Upgrade or buy new?

[teeds]

I have been considering upgrading my system for a while now and am hoping to do so in the next few months. I am looking to upgrade the processor, mother board, and graphics card. I am looking at the AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor but I am unsure if my system will be able to run it. I am not sure on what graphics card (no more than $150-200) or mother board I will purchase yet. I would like to keep the ram that I have if that is at all possible.

I would be very grateful for any help provided and I would like to know what you think I should do with my system.

Here is a list of my system information.

System model: Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 8200

Processor: 2.20 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main circuit Board: Board: Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 8200
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Computer Corporation A03 12/07/2001

Memory: 4 slots of 256

Controlers: Standard floppy disk controller
Intel(R) 82801BA Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 244B
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]

Display: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (Microsoft Corporation)

Bus Adapters: Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller – 2444

[Alaron]

The Dell 8200 uses RDRAM, which is no longer supported by motherboards. Your power supply would also need replacing. You could reuse your optical and hard drives, but that would be about it. I would save up for a new system using a Core 2 Duo, the current performance leader.

[Cricket]

What's your budget for this upgrade?

And you may as well plan on this being just about a completely new build. You won't be able to re-use that DELL case without some modifications.

You may be able to re-use some of the drives from the DELL, but that's about all.

I agree with Alaron...think about building your computer with the new Intel C2D processor instead of the Manchester.

Cricket

[teeds]

Thanks a lot for the replies they are greatly appreciated. I’m now planning on buying a new system at the end of the year with a budget of $800-$1200.

[glc]

That would be the smart thing to do. Revisit us at that time for updated recommendations.