Upgradong my computer

[kbk]

Well this will probably end up being a long drawn out process but o well, I want to upgrade my Dell Dimension 2400. I have considered buying a barebones kit from Tigerdirect.com such as this one, Asus A7V600-X. (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1281641) I have mostly looked into a barebones kit but I would like to just plain update my Dell, however I would like to go the most cost efficient way..What do you guys think? I am open for suggestions on CPU, motherboards and that sort of thing, I already know what I want when it comes to disc drives and hard drives. Also I want to run an AMD processor...So any reccomendations for that would be nice too...I am really a n00b when it comes to this kind of stuff.

[Stone]

Really, don't bother with that...

If you wanna take your computer seriously, get a 450watt PSU at least... 350watt will give you fuck all juice (http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/).
Socket A? No! The AthlonXP is discontinued and the only thing going for a Sempron is it runs extremely cool (And can be purchased for S754 anyway!). Go for a S939 if you're taking the AMD route, and S775 for Intel. Also Socket A doesn't support PCI-E and Dual Channel RAM.
PCI-E is a must if you are going to play games, AGP is outdated and your future upgrade options will be seriously damaged.
You're case definatly will not have enough cooling. Get one with a front grille and fan.
Get a motherboard with SATA.

[kbk]

Ok, thanks stone. I really don't know too much about the hardware specs of computers (what's good, what's not, etc) so I appreciate the help.

[Stone]

No problem. Give me a price of how much you want to pay and I'll see what I can come up with. Also, what will you be using it for? If not games and graphic design, then a crap gfx card will do and the $$$ can be spent on other components, etc...

[kbk]

I will be using it mostly for games and I don't want to spend over $700 USD, I would like to buy most of the stuff from tigerdirect.com because they have damn good deals.

[phoenix]

I will be using it mostly for games and I don't want to spend over $700 USD, I would like to buy most of the stuff from tigerdirect.com because they have damn good deals.

What kind of games? The latest games require the latest hardware. However if you're talking games like Doom 3, Farcry, Battlefeild Vietnam etc. then you'll get away with a AMD 2.4+Ghz, a Gb of ram and an Nvidia Gforce Fx 5200.

These are basics though. If you want budget gaming buy a PS2. <Flame On?

[Stone]

Nvidia Gforce Fx 5200.

No you won't, you'll have to run it at the lowest res and lowest graphic settings and it will still be choppy (trust me, I had one). If you're going AGP get at least a Radeon 9700 or for PCI-E an X700.

[phoenix]

No you won't,
Negative nancy. I have run, at very playable frame rates these games.... Farcry, Doom 3, Diablo2 - Lord of Destruction, Colin Mcrae 04, Morrowind, Battlefield Vietnam, Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid 2 and I have an FX5200.

[kbk]

I will probably just be playing Doom3 and other games like that, for most newer games I can just get them for PS2. Mainly I use my comp for about 4-6 games (not all at once) and I do a hell of alot of online junk as well. By the way is there anything I can do immediatley and cheaply to have Doom3 running better on here? I have 512MB of RAM in this now and it still freezes up...Do I need a new vid card or what?

[Stone]

Negative nancy. I have run, at very playable frame rates these games.... Farcry, Doom 3, Diablo2 - Lord of Destruction, Colin Mcrae 04, Morrowind, Battlefield Vietnam, Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid 2 and I have an FX5200.

What make and how much RAM on the card? I had a Gainward FX5200 256MB and it sucked. The GeForce FX series has to be the suckiest GPU ever made. I could barely get 30 fps in HL2 with 0xAA, 0xAF and running at 800x600. That's with an Athlon XP2700+ and 512MB DDR333. I couldn't even run Halo with the card, when I upgraded to a Hercules 9800PRO they ran perfect. Although now I've got my laptop with a PCI-E GeForce 6800 which runs them even better!

[phoenix]

AOpen 128Mb FX5200, Athlon XP2400, 768Mb RAM. I'll admit that I was running Doom 3 at it's lowest settings but I still got very playable frame rates. Not sure what they were exactly but I'm currently in the process of finishing Resurrection of Evil so if/when I get a chance I'll get some details.

Then again Stone, perhaps our ideas of playable frame rates are different. Having been budget gaming for 10 years or so I'm used to putting up with the occasional chop here and there.

All that aside though for $700 USD I imagine you could probably get a PCI-E M/B and a decent graphics card like the GeForce 6800 Stone mentioned.

[Stone]

Currently the 6600GT is the best price/performance graphics card that you can buy. If you have the $$$, get one. You could also get an Athlon64 3000+ and 1GB DDR 400. Have a look on eBay though, you might pick up the graphics card and cpu cheap.