Upgrading advice needed!!!

[Toddles]

HELP -

Should I upgrade my computer to get higher performance?

I currently have an ABIT IS7 mobo w/ P4 1.8 533mhz fsb (o/c to 2.1)....
With Geforce Fx5950 128mb gfx card
1gb ram (pc2700)


Here's my question... I don't have a lot of money to spend...

My motherboard will take a P4 3.0e or P4 3.0c hyperthread 800mhz fsb (Approx $190).... should I get one of these???


-OR-

Should I buy a new AMD Athlon 64 3000 (approx $160)... and then, of course I'll have to spend another $80 - $100 on a new motherboard...


What would give me the most performance jump... use the computer mainly for games, mp3/ipod, and surfing....


Will upgrading from a 1.8 to a 3.0 even make that big a difference??




Thanks so much... any advice is appreciated!

Toddles

[Cantacuzene]

Its a tough call. Personally, I would wait a little while. Your setup should be fine, even for serious gaming, for a bit longer. The benefits of waiting a bit will be that you will get an Nforce 4 motherboard and a faster AMD 64 processor. This will leave you in much better shape for your video card upgrade and give you a much better upgrade path in the future.

[bbrian]

I agree with Cant.. yeah you'd get better FPS on a faster machine, but games should still be very playable with what you have. I'd wait atleast another 6 months and save up.. There's always something better ahead, but with 64bit and PCIe both being fairly new there's going to be more support and more options in the near future. That will drive down the prices for what your looking for and/or you may decide to go for a bigger upgrade and there should be more options then.

[Jeffbx]

:stupid:

Give it 6 months or so & then you'll be able to get a much better bang for your buck & you'll notice much more of a performance increase. There's nothing wrong with your current setup.

[Kudos]

I concur. Hold off for as long as you can and save money.
Dunno what type of games you play, or if they're out already, when they come out etc. but your setup should be ok with nearly everything on the market right now.

Intel just released it's 925XE Express chipset, which runs at 1066(?) MHz FSB.
Which means the prices of the 915 chipsets(which support up to 3.4GHz processors) will decrease.
Also, AMD should have a processor out to compete with that chipset, so the other AMD 64 processors should be lowering in price too.

[SmokeyDP]

....
Where the hell did you come from?

[Kudos]

I dunno what you're talkin aboot

Keep on topic!

:boxing:

[bachviet]

Save your $$$ and get the AMD 64 with PCIe support once it comes out.