First off, I have a question about whether I should consider an upgrade. You can see my system specs in my signature below. As I remember, I bought this system brand new in May, 2003. However, I would really like to be able to play new games and am seriously considering an upgrade(s). From reviewing various posted messages, I understand that some of you guys are computer whizzes (unlike myself), and I was wondering if anyone could recommend anything I should upgrade [if I should at all?]. P.S. How do you get your dad to not be scared to let you drive the family car (assuming you're a teen driver and got your license almost a year ago), and are a decent young driver. ^^^^^ Sorry. I greatly appreciate any help. AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 512MB DDR RAM ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB AGP 8X Video Card Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 60 GB Western Digital ATA HDD Windows XP

You left out the make/model of your motherboard, what speed RAM you have, & your power supply specs. Your system may have been high end 4 yrs ago, but it's old news now. At the very least, you'd need more RAM & a new video card. It's really not worth throwing too much money into an old system though. If you wanna play modern games & play them well, you'll pretty much have to start from scratch. P.S. Instead of upgrading your PC, why not buy a car? FLATURIN - Hand-to-mouth goodness. It's good!

Thanks, I will consider a new system, although this system did originally cost me $2000 (including Logitech 6.1 speakers and a 19" NEC flat CRT monitor) maybe something like AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1gig ram, nVidia 7600GT 256MB PCI-e video card, 320gig hard disk and so on and so forth. And also, yes I can buy a $500 1988 Toyota Corolla, and who will pay the insurance and repairs? You think my parents are gonna let me have a car of my own if they barely let me drive theirs? AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 512MB DDR RAM ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB AGP 8X Video Card Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 60 GB Western Digital ATA HDD Windows XP

"maybe something like AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1gig ram, nVidia 7600GT 256MB PCI-e video card, 320gig hard disk and so on and so forth" Go with 2GB RAM & a better video card.

Anything not dual core and under the 2.6Ghz mark is lagging. Even with a high end AGP card, you're not going to see the performance where it should be with the newer mobos unless you don't mind playing your games with lower FPS. Throw down the money for a high end AGP card, new PSU, max supported CPU for the mobo, and 1.5 GB RAM. Then you will see why the AGP bus is dated. You're only looking at $450 max in upgrades, roughly the same cost as a barebone PC.