Upgrade Suggestions

[Deaf Pilot]

Hey all... here's my specsAthlon XP 2800 Barton 333FSBA7N8X-E Deluxe MotherboardCorsair XMS 512MB DDR400 (166MHz Single Channel)Powercolor Radeon 9600XT 128MB80GB Hard Drive (Not sure what brand it is... I've had it for quite a while... its been in 2 computers at least)CD-RW, Floppy... etc etcThe main things that I am looking at are my memory, my video card, and my hard drive. My question is basically what would you guys upgrade first?Also, I have an issue with random restarts... right in the middle of playing a game, my computer will just restart out of nowhere. I definitely think it is heat related... do you think I should upgrade the cpu fan along with some thermal paste?Thanks in advance!

[Guest orenda635]

You've got a good set up there as it is. You could upgrade the memory to 1gb if you wanted. As for the video card, a 9800pro or Geforce 6600GT AGP 8x would be good options. As for cooling, try a utility like SpeedFan or Motherboard Monitor to check first. Athlons are hot, they usually hover around 50c. If it's getting over 60c watch out. 70c is the absolute limit that AMD allows. Check you're case's airflow and video card as well. 80mm case fans will improve airflow. If you decided to replace the CPU fan, get one with an all-copper heat sink and a good fan. Use a thermal paste such as Arctic Silver (good) or Ceramique (best).

[Deaf Pilot]

Thanks for your help... the main reason I am looking into an upgrade is because, when I have AA and ASF enabled, oftentimes I will get pauses in the game... not just in flight simulator but in all of my games. I'm not sure if that is memory or video card related though.