New PC Component Advice

Hey guys,

After over a year of untreatable problems with my PC due to nv4_disp.dll issues aledgedly caused by incompatability between my nForce motherboard and nVidia graphics card, I've decided enough is enough and would like to purchase new components to make a new PC.

Unfortunately, I have very little technical know-how, and do not know what's 'in' with components, and I was hoping you people might be able to help me out?

My website of choice to buy from would be www.scan.co.uk as they are cheap, reliable, and a short drive away where I can pick up the components in person. If you can find components cheaper elsewhere, please, I'm open to suggestions.

My current system is as follows:

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 nForce motherboard (AGP support only)
PROCESSOR: AMD Athlon 3700+ 2.2gHz Processor
RAM: 2GB DDR1 Kingston 400mHz RAM
GRAPHICS CARD: XFX nVidia GeForce 7600GT AGP 256MB Graphics Card
SOUND CARD: On-Board AC'97 Sound Card
POWER-SUPPLY UNIT: 600W PSU, cheap but reliable one from a well-known component site; forgot the name though (own brand)
HARD-DRIVES: 2x MAXTOR 80GB HDD's
DISC DRIVES: DVD-R Drive, CD-Drive, Floppy Drive
KEYBOARD: e-Machines Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSE: Logitech G5 2007 Gaming Mouse
MONITOR: Samsung 22" widescreen, 16:10 ratio (1680x1050 res)
SPEAKERS: Logitech 5.1 6xspeaker surround system
CASE: Antec-900 Gaming Case

Items in green are things I intend to keep, and as a result shouldn't cost me too much for my PC? I'm thinking in the region of £800, though I may be able to stretch that... A few things I'm after:

1.) Not nVidia; I have nothing but trouble with them.
2.) DX10 support for next-gen gaming
3.) PCI-E support and GFX card.
4.) DDR2 RAM, I hear DDR3 is no different other than the cost? If you can tell me otherwise, again, I'm open to suggestions.
5.) I need bigger hard-drives - They just can't hold all my stuff.
6.) Are dual-cores what I'm after?
7.) I understand after a number of years, disc drives can begin to break down, I've had mine for a good 7 or so years now, perhaps time to make a pre-emptive change? I hear they're cheap?
8.) I've always just used on-board sound and it does fine for me, but folk say sound cards, even cheap ones make all the difference. If you can find a cheap, but decent soundcard then feel free to throw it into the mix
9.) With my Antec-900 case, will I really need in-system cooling? Particularly for the processor? PS. I'm no fan of watercooling.

To give you an idea, the games I'm playing currently are Company of Heroes, Medieval 2 : Total War and Battlefield 2 : Project Reality Modification, all on low-medium settings. These games are getting on a bit now, and I'd like to see them in their full glory, as well as the next generation of games; one title I'm looking forward to is Warhammer Online, and would love my new PC to make that look stunning.

I appreciate any and all help in this matter, and thank you so much in advance for any help you can offer me!

- Heskey

 

Someone on another forum has suggested the following, is it good or bad advice? Looks pretty good for the price, to me!