Upgrading current rig, best bang for the buck!

[boalic]

I build this system several years ago with the help of members here. Its been a great machine but she's long over due for an upgrade. To save money Im wanting to reuse my case, op drives, hd, ect ect. Heres what I have now (listed from the post when I originally ordered the parts).


PSU *FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

Mobo *ASUS P5LD2 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131538

CPU *Intel Pentium D 940 Presler 800MHz FSB 2 x 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual Core, EM64T Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116239

OS--goes with my xbox360--Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/Update Rollup Release 2 OEM 1 Pack - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832102357

SAPPHIRE Toxic 100225TXSR Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...814102732#spec

Ive upgraded the RAM before, dont know how to find what I have so here's what crucial.com says.
DDR PC2-5300 ( I have 4 sticks of 1GB each, computer only reads 3.14 Gb maybe???)

Left out the stuff Im not worried about upgrading at this time, sound card, opt drives, ect ect)

Know its short notice but Im going to be right by a Fry's and microcenter tomorrow morning and was hoping to pick up a few things from there other than order online. Just dont know what I need to be looking for, whats an upgrade and what isnt and how to check for capabality. Budget is around $500, and mainly used for MMO gaming (Rift, Warcraft), and general internet useage.

Looking for the best bang for the buck on upgrading. Im going to be buying/building a new machine in the next year. However the general slowdown and playing Rift at 8 FPS has got to go.

Any and all information is appreciated.

[boalic]

After looking at Fry's website I threw together this list. I know its will all go into the crapper when I get to the store and their "instock" items will be be different. However this will give me a benchmark to go off of

GPU
EVGA GTX460 SE 1GB 01G-P3-1366-TR
FRYS.com*|*evga
Heard really good things about this card

I have no clue what Im looking at or for! Open to suggestions

[glc]

I would upgrade the video card and the power supply now, with the idea of using them in a new build.

FRYS.com*|*EVGA GTX 560 01G-P3-1561-KR

FRYS.com*|*Antec

Now - could you please look closely at your motherboard for the printed circuit board revision? If it's 2.01G or newer you could do a significant processor upgrade for less than $100. Those will take Core 2 Duos. Otherwise, you are pretty much stuck with that D-940.

If it's a 2.01G, order this and update your bios:

StarMicro Inc. - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU OEM in Intel® Core™2 Duo processor

[boalic]

Did a Google search on what you said and found on my mobo, P5LD2 (PSLD2 maybe) Rev 1.03g then a white sticker next to that with black letters "BO2". What you needed? If Im stuckwith that processor what about upgrading the whole mobo? Will my old stuff (ram, sound card) work with a newer one?

[glc]

The ram won't. You would be looking at a mobo, cpu, ram, PSU, and VC upgrade. Now you are looking at essentially a whole new system and 500 bucks won't get you all that with a decent video card. Do it in stages and live with the CPU for a while longer.

Note that the new motherboards are essentially set up for only SATA drives. If you are running IDE there's only one controller. You would also want to upgrade to Windows 7.