'weakest link' in hardware

[Saracen]

With the rise of some really cool PC games coming out, I am looking to upgrade my 3-year-old system. I am, however, a poor miserable college student so I simply cannot upgrade everything on a whim, nor am I well versed in computer hardware. So, could somebody let me know what the ‘weakest link’ in my computer hardware is in light of today’s games? Thanks.

Pentium 4 3.6Ghz 800 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE
Intel D915GEVL Motherboard
1Gb DDR2 Ram

 

[physx7]

Your RAM and Graphics card seem to be pretty weak. I also ''think'' that your mobo supports Core 2 Duo's so I would also upgrade to a dual core later on.

 

[topman]

yeah man your gpu wood not kope with most modern

 

[topman]

yeah man your gpu wood not kope with most modern games so that is the ferst thing you shud upgrade if you are in the UK then you can go to www.overclockers.co.uk thay have a 9600GT for 103 quid. but make shor that your PSU can kope. wat wotige is it?

 

[mi1ez]

Definately your graphics card first, then probably your CPU. Do you know how fast your RAM is? It might also be worth getting 2GB of faster RAM straight away, especially with the current low prices.

 

[infornography42]

Wow ... um... tough call between your graphics card and ram. Your motherboard http://www.superwarehouse.com/Intel_D915GEVL_ATX_Pentium_4_Motherboard/BOXD915GEVL/ps/407254 doesn't support anything better than a P4 EE. When it comes time to upgrade your processor you will need to replace the mobo too. Your current processor, while weak, can last you a bit longer with an upgrade to ram and graphics though.

I guess it all depends on what your budget looks like.

 

[Saracen]

Ah yes, it looks like this thing will nickel and dime me to death if I get it to what I want it to be. Perhaps I will add a bit of ram and a halfway decent graphics card before I buy a new system in a year or so. I’ll wait until Vista becomes a decent OS before I do that though

Thanks all!