Help needed for upgrade

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Geek Trainee
Hi everyone,
I want to upgrate a relatively old rig and I'm kind of in a crossway position.
The current rig:
Mobo: Matrix P4M800 MATX Socket 478 (Mach Speed Technologies - The only motherboard with a Lifetime Warranty!)
CPU:Intel Celeron D 330 @3.08Ghz (256KB L2)
Ram: 1x512MB DDR stick at 333Mhz
Video: Chaintech Geforce 6600 AGP 256MB running at 420core/645Ram
Drivers: Nvidia HQ 93.71 tweaked for performance

3D Mark 2003 Score:6338
3D Mark 2005 Score:2851

I'm unsure of whether to upgrate this rig with a new CPU+512 ram stick OR sell the old video and get a new one+a 512ram stick. For the CPU i was considering a p4 @3.0+HT and for the video i'm unsure as to whether the celeron will utilize a 6800GS or a 7800GS properly seeing that the price difference is ~$100. My budget for the update is around $200 so that's why I cant really think into getting both, or going to a PCI-16. I'm primarily doing the update prior to running Unreal Tournament 2007, Oblivion (which I can currently run at 1280x1024 ~15-20FPS, medium), and other games that will be released in 2007.

Any suggestions or options for an upgrate are welcome.
 
You'll definitely need a CPU upgrade to be able to play top 2007 games, but you're limited either way. I've not checked prices, but you might be able to upgrade to an athlon64 3000+ or better with a new motherboard, and keep your current RAM or add more if you want.

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz Socket 939 Processor - Retail
Newegg.com - ASRock 939Dual-VSTA ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
you should be able to keep both your RAM and video card. The athlon 64 will give a good performance boost, if you want you can save a bit more and buy a cheaper 3500 Venice core (don't buy the ones labeled Orleans or S754).
 
I do not want to upgrade the whole mobo at this stage but rather do a update on the current to last me a year until I can make a new PCI-16 build. So my question is which would yeild better performance for the money...
a p4 @ 3.0+HT ~$80
a 6800GS~$130 ...both with a ram update
 
6800GS. A CPU is important, don't get me wrong, but along with a RAM upgrade, the video card is going to do a lot more for your gaming experience than a CPU will.
 
Thank you very much. I saw the mobo update is quite a good deal but I have had bad experiences (With windows and microsoft's customer service bc they made me buy anotehr copy of windows -_-) last year with changing the mobo again to the AGP one with Windows so I was kinda skeptical about another change now considering Vista is coming out soon and it will have a better computer-to computer install options.
Also i saw the 7800GS prices are dropping but im quite positive the 7800GS wont be utilized by such a slow cpu as mine so the 6800GS+Ram is a better choice than waiting a bit more for 7800GS prices to drop right?
The 6800GS can unlock additional pipes as well on some manufacturers right? If so which ones.

Thx again for all your help
 
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