$200 to upgrade (at Best Buy). Where's the sweet spot?

[mesaba 116 10]

I've got $200 bucks to spend at Best Buy, and I'm looking to upgrade my home built PC specifically to get better performance for Flight Simulator X.My current set-up includes an E6600 OC'd to 2.99 Ghz (Stock cooling, so haven't pushed any higher), a Nvidia 7600GT, 2 Gig of Corsair XMS2 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (running XP). Flight Simulator X runs on its own 10K RPM drive.My goal is, whatever upgrade I make, to not be bottlenecked by the other remaining components. (For example, if I went to something like a Nvidia 250, I wouldn't want the CPU and/or memory to hinder it.)If a $200 upgrade doesn't get me significant improvement, maybe I'll go for a wide-screen monitor.What do you think?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

You need to upgrade your GPU. $200 @ Best Buy should net something like a GTX 260, and as long as your power supply is up to the task, that is the card I would recommend. Anything less than that will under-perform.

[mesaba 116 10]

Power Supply is an Enermax Whisper 2 535W

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Well, it's a little low on the +12V output but it should still be enough for a single 260. Anecdotally, I've heard of people running 260 SLI on similar PSUs, but I wouldn't trust that for too long.

[Glynn 405]

I've got $200 bucks to spend at Best Buy, and I'm looking to upgrade my home built PC specifically to get better performance for Flight Simulator X.My current set-up includes an E6600 OC'd to 2.99 Ghz (Stock cooling, so haven't pushed any higher), a Nvidia 7600GT, 2 Gig of Corsair XMS2 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (running XP). Flight Simulator X runs on its own 10K RPM drive.My goal is, whatever upgrade I make, to not be bottlenecked by the other remaining components. (For example, if I went to something like a Nvidia 250, I wouldn't want the CPU and/or memory to hinder it.)If a $200 upgrade doesn't get me significant improvement, maybe I'll go for a wide-screen monitor.What do you think?

HelloA GTX 260 and a better cooler, then push that E6600 to 3.2ghz or higher

[gman! 1]

I've got $200 bucks to spend at Best Buy, and I'm looking to upgrade my home built PC specifically to get better performance for Flight Simulator X.My current set-up includes an E6600 OC'd to 2.99 Ghz (Stock cooling, so haven't pushed any higher), a Nvidia 7600GT, 2 Gig of Corsair XMS2 PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (running XP). Flight Simulator X runs on its own 10K RPM drive.My goal is, whatever upgrade I make, to not be bottlenecked by the other remaining components. (For example, if I went to something like a Nvidia 250, I wouldn't want the CPU and/or memory to hinder it.)If a $200 upgrade doesn't get me significant improvement, maybe I'll go for a wide-screen monitor.What do you think?

Please don't shop at best buy for a graphics card, unless you want to be ripped off. They are good for software and other things, but their hardware prices are very inflated.

[TheFamilyMan 280]

Here's the deal you want (don't worry about the name, it's a gtx 260 core 216):http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0312750Ready to go right now, or if you are lucky enough to live by a microcenter store there's a good chance you can get it there. I got my BFG GTX 275 via microcenter online with no problems at all, ripping great deal for $204.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

I guess you guys missed the part that the money has to be spent @ Best Buy... Likely he has some gift cards to use.

[mesaba 116 10]

I guess you guys missed the part that the money has to be spent @ Best Buy... Likely he has some gift cards to use.

Affirmative -- Best Buy gift cards. I got all the original components from Newegg. For next year ... I wonder if Newegg or Microcenter do gift cards?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

They most certainly do!