Matt26

i am in the process of choosing a new upgrade for my gaming computer. first, here is my current setup:

- Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard
- AMD Athlon64 4000+ CPU
- 3GB DDR400 PC3200 RAM (1x1GB, 2x 512MB)
- 2x BFG GeForce 7800GTX Overclocked video cards
- 120GB SATA150 7200RM Maxtor Diamondmax HD
- Generic 450/500W PSU (can't remember which it is)

i am trying to decide between two upgrade options and i'm not entirely certain which option to go with in order to get the best performance boost for playing games (mainstream games).

Option 1: upgrade my current hard drive to a Seagate SATA300 7200RPM 500GB HD

Option 2: upgrade my current set of video cards with a Diamond ATI Radeon 3650 1GB video card

My assumption is that the video card upgrade option would be the better bet-even if the card is a low end one i think it still beats out the combo i have right now in terms of performance.

Can anyone provide some suggestions or advice on this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

dai

i would start with a quality power supply

Matt26

i just realized i didn't mention memory size for the video cards i have- they are both 256MB cards.

i am also on a budget and cannot afford to spend any more than what this particular new video card sells for (or the new hard drive).

wrench97

I doubt your power supply would run the 2 HD3850's so that leaves you with the hard drive
Which won't be noticeably faster just more space.

wrench97

I doubt your power supply would run the 2 HD3850's so that leaves you with the hard drive
Which won't be noticeably faster just more space.

Matt26

the 2 cards i was referring to are the ones i currently own- 2x BFG Geforce 7800GTX 256MB Overclocked.

and i am not looking at 2x 3850's for that upgrade option- only 1x 3650 card.

wrench97

That would not be a very large upgrade to a single HD3650, I look around tomorrow t see if I can come up with a GPU chart to compare a 7800 sli set up to a HD3650.