I am considering an upgrade on my computer, i'm looking at just buying parts to max out my (775) mobo, or a new mobo and new parts. Here are my two current possible configurations. #1 upgrade current mobo 2.7ghz pentium d 805 1gb ddr 400mhz ram X800gto agp8x 256mb ram gddr3 w/16 pipelines preunlocked #2 buy new mobo 2.7ghz pentium d 805 1gb ddr2 667mhz ram X800gto pci-e 256mb ram gddr3 w/12 pipelines preunlocked How much will the pci-e bus speed increase, and the ddr2 ram speed increase my performance, will it be a DRASTIC improvement because i could upgrade my agp mobo for much less than getting a new one. Plus keep in mind that the agp video card comes with 16 pipelines and the pci-e comes with 12. thanka

The CPU will help, the added RAM will help. I don't know what video card you're upgrading from, but there's usually little difference in performance between AGP & PCI-E versions of the same card. In other words, the system based on the new motherboard won't be significantly faster than the upgrade on the old board. Obviously the new board will have more "future-ability", but it will cost more. Have you considered an AMD system. In about a week, AMD CPU prices are gonna be slashed. The pricecut date is the same day Intel is releasing the new Conroe core CPU. I haven't seen any mention of what Intel is expected to do in retaliation, but a price war is definitely in the offing. You can build a S939 or AM2 Athlon64 system for less than a new P4 system, & when it comes to gaming, it'll beat any Intel has currently available. However, the Conroe is supposed to be better than anything AMD currently has available...lol

Well your SOL when it comes to upgrading to a Conroe core considering you don't have a 965 or 975 rev 2 chipset. so you can forget about that. But like Jam said in about day days InTel is going to slash every Pentium D processor they have made by up to 50% You will be able to get an Intel Pentium D 915 for only 133 dollars on the 65nm. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ OC 2.7ghz 2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200 Nvidia 7900GT SATA II 2x 200gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0 Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

thanks jam, ftr this is what i am upgradeing from: 2.6ghz celeron d 256mb ram PCI 32mb geforce 2 mx200 do you think i will see any performance increase? j/k and if i am not going to get an outrageously faster machine with the pci-express macine, i think i will just wait to build a new computer. I plan doing the above upgrade with the x800gto, and then waiting until next summer, and spring for whichever (amd or intel) has the nicest quad core cpus and get windows vista, dx10 card and a full out kick-@$$ computer then when i have saved 1-2 grand. DO you think that my upgrade will last me that long?

Easily... Dont expect to play oblivion on superhigh settings but it should be all good till new PC days TJ297 All Prices are in Auzzie Dollars =D AMD 3800+ 2 Gig RAM Nvidia 7800GT Thermaltake 430w PSU Antec LAN-boy Case Onboard Sound WOOOOT Surprisingly not bad :p

i won't be able to play oblivion even 600X400 with all settings turned off and no aa, af or hdr with an X800gto, 1gb of ram and a dual core cpu, thats outrageous. SO you mean that with quad sli 7900gtx's and 4gb of ram and an fx-62 you can only run it at 800X600 with light shadows and no hdr? Who makes these sort of games anyway?