Which upgrade would be best?

[tgxiii]

1.6 P4 400FSB
Intel 845GRG mobo
256MB PC2100 RAM
Barracuda 40GB 7200RPM 2MB Cache
Onboard video card

With a $150 budget, what would be the wisest upgrade?

-Radeon 9600 Pro
-512MB more RAM
-Other ideas?

[smurffart]

what do you use your system for the most?

If it's gaming, then the video card for sure.

[tgxiii]

It's not used for gaming much. Mostly web-surfing and word-processing. The problem is, I would like just a little bit more performance out of it.

I did put in an extra 512MB PC2100 RAM (temporarily, from my other system) and used Sandra's memory bechmarking tools and saw no increase in performance. Why didn't I get any increase in performance?

[NDC]

Memory benchmarks will not be better because you add more memory. To be honest with you, for web surfing and word processing, 512MB was unnecessary...

[tgxiii]

I just wanted to see if there would be an increase in performance because my programs used to load fairly quickly. Now, it takes them a while. I defrag and run AdAware and Spybot regularly. I also reduced the amount of processes on startup.

Maybe faster RAM? PC3200?

[ragtop]

For the applications you indicated that you use, I would update the CPU to a Celeron 2.4 or 2.6 Ghz for less than $100. (double check compatibility, but a quick check of the Intel website indicates that board will support those processors although you'll probably need to update the BIOS)

If you're running WIN XP or WIN 2000 then add another 256 MB of RAM. (If your running 98 or ME, it's probably not needed)

If you have any money left over, put it away, and start saving for that new video card.

Again, this suggestion assumes you are not into significant gaming. (The Celerons work great for Internet & office type applications - but not that great in gaming applications)

[tgxiii]

I am using Windows XP, so I'll probably go for more RAM. This computer isn't used for any significant gaming, but that's probly because it uses onboard video. Maybe with a new video card, it can be used for more gaming.... Thanks for the responses, everyone.