Hello!

I am really starting to notice the slow down because of the age of my PC and, as a result, I am thinking of getting a new motherboard, CPU and whatever else I might need (new video card because of going to PCI-E, etc). I am looking for advice on what gives the most "bang for the buck". Here is my current system:

CPU: Intel PIV 3.2 Ghz with HT
RAM: 2 GB SDRAM

I am currently running a poor Nvidia 7600GS with 512 MB because my older (and more powerful Nvidia card) decided to give up the ghost. I did not want to spend a lot of money on a video card until upgrading the motherboard so I was not locked into an AGP card.

Frankly, I have been out of touch with what is a good CPU and all of that. It used to be pretty straight forward (for the most part) because you just compared Ghz. A 3.2 was faster than a 2.0, etc. But now we have Core 2 and they come in Dual and Quad forms. So what would you get? What is really worth spending the money on and what would be a waste? Should I definitely get a quad over a dual? At what Ghz? What is the best price break for the power I would get?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't have a ton of money and so I cannot just get the best of the best and the latest of the latest. Also, I don't think I will need more than one CPU, but if the price is not that much different for the motherboard and the cost of the CPU is cheap enough, I can be talked into it. For example, if two dual core CPUs will knock the socks off a single quad (and the price is about the same or less) then I would certainly want to hear about that .

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

at this point cpu speed never seems to be a big issue, I have an older one but it runs fine, Im more worried about ram and the video card. Granted faster cpus are useful, but not really the same gain over more ram and better video cards, also if your doing a lot of large file work a faster hd is useful. I'd go with a dual core 64bit processor at least 2.2ghz. I'd go with an nvidia geforce 8500 or better or an radeon hd3xxx or better. the geforce 8500 might be a little slow so you might want something better if your not going ot have a dual sli setup. as far as memory I'd say stay with 2 if you have win xp, or 4 with vista, either way ram is incredibly cheap nowadays.

CPU: best value for money
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (2 cores à 3000 MHz) -> $120
Phenom X4 9550 (4 cores à 2200 MHz) -> $190
Core 2 Duo E8400 (2 cores à 3000MHz) -> $180
Core 2 Quad Q9300 (4 cores à 2500MHz) -> $280

Chipsets:
amd cpu -> nforce 790 or nforceGF 8200 for hybridSLI
intel cpu -> X38 or X48 (don't take the P series - PCIe perfomance is worse)

GPU:
currently, there is no way around the GeForce 8800 or 9600 / 9800 series, $140 - $250, depending on manufacturer and memory size

RAM:
2 GB or more DDR2-800, any branded module will do, always take 2 identical modules, a good price is around $60 for 2 GB, good latency 5-5-5-15 (will run at 4-4-4-12 if it's quality ram)

+ power supply unit + case + 2x SATA hard drive (RAID) + DVD burner, i estimate the price at $500 to $700 for the whole system without peripherals like monitor, mouse, etc.

"there is no way around the GeForce 8800 or 9600 / 9800 series"

I'd disagree.. I guess it depends on if your planning on getting something thats going to last you 5 years, or 2.

I appreciate the help here. By way of reminder: I am not after video card information, hard drive information or RAM information. I know I need to replace the motherboard (it is very old) and the CPU. I am out of date with that information. So please confine the talk (if you don't mind) to the CPU and motherboard.

sorry about that then, yeah I don't know the specifics about any of the things your asking, the only things I can say is that I rarely use all my cpu resources and I have a Intel E2180 which is kinda poor for the standards most people have, but I'd say just make sure its at least dual core and 64bit (64 bit only necessary if you have a 64 bit os of course) and that the mother board support dual channel memory, has a pci-e slot(or more if you plan for sli, or crossfire), and enough pci slots for your needs.

Thanks for that. I do a lot of 3D graphic work (real-time 3D, detailed 3D modeling and the like as well) so the more power I can throw at crunching polygons the happier I am. The video card plays a lot in the real-time display, but the CPU has to do a lot as well.

now that I think about it, I assume you're doing lots of baking, so cpu I guess would be very efficient for... now that I think it, I might upgrade mine now that i think about it save me some time.

Athlon 64 X2 6000+ would probably give more than enough time to prepare for the next time you upgrade your computer. Taking that into consideration, it just might be the cheapest solution available.