So I consider myself a tech savvy kinda guy. I always build my own PCs. I like custom fabricating PC case mods. I act as the family tech support service, and I am the unofficial tech support guru where I work.

I used to be fairly up on what model of what PC hardware is capable of what, but I've been lax in keeping up with this, and it seems like since NVidia dropped the 9000 series cards, I have no idea what card does what anymore.

Here's my current PC Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 x2 5400 Black Edition (Too wimpy to attempt overclocking. It's only air-cooled.)
4GB DDR2 800 (2x 2gb)
NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 1gb
And a few hard drives and optical drives, inconsequential.
Windows 7 Ultimate, 64 bit

The first order of business, I need to replace my power supply. This one works fine, but the fan is sounding it's death knell, and it's only a matter of time before it dies and bursts into flame. I have a 600w, which is probably overkill for this system.

The second, and most obvious, I'm going to double the RAM. Just toss in another 2x 2gb sticks. 8gb. Yay.

Finally, the video card. The 9800gt is no slouch, and I can still play any modern game with no worries about whether it's going to run or not, but for Skyrim, I want this game to look FANTASTIC.

I tried to look around a bit, and from what I gathered (I'm broke and poor, so budget is an issue.) the GeForce GTS450 with 1gb of video memory would be a decent upgrade, probably providing me with about a 50% increase in beefiness. Though I could be wrong. I have no idea what these model numbers mean anymore. I've always bought NVidia, but maybe I should look into an ATI card this time? I'm even more confused how those stack up these days.

My processor... Not sure if I should replace it or not. It's overclockable (Black Edition.) but I have not done so. I have a manly, all copper beast of a heatsink, so maybe I should try that first. My mobo is a socket AM2+, so most of the new quad core processors are out of the question. I think I saw a few 3 or 4 core AMD Phenom chips that are designed for an AM2+ board. Thoughts?

And that's about it. I hope some of you are a bit more up to date when it comes to some of these parts, because I'm not. How would you proceed, knowing I have very little budget, what with having to support a family and all.

Radeon (there is no ATI any longer ) and Nvidia are pretty much equal, though AMD still has a slight advantage in bang for the buck.

I've long lost track with Nvidia, and AMD seem to name their cards very confusingly lately, too. I always refer to the charts http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ to see which card is actually better.
You might want to keep that 9800 still installed, though, as you can use it for PhysX effects, taking a little work away from the processor.

As for CPU, AM2+ grants you access to the Kuma series, which has the Athlon X2 7850 which performs about 30% better than your current CPU. Should be fine.

ATI is no more?! Well that's news to me. Last I heard there was some merger with ATI and AMD, but I was unaware the name actually dissolved.

Yeah, they did that this holiday season, in time for the new snazzy and absurdly weirdly named graphics cards.

If going power supply, Corsair and Seasonic units are very high quality. Antec Earthwatt and ECO units are decent too.

AMD and ATI are one and the same, but the ATI name is officially dropped. Now it's just AMD Radeon. For something in the GTS 450 range, the Radeon 5750 is pretty much a wash with it. The Radeon 5770 is better than both.

Depending on your motherboard's CPU support, see if it can take a Phenom II 940 BE:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

That is the best chip for a native AM2+ only motherboard, but not all AM2+ boards supported it. There is also the Phenom II X4 920:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472&cm_re=phenom_920-_-19-103-472-_-Product

No need, 4GB is plenty. Should not be a priority, and putting your RAM on two separate DIMMs wouldn't really be much of an upgrade anyway.


The GTS 450 is pretty weak to be buying now, but it's hard to say without a real budget for your total upgrade. For that $100ish price range, the 450 or the 5770 are your best choices.

A processor upgrade would definitely make a difference. These two would both improve performance significantly:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103472
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

As for a new PSU, this would support a everything suggested above.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

This may de-rail the convo a bit so I apologise to the mods prematurely but regarding your subtitle.

It's freaking awesome! I must steal it