upgrade

[shaneinsane]

I am building my first computer this weekend and my specs look like what I have below

Im not planning on upgrading right away but what do you guys usually look at when upgrading is there anything that stands out or I should be aware of

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06

Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

COOLER MASTER eXtreme RP-500-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 500W Power Supply

mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996527

ASUS P5K SE LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack

[Katreat]

Looks like a good build and dont think you will need to upgrade for quite a while.

Possible future upgrades would be:

- 2 more gigs of ram. At this time very little software or games need more than 2 GB to run very well, but in the future that may change.

- 45nm processor. I have the same CPU as you do and you will probably never upgrade to a 45nm C2D. However, once prices come down it might be worth while upgrading to a 45nm quad in the future. Not much uses a quad now but in a year or so it might be a benifit.

- GPU. I game so I always plan on one GPU upgrade in the life of my computer. I would not jump on the new 9800s just yet, your 9600 will do fine for now, but if a game comes out that pushes it you might be in the market a year or so down the road.

- PSU. Probably not necessary, but depending on future GPU upgrades you might have to get a bigger unit. Will have to wait until you see what type of GPU you want int he future and what the requirements of it are.

Basicallly, because I use my computer as a gamer I will likely have a GPU upgrade in a year or so. Beyound that it is more of a guess on seeing how the market develops. I expect software to start taking advantage of both more ram and quad cores, but it is down the road a bit so at that point I might just decide to re-build.

Kat

[shaneinsane]

Thanks alot