Upgrade Help

[merrlis]

Hello all,

I am looking to upgrade my CPU and or my motherboard preferably just my CPU and am looking for suggestions. Here is what I have.

Intel P4a, 2400 CPU (CPU Alias Northwood, A80532)
Intel Grantsdale i915 motherboard chip set (Maker Albatron)
2g Ram 133MHz Current clock 2400 using 4 512kb sticks (Max clock 3066) 4 slots Upgradeable to 4 but running XP so not sure if i will get full benefit
BIOS Award (5/12/05) Phoenix Tech (512KB)
Video: Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT (256MB) PCI-x

Looking to stay under $400

Thanks IN advance

Merrlis

[KarmaKiller]

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Processors - Desktops
$119 free shipping

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
$130 ($115 after MIR)

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Desktop Memory
$65 free shipping

That would be your best bet. Your basically getting a new computer, and you have some money left over.

There is a possibility though if you have a OEM version of windows, you'll have to get a new copy. Is your computer a "big box" brand? (dell, hp, compaq, etc)