rite guys this is my computer spec at the moment.
intel celeron D
2.66ghz
512mb of ram
geforce fx 5200 128mb (agp)
40gig hard drive
windows xp home

rite here is what i was planing on doing after crimbo my new specs going to be.

intel pentium 4 (iam changing my cpu my mobo supports socket 478 and can handle up to 3ghz)
2.4ghz
x2 512mb of ram pc3200 ddr sdram (400mhz)
nvidia geforce 6600gt 256 (agp)8x
40gig hard drive
windows xp home

you see guys with my celeron and my geforce fx 5200 graphic card i can run fear but at the lowest settings for it to become playble
so will this new p4 (2.4ghz)and this nvidia geforce 6600gt make a differents to my games proformance and gameplay will i be able to run fear on lets say about medium setting also i was thinking of getting my nvidia geforce 6600gt first so in the meen time of waiting for my new cpu can i stick the 6600gt in my system for now and will i be able to play fear on low settings ok then email bk plz eny advice will do including you jam :) thanxs

i meen two 256mb of ram i got in my system that makes 512mb :)

umm im pretty sure the lowest card you can have is a standard 6800 but the 6800GS is recomended for playing that game...hmm youd be safer going with a P4 630 3.0ghz and a 6800GS video card...with the 2X 512mb ram this would be the preferd setup :-)

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

well u see iam on a tight budget so could i play it on a 6600gt 256mb (agp)

hmmm i cant gurantee anything but i dont think you will be getting 60 frames per secound...maybe like 25....i know it sucks when you dont have the money to upgrade....just like me i decided im gonna wait till 2007 to upgrade my comp cause the computer world is gonna have a radical change within the next 3 years...im gonna sit back and watch waht pops up then i might upgrade....to be honest i think the best thing is..even if you cant play the latest games...is to just save up money maybe getting a job would help depending on your situation....thats waht im doin just saving up and workin my new job.....eventually everyone will be able to play the latest games even if its a year down the road....ive had to wait before...

PS: lol i waited for 1 year beofre i got my gamecube when it first came out but it was worth it....:-)

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

If you're on a tight budget, don't upgrade the CPU. Just increase the RAM to 1GB (preferrably 2 x 512MB) & get the 6600GT AGP. And check the specs of the 128MB vs the 256MB card...usually the 128MB card is faster. Get one with GDDR3 @ 1000MHz

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So gatsu you did change your mind. I'm glad man. I should've done the same thing... but I rushed and bought everything eating all my life savings (well I'm only nineteen). Patience is a good thing. Better than being always in a low budget and skiping launch to get something good is to ensure better your future money so you don't always have to be saving and asking your grandma for money Lol. As you said you can always catch up with games later. If in the future some old games don't seem very fun, it means that the only fun thing about them was their "new-ness". A real good game, even 5 or more years old, will be always good. For example, I played System Shock 2 (released in 1999 I believe) while I was playing Doom3 in my cousins computer. System Shock 2 was WAY more fun. So don't rush into getting something that would do only as a "small patch" in your computer.
Anyway, if you sell that fx5200, I guess a 6600gt and 512 more of ram won't kill your budget that much (I mean, if it's not about very large amounts of money you take the risk of spending them in parties or whatever LOL, so why not a 6600gt?)
I also think it would be a good advice that you save and wait while you mantain yourself informed... but if you don't want to do that I'd get the 6600gt first... Cause that may be just about enough for what you want. You see... 1gb of ram is really useful when playing games at high settings, but when you play at medium-low settings the difference between 512 or 1gb of ram may be not worth it, because you don't need much memory to keep large textures and so. Tom's hardware has an article about that that JAM posted it somewhere but I can find it. I think that the extra 512 of ram won't do that much, unless you decide to get a 6800gs and change your processor.
In conclusion, what I would do is wait, but if you can get that 6600gt get it, and don't change the processor and don't add the extra ram. The 6600gt will be the best upgrade for your computer, a processor that is not MUCH better is not worth it, neither is the ram if you don't play at high settings.
Start saving for your next pc, the 6600gt will keep you happy enough in the waiting process.
However, if some money falls from heaven, add the extra ram.

Free

yea i hear ya fennerman its not that i care about the newness of things just performance and i read on AMD website for their out look on the fututre they said in 2007 they are planning on having more than 2 cores in a processor so im gonna wait then and maybe by then. im not sure a new set of video cards might come out like better than the 7800GTX and radeons X1800XT...yea by then just workin my new job at 15$ bucks and hour ill have enough for a completly new setup from head to toe including a new LCD 19 flat screen monitor cause my freindf says LCD will be way cheaper in the next few years...but yea i like playing the old games as well i have a very nice collection of 85 nes games that i still love playin about 35 of them are rare ones and it took me 5 years of collecting off and on to get that much but man lol im never getting rid of them i love those games....and a small collection of sega genisis wich is also fun to play...its just amazing when you look back to 1985 and up till now games have grown insanley well....yep so im setting money aside and waht not...my rig should cut it for now with my game designing and lol since my development starts next year my game might be done by 2007...anyways yea saving is good, while still having food on the table.:-)

"to be a rebel in veiw of contemporary society does not in itself lower the value of a man, but instead he awakens us to something wich war ought to be waged against"

Hummm...Dont bother with Intel. Get yourself an AMD 64 939 preferably the winchester core as they overclock like a bitch! Currently I have my 1.8 3000 Winchester at 2.7Ghz which will, out perform an FX-55 ( okay, maybe not ) but its very close.

Okay, if you cant afford that just keep your processor, buy a 6800 standard unlock it so you can access the extra pipelines therefore turning it into a 6800GT or with very good cooling a 6800 Ultra. Go on ebay, find the seller from the states who sells 1GB PC-3200 ram for a very reasonable £30 inc P+P job done.

UNless you have a load of money to spend theres no point in wasteing X amount of cash on getting just a few more frames per second.

Personaly, your graphics card (fxx5200) at the moment is rubbish and thats why you can only run FEAR at the lowest settings.

Just my thoughts, feel free to comment.

Aaron

thanxs guys i think what i will do is buy the 6600gt tomorro and the wait until after cribo for the sales then get a pentium 4 (2.4ghz) that will have more L2 cach and fsb speed after crimbo iam hopfully looking to spend about £80 because there £90 as it is should i do this ok email bk thanxs :)

6600GT 128MB AGP w/GDDR3 @ 1000MHz

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such as this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150089

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Hey Gatsu,
I think you are one of the few guys on this forum who thinks the same way as I do. I think as far as computer hardware goes, the more you wait the more you gain.
I used a pentium 3 450MHz computer till about 2001 and my next computer was 1.7GHz pentium 4 and I really enjoyed that upgrade. The processor speed was more than trippled.
I am looking for a cheap processor upgrade, but I just dont think it is worth it. A P4 2.8GHz northwood cost 166$ (7200Rs) where as my hardware chap offered to give me an AMD dual core 64 processor and motherboard combination for about 8000Rs. It is good to know that I will have more options in the future, and I hope AMD incrase their presence in India. I know many friends of mine who have AMD systems and they swear by its superiority over intel. The only complaint seems to be that AMD does not have good warrenty coverage here in India.

However, the timing of buying the P4 was quite bad. My processor was the willamete core with 256KB cache and 400FsB and just a few months after I broght my system intel launched the northwood core. So I guess if I waited even 6 months I would have a northwood core instead of a willamete core.
I have been using a 40GB harddisk for a couple of years now, and that is enough for me. If I get a bigger HD I will just dump it with songs that I dont really like or just install games that I wont enjoy playing. So my 40GB limit allows me to install only what I like, and that works fine.
2 months ago I upgraded from an FX 5200 to an 6600GT agp card, and that upgrade too was a good one. The 6600GT still suprises me. I can run all games at 8xAA and 16AF on COD2, Serios Sam2 and any other game. That card does pack some power inside it.
I was lucky enough to find a refurbished 6600GT on www.pricewatch.com for 104$ (4700Rs). The price in India is not less than 11,000Rs and some 6600GTs sell for 15,000Rs over here.

And you are right about games too. I dont think you need to highest fps to really enjoy a game. Some of the games that have have enjoyed the most are Freelancer, WC3 and Doom3 and Far cry, and all these on my fx 5200.
I still find my self going back to play windows solitaire to get some mental challange though.

Sarosh