Quick upgrade help

[Bad^Hat]

So, Orange Box doesn't hit shores here till the 25th, so I have a bit of time to prepare. My video card and some of my ram got fried awhile back, so at the moment I'm running on -

AMD Athlon 3200+
Radeon 9000
512mb DDR400 ram

Asides from maybe the CPU, not what you'd call an ideal gaming setup. But, since I'm nowhere near being able to afford a whole new system, it looks like it's upgrade time again.

So, a few questions -

Will this card be fine to run Orange Box and, say, something like Company of Heroes on medium-high settings? - http://www.nzoczone.com/product_info.php?cPath=34&products_id=2937

Next, will this motherboard support DDR-2 ram? - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2&s=939

And lastly, with the aforementioned card and say a gig of ram (DDR-2 or, if I have to, DDR-400), will it all run comfortably on this PSU? - http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/product_Display1.asp?PrID=29

Cheers.

 

[Tyguy]

The video card should be ok as long as you upgrade your RAM. You want at LEAST a gig, preferably two.
You cannot get DDR4 memory for a motherboard, it is not made for nor supported by any motherboard. The best any motherboard has is DDR2, or DDR3, not sure if thats out yet. (unless you count the ever rare RDRAM)

The PSU sucks, 350W isn't enough these days. Get at least a 500-550W PSU. Thermal take is a good company, look for some on newegg.
The motherboard is a 939-pin, which is discontinued. If you are planning to get a new MOBO, stay away from these. I had a 939, forced me to upgrade almost everything. Look at some ASUS AM2's.

If I were you, id probably just build a completely new PC. I know money probably is a huge issue, but upgrading minimally each time a new game comes out will cost more in the end.

RAM
PSU
CPU

Thats a 939 CPU, but if you decide to get an AM2, those wont be compatible

 

[Javert]

I also recommend at least a 500W PSU and 2GB or RAM to future-proof your upgrades.

Why not invest in a 8600GTS? It can be found for the same price if not lower price and offer boodles of better performance.
If you dont' mind ATI, the X1950Pro is in the same price bracket and even better.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I never said DDR-4, I said DDR-400. The old stuff.

I have a socket 939 mobo because that's what my CPU is. I'm kind of reluctant to upgrade that unless I really need to. I take it the mobo won't support DDR-2 then?

Also, if it needed to be said, the price on the card I linked to was in NZ dollars. The cheapest I can find an 8600GTS over here is double that - http://www.pricespy.co.nz/pno_10539.html

Blah... I realise it's going to be "better" in the long-run to do a full upgrade, but it's quite an investment and the fact is I can't see myself getting a whole lot out of it. Beyond the Orange Box and being able to run all my current games (which I'd be able to do comfortably with a minor upgrade), there's nothing much on the horizon which has my interest piqued for PC.

 

[Asus]

Socket 939 = DDR memory
Socket AM2 = DDR2 memory
Because the memory controller is on the CPU. Therefore you have to switch CPUs (sockets) to use the other memory type.

The motherboard you linked says up to DDR-400 (not DDR2).

I wouldn't worry about performance differences between DDR and DDR2. You have more important upgrades.
Just look at the memory type as a requirement for the platform you pick.

 

[Bad^Hat]

I was pretty sure that was the case, but I thought I might as well check. Easier for future upgrades if I can re-use the ram on my next mobo, but I'm not particularly bothered since it's cheap.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Hmm...

I just had a thought, maybe my old graphics card isn't busted after all. It was still working alright, only if I left it on (even just on the desktop) for awhile, artifacts would begin to appear and then the screen would freeze up. Could this just be a heating problem? If so I could just replace the PSU, right?

That said it wasn't always doing this, just recently before I stopped using it. So I guess it's still possible the card itself suffered some kind of damage... any thoughts?

(Oh, and it's this card - http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=33637782)