Where's my choke at?

I am getting ready for a massive system overhaul for my humble computer. I built it on an almost non-existent and so even though it is not so great I love it.

Right now, I got:

Athlon Xp 2600+ (barton core )
768 MB of pc2700 RAM (DDR duh)(soon to be 1 gig)
a 120G SATA HDD
48x CD-ROM drive (soon to be 52x)
Generic PSU *reccomend something maybe?*
An ATI Radeon 9600XT from Sapphire
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 16-bit Sound card
MSI KT600 mobo


What do you think is the most responsible for holding my computer down (as in, what should I upgrade to get the biggest performance boost)? I think it is the CPU, but what do you guys think? also, can you reccomend a good PSU to replace my generic one with? Thanks for the second opinions guys.

 

It all depends on what ya use the system for http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.....

 

Thats not a bad system at all!,i think 1 gig of mem is a good idea,for gaming i'd say vid card first,a 6600gt will be a nice improvement and you may be able to take it to your next comp,unless you wanna go pci-e,depending on how much money you want to spend,It might be a good idea to sell it and start fresh.Your board should be able to take a 3200 barton,if you can find a cheap used one it might be worth the upgrade,but I dont think it will be worth buying a new chip.

 

Personally, I wouldn't upgrade the video card now, unless you want to get a motherboard/CPU with it. Only because they seem to be moving towards PCI-Express, and if you upgrade now, you'll need an AGP card, yet in a few years, who knows if they'll even be around. It might all be PCI-E.

 

the KT600 is an underperformer vs the nforce mobos, the video card doesnt even match todays games for "minimum you should have if you want to enjoy it", ram could be generic/value/whatever so it has poor timings.

 

"minimum you should have if you want to enjoy it"

Omega, not everyone has to have the settings cranked up to 1600x1200 4xFSAA and 16xAF to enjoy it. Hell, I can barely tell the difference between 1280x1024 with no AA and 1600x1200 with 4xAA. (Other than the framerate) Also, the motherboard makes very little difference with the fps you get in a game. Just look at the reviews on Tom's hardware:

KT600:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030908/index.html

nForce Ultra 400:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030721/index.html

There is about a 2-5% difference at the most between the nForce 2 Ultra 400 and the KT600. Sure, I'd prefer an nForce 2 mobo, but the KT600 is hardly an underperformer.

You don't need to have the absolute latest and greatest to play video games. Stop sensationalizing.

 

He asked for choke points, so I pointed out choke points, I'll stop now http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/frown.gif What i meant by "minimum to have to enjoy it" is what I would reccommend to buy if you want to have the advantage of a good system that handles all types of games w/o neglecting eye candy. ie, right now it would be the 6600GT.

 

Omegamerc, now you went and made assumptions about the timings on MY RAM! Didin't I ask you to stop doing that in another thread ? I have OCZ memory that runs 2-2-2-5.

Which reminds me.....literally sitting behind me is an MSI K7N2 Delta2 mobo with an Nforce2 Ultra 400 and and MCP. Last time I tried to boot up on it, it crashed at Windows loading every time. I suspect this is b/c I didn't have the SATA drivers for the Nforce2 installed. Can I have both sets of SATA drivers (KT600 and NF2) simultaneously? or should I just get the new and delete the old?

EDIT: And oh yeah, I gotta go with Wyatt Earp. Even when I can crank em higher, I usually keep Res at 1024x768 with no AA/AF, just cause I can't tell the difference at all, and I have a score of 20/20 on the Vision 2.0 Benchmark. (sides the framerate )

 

With the res at what you like,a good performance increase will be seen by upgradind the cpu,but I still think a 6600 will be the best upgrade.

All in all if your doing a major overhaul.a 6600gt and 3200 barton will be a sweet upgrade,I think you will be pleased with the performance you gain.

I agree I dont think the mobo is a "choke".It would be nice to have an nf2 board,but the money you spend on it wont give you the extra performance to make it worth buying and along with a new vid card and cpu will push the upgrade past the "start a fresh build" point.

Do you have an idea of how much you wanna spend on your overhaul?If so we could spend time arguing about the best parts to buy.lol

 

I'm willing to spend about 300$. I reiterate, I have an Nf2 board right here as I speak.

 

Now I feel bad. I wasn't trying to be mean. Just do me a favor, don't assume everyone needs to play at 1600x1200 with 4xAA.

And I'd just add that I agree that a new video card would be the best bang for your buck upgrade. You just have to decide whether you want to get an AGP card now (probably around $200), or save up for a PCI-Express mobo/CPU/RAM/Video Card (probably around $600).

 

Did you? If you dont state what you have I dont know what you carry, a sig with all the info would be nice http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/wink.gif yay! you have the same ram as me!

 

MY Bad,If you have to upgrade,go with the 6600gt and the fastest xp chip you can lay your hands on,or wait.I freakin hate waitin.lol

 

Did you think I took an impatient tone with you, Rikky?

I'm sorry if I made that impression. it's not that I HAVE to upgrade, I've got all the time in the internet , but I was saying that you need not bring a mobo into consideration, as I have a nice NF2 behind me as I type. Omega, I'll get to work on the tag after this post, but you like to take a gloom-and-doom approach.....always assuming the worst (which, now that I think of it, is really smart )

 

They hit the XP ceiling for a while now; plus nforce3/4 boards support 939 pins.

 

LOL.You have the wrong impression,what I meant by the big have was do you have to have the upgrade now or can you wait until you have some more cash and buy a pci-e mobo,pci-e vid card and 939 cpu.