Upgrade suggestions

LEViATHAN

Recently got an HD4650 after my old card got fried, but I cannot get it to work on this rig (which is by now almost 6 years old), so I'm considering ripping out all of the ancient guts out of this rig and put in some new gear, just need suggestions on what to get. I'm by no means a "hardcore" gamer, nor am I interested in doing really high-poly works, so I'm basically looking for a medium-spec system for shits and giggles.

Current setup:

AMD Athlon 2800+
1024 MB DDR1 (!)
GeForce 7600GS (dead)
Asus A7N8X-X mobo
320 GB HDD (I think ATA)

*cringe*

Don't need a new case, monitor, mouse, keyboard or psu. Just need a new mobo/ram/cpu kit (maybe a new HDD as well). Don't have a fixed budget for this, but please keep it as low as possible, as I am a poor man.

DarthNater

I run an AMD Athlon X2 3200+ at home, that thing does everything I need it to (even hi poly). My graphics card is my bottleneck, its only an 8500GTS, it gets the job done, but it could be faster.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.305574

I'd get that if I was upgrading As far as Graphics cards go, I always use Nvidia...

CompanionCube

whats your budget?

LEViATHAN

DarthNater wrote: »

I'd get that if I was upgrading As far as Graphics cards go, I always use Nvidia...

Yeah no shit, trying to get the Catalyst drivers to work gives you the impression that ATI/AMD is run by madmen bent on spreading grief and despair.

Could still sell my card for a decent price though.

/e As I said I don't have a real budget at the moment, trying to get an impression of what to get and what to avoid, and how much it'll roughly set me back.

DarthNater

I've been looking at getting a 9600

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130509

I'm also a big fan of EVGA cards too

LEViATHAN

By the way my old card died because of overheating I think (computer became sluggish, followed by displaying artifacts all over the place before locking up, couldn't get a signal after rebooting). There's however no visible damage on the card. Unscrewed the heatsink (which came off surprisingly easy) and the chips look fine, though the paste is of a candlewax-like substance and won't dissolve in alcohol, might be normal though as I have never needed to re-apply paste. Thing is, would it be worth the effort to buy some decent thermal paste and try to resurrect this thing? If it's a problem with the paste or sink wouldn't the card still give a signal for a short while before overheating and shutting down?

DarthNater

You could have killed it and there would be no visual signs that you did (or the thing would turn black lol). I doubt you'll bring it back to life, but you could try. Personally, I think its gone for good