I want to upgrade my computer but i am not sure where to start. I have a: Pulsar 500 Pentium 3 198MB Creative ES1373 (64 voices) 3DFx Voodoo 3 - 2000 450Mhz AGP (100Mhz) 512 Cache Memory 8.4GB UDMA-66 Hardrive 8MB SGRAM TV Out Feature DVD 6 Speed+ + Zoran Software 56Kbps V90 Data Fax Modem So looking at all that what upgrades would you recommend? to optimize my computer performance.

More memory, faster processor (both may require motherboard upgrade), better video card, newer, larger hard drive (7200 RPM). Just some thoughts. I fried my wife's BIOS the other day and decided that since the hardware in her PC was over 3 years old I'd just upgrade some of the hardware. I got her a new motherboard (ASUS something or other w/integrated sound and LAN), new CPU (AMD XP 2000+ (1.667 GHz, basically)) and new video card (ATI Radeon 9200SE w/128 MB DDRRAM). I'm still installing stuff as the parts just came in yesterday, but I'm very excited about gaming on this PC when comparing it to what it had (P3 700 MHz, nVidia/Vanta 16MB AGP card). You might want to look into doing something similar. It just depends on what you want to do with the system. I don't game a lot, but I do like to play some 3D games (Jedi Knight 2, Quake 3, etc.) on occasion so this system upgrade should make my gaming experience much nicer than when I was using the old system.

Older systems still function for word processing and web surfing. If you try to upgrade, you end up with one working system. For a few bucks more you can keep the old system as a backup and just build from scratch. The only thing that is relatively expensive that you don't need to replace anyway is the monitor. You can build everything else new. Old case = small PS. As was stated you need anew MB, Ram, Graphics, bigger HD, maybe CD burner & DVD. Optical mouse, PS2 keyboard, Etc. Try Going to AMD and nForce2 MB with integrated video. You can build a new system for around $500.

What OtheHill said...You'll be happy you built a machine without all the bottlenecks that exist in your current machine. You'll do it for about the same money and have two pc's in the bargain.

Hi. Just wanted to say that one should look into the power supply issue as well, especially when upgrading to an Athlon. 235watt is the absolute minimum and with many peripherals, it will have to be at least 300watt. Good luck.