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I'm planning a couple of upgrades for my PC and would appreciate any feedback/pointers that anyone can give me. Basically, I'm just looking to give the system a little boost so it can run upcoming games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 at decent resolutions.

Here's what I've got an planned upgrades where applicable:

2.7GHz Intel Celeron processor

80 GB hard drive (with 55 Gigs free space)

256MB DDR RAM -- I'm going to increase this to at least 512 MB

3D Intel Extreme Graphics AGP -- I'm going to upgrade this to a Radeon 9600 Pro, though any good video card in the $150 range will do

Windows XP Home Edition

Are there any other adjustments/upgrades I should make? Thanks!

-- Joe Momma

Try to get a P4 instead of the Celeron. If you can afford , one with Hyper Threading

Comosicus wrote:Try to get a P4 instead of the Celeron. If you can afford , one with Hyper Threading

Will Hyper threading really help for D3 and HL2? I wasn't aware they could take advantage of HT (or dual processors for that matter).

And get Win2K Pro or WinXP Corporate. XP Home SuX0rz unwashed donkey dick.

You only need one of the XPs to take advantage of HT (I read somewhere that 2000 cannot support it). If you plan on running a network in the future then XP Pro is necessary, but if you don't plan on running a network you only need Home edition. And if you are gonna run a network, get a Gigabit card. Else just get standard 10/100 for your broadband.

Also upgrade the 256MB RAM to 512MB or even 1GB (1024MB technically ). And yeah, of course upgrade the processor to P4 with HT. DO NOT get the P4 Extreme, it ain't worth it as far as what I've heard. When you get your video card, ensure it has at least 128MB VRAM, else you won't be able to run those upcoming games.

What brand are you ordering from? If it's HP, be careful with them. They make their other hardware infinitely better than actual computers.

Thanks for the tips, everybody, especially the head's-up on the specific brands and versions to look for/avoid.

I'm not going to be running a network, so I it looks like I can get away with my current OS and connection (I do have the 10/100) for now.

The P4's a little outside my price range right now, but I'll definitely make it the next upgrade and since I'll have to wait a few months anyway I might as well save up for the P4 w/ HT. I will also go full-hog and jack the memory up to 1MB since memory's so cheap these days.

Getting more specific, for the video card I'm looking at either the Radeon All-In-Wonder 9600 Video Card (8x AGP, 128MB DDR) or the Radeon 9800 Pro 128 Video Card (8x AGP, 128MB DDR) The 9800 is going to run $40 to $90 more depending on what sort of rebates and deals are available when I buy this stuff later this month.

Is there going to be enough of a noticeable difference in performance between the two to be worth the extra cost for the 9800? If I can catch the 9800 for only $40 more than the 9600 when I go shopping later this month I'll probably buy it, but if it's closer to $60-$90 more I'd be hesitant to blow the extra cash unless it makes a big difference.

-- Joe Momma

Wait a few months until you have enough money budgeted away and then ask us.

I am doing the memory and video card upgrades within the next couple of weeks. It's just the processor upgrade I'm putting off.

-- Joe Momma

If you wait and do it in one shot you'll be able to afford a better GPU.