[Nohbody]

Ok, after some research, here's what I've been considering (general terms, not brand-specific), given concerns for upping the speeds to something vaguely modern, unlike my current rig, without bankrupting myself:

Athlon XP (or Opteron now, I guess) 2500
512/1024MB PC2700 DDR memory (whatever my budget allows at the time)
GeForce 5200FX 128MB

Now, here's my issue...

I have no freaking clue at all what brands, nowadays, are "hot-[excrement]", and which are just "[excrement]". The last time I seriously looked at hardware was in like 2000, and my old thoughts/prejudices aren't all that applicable nowadays. The only brand preference I can be sure of is not to use "generic" brand memory, as that crapshoot hasn't changed since Day One.

Is there anyone who can help cure (or at least minimize) my terminal ignorance?

[QrazyKermi]

Motherboard: Just go with the fastest Socket 939 you can afford. This way you have a decent upgrade path. Also, stay away from MSI. I hear more complaint about their motherboards than all other motherboard manufacturers combined.

RAM: I've always had good luck with Crucial. Their prices tend to be among the lowest.

GPU: Just about any you can find will be good. You're going with a low-end card, so even the 2nd teir manufacturers will produce them with sufficient quality. As for specific names, Chaintech, Leadtec, eVGA, Asus are all competent.

[Nohbody]

Argh.

I was thinking of the wrong processor. Sempron is the Athlon XP successor, not the Opteron. Socket A for everything up to the 2800+ model (S754 for 3100+).

I'm probably shooting myself in the foot by not going for a 64-bit processor, but those are still kinda a touch beyond my budget, and this is pretty much the "last hurrah" for this machine anyway, the next update with a high probability of being "middle of never".

[GrimGriz]

I'd go with at least 5700. A friend of mine got a 5200 and was extremely disappointed. That was back when we thought if a card was 256mb, it would be pretty alright. Another friend just shelled out for a 6600. Give me til after wednesday and I can tell you how good that one works out. My theory is, if you're gonna shell out the money for a gfx card anyway, try to get one that will last awhile.

[Nohbody]

Well, considering that WC Secret Ops is probably going to be the most demanding of programs for a long while, the extra juice wouldn't really get noticed all that much anyway.

I suppose, though, that for only a ~30 buck difference (according to a quick Pricewatch search), the extra potential firepower couldn't be too bad an investment.

[Nohbody]

Ok, here's what I'm considering, so far, after digging through Pricewatch:

AS Rock America KV7T4A+ with 1GB PC3200 DDR memory from Atlas Precision, and Sempron 3000+: $266 + $9.63 S/H (FedEx Ground)

(It's my understanding that AS Rock America was spun off of Asus, so at a guess they're not total MB n00bs, in spite of the somewhat cheesy name and only being around a few years now. At only $30 difference between a 2500+ and a 3000+, I figured "why not?")

Apollo GeForce 5700LE w/ 128MB: $73 + $3 S/H (FedEx Express Saver)

I already have the CPU heatsink/fan, and I'm recycling my current case (though I may get a newer case so the old one can be set up with the old gear I won't be recycling, to sell for a little extra cash) and my combo CDRW/DVD drive, as well as my new 120GB drive (Maxtor 6Y120P0, for the curious; I figure by the time I need more than 120GB of storage, HD tech will have probably blown way past current "state of the art").

[Nohbody]

5700LE delivered today, the rest expected in on Thursday according to the FedEx site.

Dammit, laziness is saying "don't install it twice, just wait for the rest of the gear" but the "kid in a candy store" wants to install the new card in my current system, even if it'd be bottlenecked to heck and back by the rest of the hardware...

I hate these kinds of quandries.

[GrimGriz]

well, if you install it in the old rig you have a baseline for how much better the new rig is.

[fluid]

Just as any business equipment, every minute that the video card is not in use is money that you are squandering from its purchase. So think of it as an affirmation of your investment to start using it right away.

Alternatively, let's consider the inverse situation: If you got your new rig less the video card, would you honestly wait until you got the 5700LE before you started installing your mobo?

I see all pros and no cons to installing it. The next time you load up JSR had best be on your shiny new 5700LE.

[Nohbody]

Sorry, laziness won out over "kid in a candy store".

As for the squandering money thing, OTOH one could argue that using it in the old system, where the new card's benefits won't apply thanks to the bottleneck of the rest of the hardware, I'm bringing down its useful life for when it is in the new system. (Of course that's kinda hard to swallow, considering how a majority of non-mechanical computer components are outgrown and replaced long before failure...)

Besides, while I'm at work tomorrow I'll be benchmarking my current machine, to have a comparison point after I install, configure, and benchmark the new hardware.

(Benchmarking while at work tomorrow because tonight I'm going to be figuring out which benchmark is actually reflective of real-world computer use, not some hypothetical muscle-flexer using uncommon tasks for measuring performance. )

[fluid]

It might be useful to know how well that card compares to your current one, though, or your currest system to the new one, even if it's at least for verifying that the upgrade was worth it. Testing the system and upgrading the entire thing at once is pretty pointless. You need to keep some point of reference in order to substantiate any findings in the benchmarking. I could go give you some benchmarks from my k6-2 400 to prove that your current system is "better," because it's all relative. Obviously it's biggerbetterfaster otherwise you wouldn't have spent your money. Finding out how much better your video card is, even in your current system, might be useful in making the old components into a viable secondary system, or to have the piece of mind that it is a viable fallback solution in case some component breaks.

If I were you I'd run the benchmark with the system as is, then run it with the new vid card (since we have 3 days to play with this), then when you get the new system run it with the old vid card at some point to find out how that performs. But then again I'm incredibly ambitious about things like that, and I tend to share my findings with anyone willing to listen.

[Nohbody]

It turns out that I should have listened to laziness, instead of trying the new card in the old system.

I don't know if it's the card, the power supply (all of 300W), or what, but when I power up my computer with the 5700LE in it, the monitor never goes off of the standby mode it goes into when the computer is off.

I guess I'll find out after tomorrow, when the rest of the system comes in (which will be put in a new case, so I can try to sell the older system since the case was about the only thing that I had originally planned to retain) whether it's the card or something else.