Time to Upgrade Again! Recommend Things!

[Mzo]

This is what I currently have:

Athlon XP 2600+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo (I think it only takes up to a 3000)
Radeon 9500 Pro
1G RAM

I want to update my shit for the Half Life 2 expansion and FEAR. The PC is where it's at.

My original plan was just to spend $120 or so on a Radeon 9800 Pro and see how things go from there, but what do you guys think? Is there a better cost/performance card out there right now? Should I get a new mobo and processor too, and if so, what?

I've been out of the loop for at least a year, it's all scary and confusing again.

[Yoshi]

I have the same Mobo, CPU, and RAM you do. I upgraded my 9700 Pro to an X700 Pro a few months back and have been happy with it.

[Revoltor]

WRONG BOARD!

[Dyne]

This is what I currently have:

Athlon XP 2600+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo (I think it only takes up to a 3000)
Radeon 9500 Pro
1G RAM

I want to update my shit for the Half Life 2 expansion and FEAR. The PC is where it's at.

My original plan was just to spend $120 or so on a Radeon 9800 Pro and see how things go from there, but what do you guys think? Is there a better cost/performance card out there right now? Should I get a new mobo and processor too, and if so, what?

I've been out of the loop for at least a year, it's all scary and confusing again.

in that price range a 9800pro/6600 gt would be it.....but you'll be bottlenecked in no time next year. around the 9800 stage the cpu's really started to be the bottleneck in the systems and even moreso now with the x1000's and 7800's out. wait a couple months for the new cpu's to come out and the socket 939 stuff will start falling. although they're a relative unknown asrock has a mobo that supports pci express AND agp with no performance loss so you could get that, a socket 939 cpu and a 9800 pro for now and you'd be pretty good. i myself would opt for no less than a 6800 at this stage.

[Zerohero]

I need to upgrade as well. I got the special collectors edition to FEAR comming in on thrusday. I'm not going to be able to completly enjoy the experience though.My specs are just above yours. Either way I'm playing it on this PC!

[Changeling]

I'd go with a 6600 Geforce with 256 megs of ram. Seen them at Best Buy for less than 200 bucks.

[cka]

get a 6800GT or a 7800GTX if you can spare the cash, and upgrade your mobo/processor to a socket939 nforce4 board and athlon64 processor.

and post in the right forum noob

[Mzo]

No one looks here! I wanted attention!

Thanks, though. I'll look into it.

[Josh]

I wanted attention!

www.hottopic.com

[Mzo]

I'm going with Sharkyextreme's recommendation of an Asus K8N4-E Deluxe NForce4, Sapphire x800 GT 128 MB, and an Atholn 64 3400+ processor.

The first two are about $140 and $89 on newegg, but I can't find a retail 3400 for sale. Gonna check out actual b&ms this weekend.

The only problem with this setup is that it's a socket 754 rig, but I can live with that.