STUCK ON THE UPGRADE PATH

[MaxisOne]

Ok heres the rig as it stands

Athlon 64 3500 Winchester
MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum
Corsair Value Select ram kit @ 2.5-3-3-8
EVGA Geforce 6800Ultra (this card was a royal pain!!! finally tamed it though but not happy)
WD 120 gb IDE
Hitachi 40 gb IDE
Audigy 1 mp3


Ok I use my rig for playing UT2k4 and Flightsimulator 2004

I dont want to SLI so that wont be considered so What would you guys suggest I swap out? immediateley and then over time ?

Help would be appreciated ...
Cheers

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Is that a 2x512mb kit?

For right now, don't swap out anything you listed unless you feel like blowing some cash on something.

Over time, wait until venice comes out if you really want to upgrade, then you might actually notice a decent improvement.

Maybe your monitor/speakers?

 

[MaxisOne]

Well im a crt fan and my speakers are logitech Z5300 so i wasnt planning to upgrade that for now... I dont mind selling a part and using the proceeds + cash to get better parts ... i just have no clue of exactly what i want to buy.. I would like some overclocking potential ... but nothing hardcore as i usually only mildy overclock as the system presently stands..

Cheers

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: MaxisOne
I dont want to SLI so that wont be considered so What would you guys suggest I swap out? immediateley and then over time ?

My opinion:
Nothing for a while... I mean what more do you want? Any gains over what you have now are going to be so minimal you probably couldn't tell the difference in a back to back test.

Save your money and have fun using your beast.

 

[mage333]

I'd suggest a new power supply. Usually when people neglect to mention power or cooling, it's generic (unknown quality/reliability). You probably won't need a high power psu. You can get something with known reliability that is quieter or has shiny LEDs and modular cables, etc.

+ Stable voltage lines can help raise your OC and at worse not fry your... err maybe I don't want to put any gaurantees on fried chips.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Is there some goal you have in mind? Is it not playing at a resolution or framerate you want?

I don't quite understand why you want to upgrade what you have now.

In order to get a faster CPU/ram/videocard going you're going to have to spend multiple hundreds of dollars and it's not going to be a noticable increase in speed playing those games you mentioned.

If you invested multiple hundreds of dollars in an audio system, you're going to notice it, and it's going to hold its value very well compared to bumping up to a A64 4000+ or something.

If you're just looking to spend some money for no particular reason, I think you'd get the most out of upgrading those z-5300s.

 

[MobiusPizza]

You would want at least 1GB of Ram

You can achive pretty good overclocks with Venice. But 3200+ Winchester is good enough for the time being

When Creative has its PCIx1 Zenith out you might want to have a look on that

Anyway your system setup currently is one of the tops. You can't really do much upgrading.

 

[MaxisOne]

My aim is to be able to Fly into KJFK or EGLL in heavy scenery , full AI and Bad weather without dropping into anything less than 20 frames per second >Anyone who plays flight simulator 2004 knows what im talking about..

I already have 1 gig of ram in a dual channel 512 meg config and the psu is an Antec true power 480 watt psu ... thanks for the suggestions guys .. if you have any other suggestions dont hesitate to post em..