£350 budget for PC upgrade

Hiya,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC for games performance, but I'm really not sure what to get, or if there's a bottleneck in my current machine.

Only looking to run games at 1024x768, but hopefully at a reasonable quality and fps. Maximum budget is £350.

Current specs:

MSI MS-7093v3 mATX
2 x Samsung 512MB DDR DIMM PC3200
Tagan 420W ATX PSU
Inno3D NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 128MB
Athlon 64 3000+ Skt 939
250GB Caviar SE SATA II

Thanks.

 

More RAM for starters. Then a more upmarket graphics card as a close second.

 

Another gig, and see what cpu your motherboard can take. I have the Club3D equivalent of your card and it functions fine.

 

Ok, so perhaps RAM is the place to start. Not sure whether graphics card or new CPU next though.

From MSI's website: "Supports 3000+, 3200+, 3400+, 3500+, 3800+, 4000+, FX53 and FX55"

 

I third that. 1 more gig of ram. & 7600GT or 7900GS PCI-E.

 

id upgrade CPU and vid card, 1 gig of RAM is fine for now but its getting close to upgrade time. The FX55 is only $199 USD (100ish pounds?) now and overclocks really well. A 7600GT isn't worth it IMO coming from a 6600gt. Go for a 7900GS or x1800/x1900 series card. You'll see a good improvement from upgrading the CPU and vid card for frame rates but more RAM will decrease load times and allow better multitasking. Fiddling with memory timings and speeds is a good way to squeeze more performance outta your gig of RAM but overclocking is a whole new world.

 

I'd go for a 7900GT, or GS, or maybe 2.

Maybe faster RAM if your mobo can support it.

 

I can't seem to find a UK supplier for an FX-55, so not sure about prices there. Would an Athlon64 4000+ be worth upgrading to?

Also, how much of an improvement do you think I would see from getting another 6600Gt and running them in SLI?

 

FX = over priced - you'd be better off getting a dual core. They're cheaper and have the same performance.

Therefore go for the 4000.

As for sli, it's up to you. If the motherboard supports it and you can afford it then give it a try.

Or, buy a better card.

 

The motherboard's socket 939 - wouldn't I need an AM2 for a dual core processor?

Thanks everyone for your replies!

 

s939 supports a64, x2, opteron, & fx.

Before you install x2 cpu, check your bios version. It should be in bios. Reboot, tab Del key, find system info. The bios date should be 7/26/2005 or later. MSI has a bios update program as well.

http://216.158.218.35/edoc/bios_uploads/7093v38.rar

RS480M2/RX480M2 (MS-7093) v. 3.8 344 kb AMD Award BIOS 7/26/2005
1. This is Award BIOS release
2. This BIOS fixes the following problem of the previous version:
- Support Cool and Quiet function.
- Support AMD Dual Core CPU.
- Update CPU ID.
3. 2005/07/26

http://us1.msi.com.tw/support/mnu_exe/mbd_mnu/E7093v3.0.zip