I'm looking into upgrading my motherboard and graphics card, but am not sure of the brands out there or what to look for. I'm a regular gamer, so I want something that will handle the upcoming games (Bioshock, Alan Wake, and the like).

I currently have a 2.4 ghz Pentium 4, with an ATI Radeon x800 pro (256 meg). It's playing Half-Life 2 well enough, but some of the newer games are lagging, and it annoys me

I was looking into getting AMD Athlon 64 X2, with a GeForce video card. I had a GeForce 4 Ti4200 and it aged very well (It could still play Doom III, despite its age). I was having problems with it overheating, though. The fan started making noise and eventually stopped one day. By the time I realized that my computer was 50% quieter, it had pretty much heated up over 200 degrees (F) and decided to go try the ATI Radeon card.

Also, when looking for a motherboard, what would you all recommend for brand. I have no idea which brands out there are any good.. The last mobo I bought (which I think might have been a ECS) sucked something terrible. I had to send it back because it kept blue-screening Windows ( I later found out it was partially the CPU's fault).

So here's basically my questions:
For gaming purposes.....

ATI or nVidia?

AMD or Intel?

Amount of ram? *(would 2 gigs be enough nowadays?)*


Opinions? I have about $800 to spend just for those two parts, so money's not really a problem. I'm trying not to spend a crazy amount of money, because I don't have as much time to play games as I used to, but I also want something that will be good for at least a couple more years... I'm thinking $300-350 for a graphics card, and $250 or so for a mobo and cpu.

Possibilities I've been looking at:
http://www.smksuperstore.com/763/Catalog/C...Socket_AM2).htm
^Motherboards ? I have no idea which brand to go with.

Graphics cards? I'm leaning towards the nVidias... anyone have experiences to share?
http://www.smksuperstore.com/665/Catalog/P...Video_Cards.htm


Current rig:
2.4 ghz P4
1 gig ddr ram
160 gig hd
Soundblaster 24bit internal soundcard
600 watt power supply

I would get an AMD Athlon X2 4000+ and pack it with an ATI Radeon X2600 (w/ 256MB). This would be the true AMD machine ... lol.

xboxrulz

I would recommend a X2 5200+ and above, since it has a cache of 1MB x2, anything lower is 512K x2. ECS is mid tier manufacturer. If you want better one, you can try ASUS, Abit, MSI and Gigabyte

Thanks for the tips so far guys.

I don't really recommend 5200+ since it's going to be expensive as they're not produced as much as the other boards and they have a higher electricity consumption. If money isn't a problem, go crazy with a Radeon X2900XT (w/ 512MB GDDR3).

xboxrulz

Far as I know, the corporate partnerships are AMD+ATI and INTEL+NVIDIA, so you buy ones that combine well, and you might get a bit better performance. For motherboards, I like MSI, ASUS, or GIGABYTE. Haven't much liked Intel ones, and never tried ECS. 2 GB is well enough for almost everything. But if you're buying for the future, why not get a motherboard that has 4 memory slots. So you put in 2x1GB chips now, and if you want to upgrade later, just pop in a couple more.

Well, here are the specs I decided on going with so far:


Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3 ghz)
$364.99

ECS e-GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
$299 - ($20 mail in rebate)

2x1 gig Kingston PC2-4200 533mhz ddr2
$88 for 2 sticks ($44 each at Circuit City)

CoolIT Eliminator Thermoelectric CPU Cooler
$164.99

Total (Not including shipping and tax):
~$917


I have a Soundblaster 24 bit Live card, hard drive, 550 watt power supply (not 600 like I thought), Logitech optical mouse, eMachines keyboard (that's been like new since 1998!), and dvd/cd-r/cd-rw burner, so I don't need to buy any of that stuff.

Hopefully now I won't have to upgrade ever again, hahaha, right

You'll eventually have to. Like my desktop lasted 5/6 years, and it's due for an upgrade, which I haven't yet. The reason I need the upgrade is that it still runs AGP 4X and doesn't even have AGP 8X capability.

xboxrulz

I think Asus and Asrock are also very good brands, though I have had some beef with MSI graphics cards and motherboards.

Never a complaint so far about Asus or Asrock though .

Ya, usually ASUS has the best boards on the markets, so just use them instead of MSI or some other brands.

xboxrulz