I'm sorry if this has been posted before but i need some personal advise. I havent been on this site for a long time now, i forgot how helping people are here.. t.t.p.: I Have upgraded my rig (see below) for several years now, and i'm planning my last upgrade before buying an entirely new one with 8-/16-/32-core whatever is best then.. Now i know my PC is still fine as it is.. I just want to play my games a bit fancier and i want to use my current Graphics Card for my sister's pc.. I was thinking of replacing the GC with a 3850 AGP.. also i want to install 2x Sata-drives for the storage space and faster writing. I Was thinking of 2x 500GB SATA/300 with both 32 Cache in RAID 0 Goals for upgrade: - More storage - Faster Writing/Reading - Better Quality/Performance Games Questions: 1) Is it smart to go for a 3850 AGP as an upgrade? 2) Can i install the 2 drives i meantioned on my mobo.. If not, suggestions? 3) Would upgrading from a 32-bit Vista to a 64-bit Vista increase performance (noticable)? 4) Any other suggestions involving cheap performance increases so that my pc will keep running games Medium Quality Any help is welcome.. Not planning on buying other mobo and CPU since that would cost me a bit more and if i do that i want to do it right and that will be in about 1 or 2 years. Thanks! Steging Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO AMD Athlon 64 3700 @ 2.8(when needed, now running normal) Gigabyte K8NSC-939 2x 1GB Team Group DDR400 Maxtor 200GB Maxtor 80GB Maxtor 40GB 450 Watts PSU

1. the HD3850 AGP is gonna cost you about $125. 2. RAID-0 is not a wise move. 3. Vista is a downgrade. 4. here's a cheaper/better performing alternative to your HD3850 proposal: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?in... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

thanks for the quick reply (as always:D) 1. i'm willing to spend it but also willing to reconsider. 2. I agree that it isnt a wise move, can you tell me anything on the ratio between risc of crashing and performance.. 3. Im kinda used to vista now but ill also reconcider going back to XP.. but since i bought vista already, do you know if it makes any difference at all between 32- and 64-bit on my setup.. 4. thanks for the alternatives! I wonder if i can install that 9600 PCI-e 2.0 on that mobo with only PCI-e 16x? or am i being really really stupid now? Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO AMD Athlon 64 3700 @ 2.8(when needed, now running normal) Gigabyte K8NSC-939 2x 1GB Team Group DDR400 Maxtor 200GB Maxtor 80GB Maxtor 40GB 450 Watts PSU

"Im kinda used to vista now but ill also reconcider going back to XP." Don't! Vista's not nearly as bad as the Internet claims it is...lol. If everything's running fine now, then there is absolutely no need to go back to XP. "do you know if it makes any difference at all between 32- and 64-bit on my setup.." On my machine, upgrading from Vista-32 to Vista-64 produced a 5% performance increase in most of the benchmarks that I ran. Even Vista's own WEI CPU score went from 5.5 (32) to 5.6 (64). Of course, the small increase in performance wasn't noticeable without the help of a few synthetic benchmarks. "I wonder if i can install that 9600 PCI-e 2.0 on that mobo with only PCI-e 16x?" Sure you can. All PCIe 2.0 cards are backward compatible with PCIe 1.1 boards. Main System: Dual core Opteron 185 @ 3.2GHz Two 8800GTS cards 4GB PC3200 Blu-Ray X-Fi Titanium Pro A8N32-SLI Deluxe Samsung 24" LCD Vista 64 SP1

great thanks:D then all i need to do is find those parts here in holland or cheap shipping:P well that 9600GSO is 99 euro here.. shouldn't it be better to get a 3850 PCI-e for the same price.. Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO AMD Athlon 64 3700 @ 2.8(when needed, now running normal) Gigabyte K8NSC-939 2x 1GB Team Group DDR400 Maxtor 200GB Maxtor 80GB Maxtor 40GB 450 Watts PSU

Sorry, I should have asked where you were from. That fact that you're from Holland puts a whole different spin on things. "Vista's not nearly as bad as the Internet claims it is...lol" IMO, history will show that Vista was Microsoft's biggest fiasco since Millennium. If it's not good enough for Intel, It's not good enough for me...lol. Intel Says 'No, Thanks' to Vista I'm gonna bypass Vista & wait for Vista II, er, I mean, Windows 7. And even then, I'll wait several months while the hackers work their magic. Once the early holes & bugs are fixed, then I'll make my move (maybe). Ballmer On Windows 7 And Windows Vista "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

Hehe it's okay, but ummm... whats that different spin then:P Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO AMD Athlon 64 3700 @ 2.8(when needed, now running normal) Gigabyte K8NSC-939 2x 1GB Team Group DDR400 Maxtor 200GB Maxtor 80GB Maxtor 40GB 450 Watts PSU