upgrading from an amd 2500+

[tolkien_76]

Hi All

Its been a while since I upgraded so i'm after some advice from those in the know please. I currently have an athlon 2500+ with 512 ram and a 250Gb sata HDD & ATI 9800 Pro graphics card, abit MB. It is now showing its teeth to the point where its unusable on occasions.

I don't upgrade very often although this might be the exception to the rule.

The components i've pick so far are:

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R

Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU
(the case I have currently is a generic one with a Antec 350w PSU)

also although these could be changed:

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz

I intend on keeping the sata HDD...

Now the RAM i'm not bothered about as that will be dependant on the CPU however I will be going with 2Gig...

After lurking on here for a while and reading others posts I am now totally stuck with the CPU and graphics card.

I could go for something like the C2D 2160 now and upgrade later (hence the m'board I picked) or I could go for a Q6600 now and forget about upgrading for a couple of years?

I'm going to post a separate post in the graphics card forum for a replacement for the 9800 however if someone wants to share their thoughts here that would be great too as this is the one i'm really having difficulty deciding over. Its a toss up between ATI 1650xt, 1900xt, 2600 or nvidia 8600gt or 8800gts 320mb . The 9800 is agp so not compatible with above board hence why i'm changing it but the same question applies to the graphics card as to the cpu. Do I go for a cheap PCI-E card now if so which one is about par with the 9800 pro in terms of power etc or do I go for the 8800gts and leave it at that. My leaning is towards something cheap but fairly powerful now and then look at upgrading early to middle of next year..as i've not been that impressed with the benchmarks produce by the 8800's and DX10. Later additions i'm sure will be better DX9 is probably more important as I will be sticking with Win XP for the time being.

I use the PC for gaming and movies, although the gaming is generally at low res 1024*768 on a 20" CRT. I would like to increase this slightly as it is only on this level due to the ageing 9800..

Really need suggestions off people pls. The more the better..

There is no budget although being a tight half scot the cheaper I can get it the better..ie I don't buy high end components as they will be superceeded within no time!!

TIA to those who respond

 

[Nebzor]

It depends how much you're willing to spend. If you really want to future-proof it, I'd buy the 2160 now and a Penryn processor later on (this will cost more, as you're paying for the 2160 and then the premium the Penryn will bring with it). If you just want to spend a lump-sum now, and save yourself money in the long run, then go for the Q6600.

 

[tolkien_76]

yup - that is the question.. with regards to budget i'm not that bothered although, as I said I don't tend to spend much on my computers. I'm not constantly upgrading. I would prefer to upgrade now to a half decent machine and then leave it for a couple of years.. when the native quads come out I presume they will be in a similar structure to the C2D's ie four or five different chips providing plenty of choice price wise or will there only be a choice of say two chips..?