Advice for upgrading on a limited budget

[fruitfly]

I'm looking to upgrade my fairly antique computer specifically for M2TW, but also to make CIV4 run faster on larger map sizes. My current setup is:

AMD Athalon 2500+ Barton core processor (socket A - currently overclocked slightly to 2.0GHz)
MSI K7N2-delta-ILSR motherboard (MS-6570)
512MB PC2700DDR RAM
Gigabyte Radeon 9600Pro graphics card (a GVR96P128D)
Antec Sonata case, including the 380W Antec PSU it came with

All of which dates back to the release of the original MTW!

Ideally I'd want to replace the whole lot, but upgrading everything at once isn't financially practical at the moment. As the games I mentioned above are the ones likely to dominate my gaming for the next 12-18 months, it's wringing the best performance out of them for the smallest financial outlay (£150-£300 is my total budget, but the lower end of that is obviously preferable) that's most important really.

A new graphics card is a must and having looked at some of the threads already on here, given that I'm on a budget and restricted to AGP, the 7600GT from oveclockers.co.uk looks like a good option. Is there anything else worth considering? I'm not an FPS player, but I'd like to be able to fight M2TW battles on 12x10 with large unit sizes if the rest of the setup will allow it.

I also know I need a lot more memory, but do you think I should be looking at 1GB or 2? Is there going to be a point at which the processor ends up causing a bottleneck and adding more memory gives no boost to performance? The other thing to consider is memory speed. The motherboard supports DDR up to 400 (ie PC3200), which would mean I could up the FSB on the processor to 200 whilst maintaining a 1:1 ratio for some additional overclocking. I assume it'd mean ditching the existing 512MB I've got, but do you think it would deliver a noticeable improvement in performance?

Thanks for any advice.

[doc_bean]

1 Gb should make cIV run a lot mpore smoothly, it's basically a requirement for that game. Don't know about M2TW.

[DukeofSerbia]

Add another 512 MB DDR and Leadtek GeForce 7600GT AGP. It should be enough.

What memory you have already?

[fruitfly]

The memory I have at the moment is 512MB of PC2700 DDR so it runs at 167/333MHz.
It's a 184-pin DIMM and the CAS latency's showing up as 2.5, but I don't know what make it is.

Would 1GB of PC3200 run noticeably faster than 2x512 of PC2700 or is there no real difference?

Thanks for your speedy replies.

[DukeofSerbia]

Because your DDR run at 333 MHz with CAS 2.5 it can run at 400 MHz with CAS 3 but it depend what model. You know manufacturer and series? Because I have DDR 400 MHz CAS 3 (Kingston Value RAM) but it run as 333 MHz at Cas 2.5.

I need more data.

And about speed... Windows and games will be loaded faster with another 512 MB, but you can buy 1 GB stick. My friend have the same Barton 2500+ and he OC it on 3200+ with BOX cooler and it works over two and half years. But he has drasticly better montherboard (legendary Epox 8RDA3+) and memory (Kingston HyperX 400 MHz CAS 2).

P.S.
As I know there is almost no difference in price between 333 and 400 MHz modules.

[Beirut]

I saw great improvements, at least in my flightsims, when I doubled my RAM from 512 to 1Gig. This is a great (and not very expensive) first step. I think 2Gigs of RAM can wait until you've made other changes first.

As for the AGP 7600GT, this card was debated in the video card thread begun by Frostbeastegg. It's worth cruising the other video card threads for more info about your options.

For my part, I went from an ATI 9800Pro to an AGP 7800GS and I'm very happy with my choice.

[fruitfly]

Because your DDR run at 333 MHz with CAS 2.5 it can run at 400 MHz with CAS 3 but it depend what model. You know manufacturer and series? Because I have DDR 400 MHz CAS 3 (Kingston Value RAM) but it run as 333 MHz at Cas 2.5.

I need more data.

Between fishing out the chip for a look and running cpu-z, I've come up with the following:

The RAM modules are Winbond W942508CH-6
Part number: 64MX64U-33B
Serial number: 02090925
There's nothing to indicate a manufacturer anywhere though, so I guess it's non-proprietary.

It's currently running at 2.5-3-3-7 (167/333MHz) which appear to be the stock values.

I can pick up a 512MB stick of Corsair Value RAM which has the same listed features as that for about £38 from Overclockers.

Beiruit - the 7800GS looks like a sweet card (especially a couple of the Gainward versions knocking about), but I think the fact that I can get the Leadtek 7600GT and 512MB RAM for the same price as a 7800GS will probably swing things.

[DukeofSerbia]

Between fishing out the chip for a look and running cpu-z, I've come up with the following:

The RAM modules are Winbond W942508CH-6
Part number: 64MX64U-33B
Serial number: 02090925
There's nothing to indicate a manufacturer anywhere though, so I guess it's non-proprietary.

It's currently running at 2.5-3-3-7 (167/333MHz) which appear to be the stock values.

I can pick up a 512MB stick of Corsair Value RAM which has the same listed features as that for about £38 from Overclockers.

Buy it then. And try to o/c your memory up to 400MHz with CAS 3.

Beiruit - the 7800GS looks like a sweet card (especially a couple of the Gainward versions knocking about), but I think the fact that I can get the Leadtek 7600GT and 512MB RAM for the same price as a 7800GS will probably swing things.

Don't buy 7800GS. Waste of money. It just don't worth. 7600GT is just fine.

[fruitfly]

Thanks for your advice. I just placed the order now, so will hopefully have new components to play with by the end of the week.

Thought I'd better add another case fan too (a 120mm Zalman), as better CPU cooling for a socket A processor seems hard to come by (not too surprising since it's obsolete) and I don't want the system to run too much hotter than it is already (42-44C on idle, with the core hitting 60C after running SP2004 for a while). At the moment the processor's only o/c to 2800+ so there should be a reasonable amount of headroom.