So would I notice a difference?

[Gamah]

Current set up is

AMD XP 2600+
Abit AN7 Mobo
1gig PC3200 DDR RAM
1 120gig SATA Segate Barracuda HD
1 90gig Samsung HD
Radeon 9800pro 128mb

Would I notice a huge increase in performance if I changed to

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
MSI K8N neo plat
1gig PC3200 DDR RAM
1 120gig SATA Segate Barracuda HD
1 90gig Samsung HD
Radeon 9800pro 128mb

Or would I better off changing the graphics card? to a Radeon x800 256Mb pro

 

[Neffneff]

I personally think you'd notice the bigger difference from doing the upgrade you got there. the increase in CPU spd...and more importantly i think bus spd at the same time, should have a large impact on loading times, and responsiveness of your PC.

 

[chretien]

To be honest most of the work is done by Ram and gfx card so unless you have a really crap processor at the mo (which you don't), upgrading the processor won't make that much difference. It will help but only for loading times and multitasking. The ingame performance will be broadly the same.

 

[Neffneff]

To be honest most of the work is done by Ram.

That's where the increased bus spd comes in ^^

 

[Fana]

I wouldnt make any upgrade yet if i were you, that comp will be good for another year at least. What is it you need to play that requires more power? I run a p4 2.8ghz prescot (1mb cashe), 1 gig pc3200, radeon 9800pro and i can run any game ive tried at 12xx 10xx resolution and above. Ran wow on 1600 1200 and got no gfx stuttering at all at any time etc, running farcry with all stuff enabled and get steady gfx-lag-free fps. Since my specs are comparable to yours i cant see why you feel the need to shell out money on stuff that is still very overpriced
I do have a aluminium 6 fan case which helps with cooling tho, best investment ive done in comp stuff.