Upgrade Assistance

[Raum]

I plan on essentially building a new system. My current machine will be used as a server.

Current:

Athlon 1.2ghz

1gb DDR Ram

64mb dual output videocard

What I want in my new system is....

Athlon 64 CPU

Videocard with dual moniter output capable of playing Elder Scrolls 4

1gb of DDR2 ram (If it's out)

New Case (I want either black or silver, must have some type of noise supression technology and of course good airflow)

Possibly new audio card to go with some logitech z-680's

I don't think I want to go dual core yet, but I do know I want a socket 939 athlon 64 on a board that does support dual core for future upgrading.

I don't follow hardware at all, but I prefer ATI videocards and want to be able to play the next Elder Scrolls games with it. Needs to be able ot handle current games pretty well, like Half Life 2, Doom 3 etc. Doesn't havew to be top of the line, but I'm tired of my **** 64mb card. Dual moniter support is absolutely required. Is PCI Express worth it?

Right now I have some no name 5.1 sound card. Would the upgrade to a higher end audigy card be worth it with the speakers I'm looking at? Would getting say, a front mount sound card and an optical cable give me much improved sound over using standard plugs and my PCI card?

I think those are all the questions I had right now. Just looking for some general ideas. Hoping to keep this under 500 excluding hard drives and speakers.

[stncttr908 Veteran]

Where to begin...

Well, first, for basics, AMD does not support DDR2, at least not yet. So you'll be sticking with standard DDR SDRAM. What type, speed, and latency you choose depends on if you want to overclock or not.

Yes, PCI-E is worth it. It's the future after all. Most modern cards come with dual monitor support, and all the high end models these days are coming with dual DVI for dual digital LCD screens.

The Creative X-Fi looks awfully nice. The trouble is, there are actual differences in the cards with each level you go these days. The top of the line cards have 16-64MB RAM onboard and come with nice front panel attachments. The standard X-Fi Xtreme Music card only comes with 2MB RAM onboard and no front panel, but still offers good quality. If you're serious about your sound I'd look further into the X-Fi product line.

I'm sorry, but $500 USD isn't going to get you there, since you basically need new a new CPU, RAM, motherboard, video card, sound card (not necessary right away), etc. That's just not a realistic figure, especially since Elder Scrolls: Oblivion doesn't have system requirements set in stone yet. If you've only got $500 perhaps you should consider an Xbox 360 to play it on. ;)