Need some refresher guidance on upgrading

It's been a year or two since I last upgraded my system and I'm looking to do so again. Unfortunately, I feel like I've been out of the hardware loop and need some help deciphering a good course to take. I use my machine for design work and gaming so graphic power is important, but when upgrading time comes I try and go for the mid-level hardware: not cheap/inferior, but not bleeding-edge. I started thinking about upgrading my videocard to a newer Geforce, but that opened all sorts of questions about PCIe and whether I have any "wiggle room" left to upgrade.

Here's my current system:

- MSI K7N2 Delta-L mainboard
- Athlon XP-A 3000+ (2100 Mhz)
- (2x) 512 PC3200 DDR, 1 GB total RAM
- AGP Geforce 6600GT (128 MB)

1) When I last upgraded, I went with the socket-A board but seem to remember that Socket A was getting phased out by another standard? Same with AGP: from what I've read PCIe has become the standard slot now. My first question then is, is it feasible & economical to upgrade to a better nVidia AGP videocard, assuming one exists, with my system? Like I mentioned, my original goal really was to upgrade my videocard; I just don't want to plunk down some money and then have to rebuild the whole system a year or two from now because my upgrade path has hit a deadend.

2) If plopping in a newer AGP card isn't a particularly viable option and I picked up a new motherboard and PCIe card instead, are there any boards that can still take my XP 3000+? (Basically, a Socket-A board that has a PCIe slot and support for PC3200 DDR as well so I can keep my processor and memory.)

Thanks!
m19

 

I think your best upgrade path would be a new MOBO the standard now is socket 939 and it won't work with your socket A cpu. I would suggest a athlon 64 3700+ or an X2 if you need the ectra multitasking performance. dual core isn't really necessary for gaming and single apps right now. As for the video card, AGP is still alive but not for long, you COULD just buy a 7800gs and it is a good card but then it would be worthless when you decide to upgrad the mobo. the big thing with video cards is this year most likely Nvidia and ATI will be releasing vidoe cards with directX10 support which will make a HUGE difference in game graphics, and will only be supported by windows vista, so basicly you can upgrade your video card. upgrade to pci-e now and get a 7900 or make one huge upgrade this fall when all the new tech is out. AMD is also releasing socket AM2 which wills upport faster and sometimes cheaper DDR2 memory.

 

Thanks for the feedback. NewEgg lists its 7800GSs around $300– about twice as much as I'm used to paying, so I think that's still a little too high-end and pricey when in the past I've usually paid around $150 for a card because "the next best thing" has bumped the mid-level prices down. What's odd is that I've seen mention of nVidia releasing AGP versions of "lower" 7x00 cards (7300 and 7600, I think) but the only one I can find on NewEgg is the much more expensive 7800 versions.

So am I understanding this right? If I upgrade my motherboard so it has socket 939 and PCIe, I have to get a new motherboard, processor, and videocard? Can I at least keep my two sticks of PC3200 DDR? I'm still trying to think this one through, but for all intensive purposes it seems like the AGP path really is a deadend with my current setup. =\

Thanks,
m19

 

yes, socket 939 works fine with DDR, and if you only have $150 for a card you can't get one that is a worthwhile upgrade for AGP, I have a 6600gt pci-e and it can play todays games fine, so if youw ant to upgrade yous should save for something better. if you had like an FX5200 or somethign I would have no prob reccomending a $150 card.

 

Makes sense. I like my current trend of upgrades and their price, so I think I'll take your second bit of advice from the first post and just wait until the Fall when I can actually get a performance boost.

One another related question, though. Per my specs, I currently have the XP 3000+. If and when I go to an Athlon64, would it be stupid to get the 2 Ghz version– would I actually see any performance gain going from the 3000+ to a 2 Ghz Athlon64? Scanning through NewEgg again it looks like 2.4 Ghz is the next step up but the price jump is still a little steep for me.

Thanks again, I really do appreciate the help,
m19

 

I would edit my other question into my last post, but yet again have missed the 5-minute window.

As I'm reasearching all these technologies and cost, etc. and based on my prior upgrade habits of every couple years, I have to wonder if going with a socket 754 wouldn't be a bad idea. From what it sounds like, socket 939 is going to be replaced by AM2. So even if I went with a 939 now, by the time I get around to upgrading in a couple years it'll probably be obsolete again. And either 754 or 939 both offer Athlon64s at the 2 or 2.4 Ghz range. So I'm wondering if it would make sense to get a 754 board with PCIe along with an Athlon64 and a mid-range PCIe videocard, knowing that I'll probably be keeping the card in a couple years and just swapping out the board and processor again. It looks like going the 754 route would be half as expensive and at least more performance than I'm seeing now, especially with a 7x00 PCIe card.

Thoughts?

m19

 

I think socket 754 is a bad idea, it is already becoming obsolete, s939 supports all of AMDs new CPUs and will for a couple more years, at elast until quad cores come out but that is at least a couple years away. upgrading to 754 is a waste of $$ it is worth it to get a 939. and about the xpvs athlon 64, yes, you would see a difference, I would suggest getting somethign no less than a 3500+ unless you want to OC a 3200, I hear they are good OCers

 

I'm doing some more research on 939 boards now. Is it a problem if I have an nVidia videocard on an ATI Xpress motherboard? (I don't see any mention of onboard ATI video, but it seems like pairing the two might cause issues.)

m19

 

Again with not being able to edit. ^_^

Keeping in mind that I was originally looking for a graphic upgrade before getting into all of this, what's the general opinion on going from a 128 meg 6600GT to this card? I wouldn't mind spending that price for a year or so of better performance (and not having to hassle through upgrading the whole system yet), and it looks like it's a faster card with more memory... Yeah? The part about it not working with any drivers besides the factory driver's somewhat worriseome, though. Researching more...

m19

 

The 6800 can be easily overclocked to GT performance opening up an extra 4 pixel pipelines and increasing the GPU frequency. Though you do need to add additional cooling.

http://www.ocia.net/articles/6800/6800.shtml

 

I dunno about that, the newer models I don't believe cna be unlocked, you can OC a bit though.