Upgrade Path?

[scourge]

System:
Acer T180 that I flashed with an Abit BIOS (uATX AM2 - Geforce 6100 mobo?)
AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 (45W CPU) running (275x9 ~ 2.5GHz) with HT (275x4 ~ 1100MHz)
4gig DDR2 PC6400 (275x4 ~ 1100MHz)
SB X-FI card
WD Black 1TB hdd
Earthwatts 380W 80+Bronze PS (Kill-A-Watt says I'm using about 165W when running 3D games)
Asus Geforce 9600GSO (384MB) - Overclocked to 9600GT speed.
Generic ATSC TV card
DVD Burner that came with the Acer T180
160gig hdd that came with the Acer T180
Dell 24" LCD (1900x1200)
Full Tower Case

Obviously, I'm already o'clocked a bit with both memtest86 and prime95 solid.

I'm currently playing Aliens vs. Predator which is running well. I'm also playing Ghostbusters, but it is laggy. I'm done with Farcry2 which ran well. L4D1 and L4D2 do pretty well.

I know AM3 chips are backwards compatible so would a 3.2GHz PhenomII or higher work in my system or would a vid card upgrade be better? Other suggestions?

Thanks!

[RicheemxX]

TBH it would be a bit of a crap shoot for that board to support any of the newer chips. Even though the chips themselves or backwards compatible with some AM2 boards the manuf themselves needed to release a bios that supported them. Do you know the exact model? Have you double checked the Abit Bios information to see if it mentions support for phenom 2's?

[ShyguyXPC]

Both could probably do for some upgrades, but I'd suspect the Video card.

GSO is a decent lower range card these days.

I had a 512MB 8800GTS paired up with an X2 BE-2400 OC'd to 2.4GHz slightly.

And I know the CPU was a bit of a Bottleneck on the card from some of the tests I ran.

But a GTS like that would of been almost 50% more powerful than that GSO.


(Though for my Friend that I built the system for, its more than met his needs for Sims 3, Warhammer Dawn of War Games, Star Craft 2, and his latest DC Universe Online that he plays)


It also depends on the games, some are more CPU bound than GPU, others vice versa, so depends on the games.

Not sure which AVP it is your playing (original AVP or the new one that came out?)



If this were my system, the first Thing I'd upgrade would be the Video card, and if no better results then maybe the CPU/Mobo.



I don't know if the AM3 CPU's are backwards compatible into AM2 or AM2+ Boards, so much as using an AM2 or AM2+ CPU in an AM3 Socket.

the AM3 CPU's do run faster clocks, Bus, etc, so if used in the older board they might run slower than they should.

I remember hearing when they first came out it was possible, but really not sure if thats still the case.

I'd maybe considering upgrading the GPU to something a little more capable right now, Geforce GT 240, or Radeon 5670, while not spending a lot.

Then Look at maybe a CPU/Mobo Combo to replace the old board if the GPU doesn't work.

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,Radeon HD 5000 series,Radeon HD 5670,GDDR5

or hair cheaper:

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,GeForce G/GT series,GeForce GT 240,GDDR5

Though if you can afford it (no idea of Budget range for upgrades for your PC)

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,GeForce GTS 400 series

Your PSU has plenty of power to run a card like that.


The other Option, could be save up enough for a Good CPU/GPU/Mobo & case Upgrade, Maybe even RAM since DDR3 is so cheap now days, all time low price, no sign of getting cheaper, but the rest of your hardware could all be easily transferred over to a new Board with better CPU and GPU, including your PSU.

(Are you using an Acer or Dell Case? or is this an after market case? If so, is it a Full ATX motherboard Case, or Micro ATX only? Says Full Tower case in your post, but you have a mATX board, so thats why I'm wondering)