I've finally got a job affording me the money to trick out my geek ride, but unfortunately, I'm not totally sure how to spend my money most efficiently. Please help!

Current System
Windows XP
AMD Athlon 3000 (1.84 GHz)
1 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Maxtor 60 GB Hard Drive 7200 RPM
Maxtor 10 GB Hard Drive 7200 RPM
Giganimous 17" Monitor

Target System

(1) Needs to be able to handle heavy playing time of the following games: Civilization IV, Supreme Commander II, Command & Conquer III: Tiberian Wars, Europa Universalis III.

(2) Get Vista / Stick w/XP?

(3) High quality flat screen monitor.

(4) I'd like to be able to store, edit, and record my own movies and music.

(5) Wireless Keyboard / Mouse

If there are other questions you have before making specific suggestions, I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks in advance for your help. I've had awesome results from Tech Talk before.

** P.S. I may even pay one of you guys to help me do the upgrade.

4/8/2007 8:35:44 PM

what's the speed rating on that RAM?

4/8/2007 9:17:14 PM

What motherboard?

I'd say, update the chipset, faster memory in a 2gb (1gigx2) kit, update the video card to a ~150$ range card like a 7600gt/7800/7900 geforce

also, dump the old drives for a 500gig drive.

It'll handle all those games fine, and shouldnt run you but maybe 500 bucks for the upgrade.

Stick with XP

with a new motherboard you can get onboard firewire and do all the home movie stuff, you can always add on a cheap capture card.

get a logitech wireless combo unit, check out Best Buy, Tiger Direct, Compusa and find one you like. Go online and get it cheaper.

4/8/2007 10:31:44 PM

supreme commander II?

4/10/2007 10:06:17 PM

for simplicity, i'm a fan of buying a rather stripped down dell and upgrading to what you want...make sure it comes with a PCIe slot, and you're generally set...pull out what you don't want (like 512mb sticks of ram), sell your old computer and those components to make up a bit of the cash and you'll usually walk away in pretty good shape

[Edited on April 11, 2007 at 12:14 AM. Reason : .]

4/11/2007 12:12:49 AM

yeah, stick with XP - i have an athlon 64 4000+ system with 2GB of pc4200 DDR2 and vista ran quite slowly. xp is fast as hell, though.

with this being said, however... you should go for option c: put OS X on there.

4/11/2007 1:16:52 AM

Alright, I've got a good bit of change. What should I start with?

Video card?

4/13/2007 6:55:21 PM