Rebuilding my PC

[Shackled Phoenix]

Alright, my laptop pretty much poops out on anything new, so it's time to rebuild my old desktop finally.

I'm a bit short on money right now so this'll be a step by step process.

I've got an old celeron 1.3ghz, and i'm looking to start out by putting in a new GC (prolly an ATI 9800, although i'm looking at Geforces now that i know AoE3 uses VS 3) and another 512 MB of Ram. I do know that the Motherboard can handle these, but what i'm wondering is if that setup would run anything worth a damn, or if i'll need to replace the processor (and MB of course) before it'll actually run newer stuff. I've been running a laptop for the past 2.5 years, my processor is considerable better than my Graphics card, so i'm not really sure how processor intensive newer games are with a good GC.

Also, since i prolly won't have any need for the chip after anyways, any idea how much more i can get outta that thing by OCing it?

eventually i will throw an AMD 64 in there, when i can afford it.

[LardGibs]

Tell us:

The make and model of the celeron, i.e. anything you can determine, name, L2 cache size, and most importantly socket specifications.

The make and model of the motherboard, which system chipset, specs on AGP 2X-4X-8X etc

Usually (and you seem adventurous enough) in a case like this (ugg bad pun) getting a new motherboard/RAM/CPU is cost effective, doable for $200 at the low end easily.

I really favor athlon XP for value, you could get 2x 256 DDR 400, an nforce 2 mobo, and a Barton/Barton Mobile XP chip for that, and just have to do all the work of getting it rebuilt.
If you want to be less than $200, a 1.3 GHz cpu and a decent vid card can still handle maybe 80% of what's out there, and we can focus on maxing it. With the right board you could get one of the latest/last celerons, which are > early P4's of the era.
-edit-
rather than obsessing on the video card and the plethora of choices there, just make sure you get a real board that does hardware T&L, with the highest bit width memory interface possible (128 or 256 bit-wide). I favor GeForce4 Ti4200-4600, cheap on Ebay, elsewhere, very capable card, only lacking pixel and vertex shaders. IMO fast cpu and hardware T&L > shyte cpu and hardware T&L, px, vx shaders.

[Shackled Phoenix]

too lazy to go check the rest of the specs on my celeron (haven't really used it in a while so they aren't on the top of my head anymore), i'll look later.

what GC's would you guys recommend. preferably 200 or less, but if there's something significantly better i could go up to 250. That's US dollars there folks.

[Karmashock]

if you go AMD you can usually OC it about 5~20 percent depending on how much you spend on your cooling system. OCing rigs really have to be retained for at least one major upgrade for them to make sense... that is, you install a new system... OC it... then when it isn't good enough anymore... replace all the old bits while keeping the nice cooling core. If the new equiptment isn't compatible, you can usually just replace the fittings... that shouldn't set you back more then 10~30 dollars... after the second upgrade you're saving a lot of money.

However, this assumes that the rig doesn't fry... which happens with OC rigs... they burn out like light bulbs...

[Tigre]

You probably already know this place, but this is a good place to get GC's at decent price.

newegg (http://www.newegg.com)

Click on the Refurbished tab, and click on video cards, some great deals. Don't worry about the refurbished thing. Just be careful what you buy, and make sure it is compatible with your rig.

[Polaris]

get an AMD!!!
they rox0r and cost less!
eg: my XP2k+ (1.67gHz) owns ye average P4 2.4gHz
and dual chanelling RAM is good on your wallet! (or whatever you keep your money in)
and i just got a biostar mobo- very nice, i'd buy it again, and in fact its the choice brand i've picked out for my summer-computer-upgrade-of-d00m

and new egg ownz all. period. i'd pay an extra $10 for anything just to have new egg

[Tigre]

Polly's right!! More bang for the buck! You can get an AMD XP2400 for around $75 OEM, or retail is $85 (can be oc'd to 2800 specs), couple that with a cheap Chaintech Dual Channel board and an nVidia 5700 or better and you got a pretty good game rig.

[Polaris]

remember socket compatibility. switching to AMD = new mobo as well, but if you stick to AMD, you can do whatever you want because Socket A owz0rs all

[Karmashock]

You can get some great systems together if you're not a quality freak... if you just want to play the game at 30~40 and you don't really care if you have HW AA on something... or are running it at a great res... you can play any game long after your system's specs are out of date...

You can get a good system to last over 4 to 5 years that way... I prefer getting a great system... then holding on to it for 4~5 years... you usually only need to upgrade your graphics card after 3 years...

Depends on what you like and what you have to spend...

[Shackled Phoenix]

I intend on an AMD, and i know i'll need a new motherboard for it. What i'm shoping around for is a Graphics card. again i will ask for recommendations on a GC in the 200-250 range.

[Tigre]

This is the card I recc' to everyone. It is good enough to keep your rig upgraded for quite awhile and has all the features you want in a gaming card. I have an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro in my rig and I wish I bought this instead. And its under $200!!

[Karmashock]

I would also recommend Nvidia over ATI... they're more compatible and have much better drivers...

beyond that the cards are pretty similar... I have an ATI too and it pisses me off.