PC advice- what to upgrade

[radiator]

Hello-

I have the following and primarily use my PC for gaming.  I have around $200 and would like to upgrade, but what should I do first.. better video card, better or more ram, or something else?

OEM AMD X2 3800CPU
4 X PC3200 PC400 DDR
500W Power supply
16X DVD +-RW drive
Maxtor 200GB SATA 1500 7200RPM 16MB
Radeon X700 video Card

Also my computer makes alot of clicking sounds.. any idea?

Thank you!

[Calum]

What sort of games do you play?
And what else do you do with your PC?
How much RAM do you have?

4 X PC3200 PC400 DDR

Tells us nothing about the capacity.

[radiator]

Sorry its corsair brand 512 MB each so 2 GB total.  I play mostly RPGS (MMORPG) and First person shooters.  I store pics, do word processing, watch videos sometimes... etc.

[Calum]

The RAM isn't a problem then.
What I meant was what actual games do you play?
What settings do you want them at?
And how much speed do you need?
Eg do you play Oblivion with all settings on high and want 50fps?
Do you play Starcraft and want 10fps?

[radiator]

Well I am getting ready to play Vanguard but may move to LOTR online when it comes out.  I was die hard FFXI for around 3 years.  As far as FPS I have played half life 2, Fear, and when a new one comes out I'm sure I'll jump on it.  So having corsair ram isn't a big deal... I have heard its kind of bottom of the line

[Calum]

Corsair's a great brand.
The main thing you want to upgrade here is your video card, the X700 isn't that powerful.
Is it PCI-E or AGP?

[radiator]

MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E

PCI express

[dl65]

radiator.........

Also my computer makes alot of clicking sounds.. any idea?

If this clicking is something that has recently started, I would be considering running some hard drive analysis ....there should be something on Maxtors site.
[highlight]That clicking could be warning sign of hard drive failure.[/highlight]
It  might be a good idea to get anything of value saved onto cd or something else ..just in case.


dl65  

[linuxlover]

how are u gonna get all this for $200???

[frgpnce]

how are u gonna get all this for $200???

He already has all the stuff he is looking to upgrade from it.


I would invest your money into a better video card.  I would suggest an ATI RADEON X1600 pro

[radiator]

Thank you!

[Calum]

A better video card seems to be the best option.
We need Track.

[GX1_Man]

Be careful what you wish for.

"The graphics card is the only thing that matters."

[Calum]

I think he may be right in this case, the GPU seems to be the bottleneck.
Unfortunately I have no idea on US pricing, I assume you're in the US?

[soybean]

Be careful what you wish for.

"The graphics card is the only thing that matters."

But, as dl65 said, he'd better figure out what's making that clicking noise.  If hard drive failure is eminent, then that obviously is the highest priority.