Need Suggestions for upgrade

[whr2206]

Hello all..

Well, christmas is right around the corner.. I've got a little extra money in my pocket... and my dad has a bunch of prize points he said I could use. I just only wish they could be used at newegg.

Well, he can get bestbuy gift cards with his points.. So even though they overprice a lot of their computer hardware.. I'm going to try to get as much from there as possible. Since im a starving college student.

From my old computer I'm going to keep:
- Hercules gaming theater
- floppy
- cd burner
- hard drive
- monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers/etc

But I'm afraid everything else will have to be put in my parents computer.

My question is.. what parts are the LEAST overpriced at bestbuy? I'm going to buy the least overpriced items there... then spend the rest of my money on newegg

Memory looks very overpriced... The only motherboards they have are Abit. Which isn't a bad thing... I've heard good things about Abit.. even though I've only worked with Asus. The processors don't look TOO expensive but then again.. their selection is pretty limited. I looked at their video cards and they seem to have about $50 difference from newegg. This is probably a rediculuous question... but are there any boards out there with both AGP and pci-e?? I love my 9800pro aiw... and I doubt my parents would use all of its features, but I DO what this thing to be upgradable.. So i don't want to be stuck with an AGP board.... Mostly I use my computer for gaming (not as extreme as some.. but moderate I'd say... Half-Life 2, CS Source, Rome Total War, Call of Duty 2 when my computer can handle it, Brothers In Arms) I also use it for light image editing/browsing/research/reports all that good stuff...

So do you think I should get from newegg and bestbuy? I have no Intel or AMD preference really.. Its just that my old AMD 2500+ and my old pc2700 memory are major bottle necks for games... Any suggestions? thanks!

[jayb1234]

There are boards with both AGP and PCIE. Intel based AMD based There are probably others out there. Those are just what newegg has in stock today.

[discodanman45]

The only computer components I would possibly buy from bestbuy is a video card and components. Best buy is also good for keyboards, mice, speakers, etc... However, I would not buy my memory, cpu, and motherboard from best buy. I bought my 9800 Pro from best buy when they had great rebates on it.

You can also stay with an AGP motherboard. They still have AGP cards like this out there

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102502

For a gamer, you can still go with AGP.

[whr2206]

Yeah... you've got a point..

hmm... I could stay with AGP... do you think its my CPU and ram that's bottlenecking my computer? I've got a 1gb pc2700 i believe... I know the ATI 9800pro aiw isn't the hottest thing out there.. but I know people get 100+ frames in most FPS games with that coupled with an AMD 64 cpu

But would it be worth it?
I've got this:
Asus a7v8x-x
AMD 2500+ Barton w/ thermaltake copper hs/f
1gb Crucial pc2700
ATI 9800pro aiw
80gb WD 7200rpm 8mb cahce
Hercules gaming theater sound card

Those are the core components.. S if I upgarded to an AMD 64 or P4 with the same AGP card... and some DDR 400 (maybe 2gb?) Would it even be worth it then?