PC upgrade help

[Twin-Skies]

I'm canvassing for parts to use to upgrade my family's PC. First thing I'm looking for is a new video card.

Currently looking at an NviDia GeForce 9600GT for 4k:
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=3185627

Also scouting for similarly priced dual-core processor:
http://www.tipidpc.com/viewitem.php?iid=3185476

Are these good buys?

My maximum budget is 5k per component

[Shintetsu]

First thing though, are those parts compatible to your mainboard?

If yes, what mainboard are you using?

[Twin-Skies]

Board: ECS 671T-M 1.0
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 080014 04/27/2007

CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 550, 3400 MHz (17 x 200)

Video card is
ATI Radeon X1300/X1550 Series Secondary (1024 MB)

1 GB RAM

[NiX]

Twin, you can get a pretty good all-around PC for around 20,000. What exactly do you intend to do with the PC anyway? If you don't plan on gaming hardcore, you don't a super vid card. I say just focus on the ram.

[Twin-Skies]

Update on the PC bit:

Talked to a tech-guru pal last night, and he suggested that first of all, I need to upgrade the motherboard and RAM. He says it won't really matter if I get the good video card - the current board's specs will bottleneck its performance.

Oi - 3.5k down the drain already

The good news is he recommended a good shop in Gilmore that sells affordable quad core processors and RAM.

Is AMD any good?

[NiX]

Right now, the only upside to AMD is price. Intel smokes them in terms of performance though. Quad-core may or may not even be necessary depending on what you want to do with the PC.

Do you plan to play Crysis on it? If not, don't bother with getting everything top of the line.

[Shintetsu]

IMHO, Intel is where you should be investing. I've had shorthand experience with AMD and I hated it.

...aaand that's why I asked you about the mainboard first.

There's always TPC for those fail'd purchases.

[Twin-Skies]

@Shintetsu

Checked the board. l'll have to purchase a new one for Core 2 Duo support. For now, it looks like a RAM upgrade will have to suffice.

Know any affordable dealers within Mandaluyong and Greenhills?

[Shintetsu]

Just Gilmore. That's the best area I know of. I forgot where an old friend bought items for his internet cafe though.

You should really buy a new board if you're still planning to overhaul the PC in the near future.

[Twin-Skies]

After some careful consideration and talks with my folks, it looks like I'm buying/building a new PC altogether Already visited Villman at Megamall for advise, and here's the kit I'm looking at:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400
Motherboard: Asus P5Kl-VM
HDD: Seagate 500 GB SATA
RAM: Apacer 2GB DDR2 800Mhz
DVD: Samsung DVD-RW
Video Card: GeForce 9600 GT
Monitor: DTS 17" Monitor CRT
Case: Asus
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Internet Pro Desktop
OS: Windows XP Home (Original)

Total estimate (rough): 30k+

Why the sudden switch to a new PC? We're having enough trouble with sharing the current PC as is.

Right now I got the price estimate on Villman's database, so I'm assuming I can probably slash a couple of Gs off if I buy the components piece by piece via TipidPC.

If all goes well, I could be looking at a shiny new PC to call my own by this Xmas

[Mjting]

Regarding the video card, didnt u get an 8800gt before? it's better than a 9600gt.

[Twin-Skies]

Regarding the video card, didnt u get an 8800gt before? it's better than a 9600gt.

No, I said I was still looking for a good video card, and I was considering getting the 8800GTX. The fact that monster costs almost as much as my planned PC (22k) pretty much knocked that option way, way out of the ballpark.

The 9600 GT's good enough to run Crysis at medium settings (the game is my benchmark), so it'll do.

[Grim]

Get more RAM if you can. 3 GB should be the standard for new computers, I think. It's a good thing about your timing too, as DDR2 has suddenly become cheaper than ever.

[Mjting]

haha, being a benchmark is the only thing that crysis is good for nowadays, imho.

[Twin-Skies]

haha, being a benchmark is the only thing that crysis is good for nowadays, imho.

Quite true. A writer for a tech magazine I read last year said that he was convinced Crysis was intentionally built to be uber high-end just to demonstrate Intel's Quad Core processor - it's the only game so far that was optimized for its architecture.

*Update*

Hmm, scrapping plans for that 9600 GT after all. Just got word that the Radeon 4770 will be launching mid-2009, and will outperform Nvidia's 9800 GT card. The kicker? It'll retail at $ 99.