMD make it x4) rig with 4GB RAM and a Radeon HD 6770 (or GeForce 550Ti).

• First choice decide which CPU generation you want.
• Second choice pick a motherboard that supports the CPU and all other specifications you want. Such as:
  1. Memory specs (DDR2, DDR3)
  2. SATA specs (SATA 2.0, SATA 3.0)
  3. USB specs (USB 2.0, USB 3.0)

 

[kingduskwolf]

hmmm im not really sure what generation to pick

 

[kingduskwolf]

i am thinking of going with this ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

 

[cliffordcooley]

That looks like a good choice.