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I have a P4 570J 3.8 GHZ Processor
2 GB DDR2 533 MHZ RAM
ATI X850XT PE PCIe 256mb
Should I upgrade the RAM to 4GB DDR2 800mhz ram and put in a ATI 4870 graphics card, I am running XP pro 32 bit and I can't upgrade the processor becasue it is a Dell motherboard and will only use the one it has.
if you want to use it for gaming, then yeah, a better card and more ram would produce a noticeable difference. Note that you won't see the full 4GB of RAM in your 32bit OS, but it'd probably be better than 2GB.
it's clearly not brand new, running a P4 and all that, but if your motherboard has DDR2 and a PCIx slot, you can probably keep using this PC for a while before it'd be smarter to save for a whole new build.
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A single-core CPU will limit the performance of a 4870. Buying a cheaper card like the GeForce 9600 GSO, GeForce 9600 GT, or Radeon HD 4670 would be a better idea. Hint: The 9600GT is the fastest of the three cards listed, and you can't beat that open box price.
Win XP won't take advantage of much more than 2GB, but if you decide to upgrade to any version of Win 7 (even the 32-bit version), having 4GB would be a good idea. Vista and Win 7 cache commonly used programs in memory to make them launch faster.
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Thanks for the great answers. My power supply is 640w and it has the PCIe 6 pin power connector is that enough to run a 9600 GT? I am looking on newegg and the open box price is 64 Dollar's which is great the ram is about 100 bucks from crucial so not much money for a fairly large performance boost, I mean the system was top of the line about 4 and a half years ago which is a long time in the PC world. I am tempted to get Windows 7 but fear my sons games will stop working as my Processor will not support the XP mode.
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If you don't mind rebates, I like this better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
And why would you have to pay $100 for RAM?
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The other thing I was thinking was is it worth getting an ATI 5750 upgrading to 4GB DDR2 800MHZ RAM and installing windows 7 so I get DirectX 11 and better use of the RAM due to Windows 7? I guess it would be alot cheaper to just leave XP and the RAM alone and get a 9600 GT.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
TO many to choose from.
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i'd get the card and use it in XP for another few months, then when you get the upgrade itch again, stick in 2 more gigs of RAM and upgrade to windows 7.
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