Still some Use?

[Digital Oxide]

Within the next month or so, i'll have accumilated up to about $1000, and was thinking about buying a new computer, but decided I might still have some use out of the current one.

So what i'm saying is, is there any way I could upgrade to be able to play such games as Counter Strike: Source, and maybe a bit of Battlefield 2 and games of the like, i'm not looking to run them at the best settings, though. With that..

P4 2.6
256mb RAM (>_>)
Gigabye GA-8S661FX(-F)
Radeon 9200SE

Also, are AGP cards out of date? Would I be better off just building from the ground up on a new computer (with a PCI-E set up)? And also, i'm told my processor is a good overclocker, what speeds might I be able to see with it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[B. W.]

You could easily build a new system with that kind of money (God, I've recommended that so many times today.. It's starting to scare me).

You upgrade your exsisting machine and get some decent preformance, but don't expect it to compete with the top of the line PCs out there.

AGP isn't dead (since you can still find a few good cards for it), but it is a dead end.

I can't comment on your processor (because I have no experience with overclocking, or your CPU).

 

[GeForceX]

Upgrading video to 6600 GT and upgrading to 1 GB will be more than enough to run all games 800 x 600 at low settings (and maybe tweaked out cfg's). Your 2.6 GHz will be sort of a bottleneck however. Overclocking it can get you to up to 3 GHz in the safe zone. If you have the regular HSF, don't try to hit anything further than that.

-J.

 

[Digital Oxide]

You could easily build a new system with that kind of money (God, I've recommended that so many times today.. It's starting to scare me).

Lol. That's true, and I realise that, but it is also Canadian dollar.

 

[PWMK2]

I wouldn't say AGP is dead, but you have to take into account that past the 6800s and the X850s, there won't be anything new coming out for it. It basically comes down to whether or not you want it to be great right now or for it to last for 5 years or more. If you want a great machine right now, I'd suggest you upgrade your current one because with $1000 you can easily buy an X850 or a 6800, oodles of ram and a new processor. However, past that state, upgradability won't be much of an option.