Will I see much of a performance gain going past 1.5GB on XP? Is it worth going from a P4 2.8 HT to a 3.2HT?

Question

I have a Dell 4700 with 1.5GB of DDR2 Ram, 250GB HD, 128MB Nvidia 6600 PCI-E, live! 24 bit sound, DVD+-RW DL x12. The processor is a 2.8 HT P4 800 FSB.

I play alot of games like unreal tournament 2004, AOE II and BFME 2. I am looking at the specs for urneal tournament 3 coming out this fall and they are really demanding.

Is it worth upgrading the ram anymore or upgrading the CPU to a 3.2 instead (this is the max my mobo will support), or am I just better off waiting and upgrading the Board and CPU in a year or so.

I have 4 pcs at home (1 AMD, 3 Intel). I usually custom build my PCs but I got this one cheap two years ago and have been upgrading. It is surprisingly powerful system for a stock unit once you starting adding and tweeking it.

I was thinking of upgrading to a AMD 64 x2 and mobo next spring. So I could probably reultilize most of what I have

I have four filled 240 pin DDR2 memory banks. 2x512, 2x256.

Answer 1

I have just upgraded to an AMD 64 X2 processor (3800 Manchester) and am loving it.

I believe getting a new motherboard and processor would be a better option for you. Upgrading the P4 processor to 3.2HT won't be worth it for the price. Your already close to the top with that system so it doesn't make much sense. Go for a new motherboard definitely.

Answer 2

With XP you should see little or no improvement beyond 1GB.
3.2 GHz should offer only a slight improvement over the 2.8 GHz processor.

I would save my money. By this time next year Vista will be on service pack one and will be be gaining wide acceptance. Also by this time next year any decent new desktop computer will have a quad processor, 2-4 GB RAM, and a 500+ GB drive. This will make a single core processor appear pretty lame.

We are about due for changes in video cards.
My video wish list.
Direct X10 support standard with all cards.
An under $150 card that can play any game and run with a 300 - 400 watt PS.
Dual X16 slots or a new video standard or to better support multiple video cards and monitors.
Laptop video that can play any game.
An extra DVI / HDMI port that simply works when connected to HDTV without any adjustments.

Answer 3

if you are going to spend more than $30 upgrading to a faster processor, its not worth it. I would just leave it, and upgrade the RAM to 2 GB. 400 MHz differance between the HT processor's arn't much reason to go out and spend more money, besides, you won't feel much differance.

Answer 4

Absolutely, the more power you bring to the table the better. If you do the work yourself you will come out better upgrading. Max it out dude.