Re: What should I replace?
 

As someone else said, its still reasonably modern so unless the games you want to play are demanding i wouldnt be in a rush to upgrade.

Re: What should I replace?
 

As far as i know there are no 478 Pentium D's. I have never seen or heard of one, at the tech specs on intels site only list them in as coming in the LGA package. Your probably thing of the Celeron D. You have a link to those ones your talking about?

To check if your card is AGP or PCIe, just open up the Nvidia driver control panel, and click on your card name (in the classic control panel, its the first option on the side panel).

Re: What should I replace?
 

Upgrade that bloody video card.. You can pick up a nice Nvidia 7950GT 512MB of Ram for around $250 now.. Make your 6600 look like a FX 5200..

Your processor is still fine. Its a dual core so your really fine with processing power. The ram I would upgrade to a even 2gb since you have 1.5gb, and harddrive space you have plenty enough. Bah, 160GB harddrive is plenty enough. Meh, if you have the money might as well slap a nice PCI sound card in there to free some processing space and better sound quality.

Re: What should I replace?
 

All around it's a good system..

How much memory is on the Video card? If it's 256mb, it's fine. I have no idea what everyone here is whining about.. I run a GeForce 6600 256mb just like that and I run Oblivion on med-high graphics with zero lag.. Why waste your money on a 512mb, it's wasted until better games come out. Of course if you have the money, a new video card would be good.

And while I agree the CPU is probably fine, if you feel like spending some money, replace it with an AMD processor, you'll find the performance on AMD is much better than Intel. I'll probably get some arguments on this one, but I'm not joking; A 2.2-2.4ghz Athlon 64 CPU that'll cost you about $200-300 is probably equivelant to a 3.2-3.4ghz Intel. And by equivelant, I mean Athlon is better ;) It's been proven, framerates in games are better when run on Athlon CPU's (minus I believe UT2k4 and possibly 1 or 2 other titles). And I'm telling you this assuming you're a big gamer. And a side note, dual-core is only good for multi-tasking, it doesn't substantially increase you're core performance, especially in games.

Re: What should I replace?
 

If only that were true.... The GPU core of the card is much more important than the amount of memory it has.

That would mean replacing the motherboard as well, which i don't think he wants to do. And if your replacing your mobo/cpu and your a gamer, unless your looking for the cheapest prices, your going to want a Intel Core 2 Duo. The Core 2's are kicking AMD's ass right now.

Re: What should I replace?
 

Your rig looks pretty good. The one thing that could use updating if you must would be the video card. Something like a 7600gt, 7900gs or an x1950 would do great.

It would help to know if it's a pci-e or an agp motherboard though. You can use this free app below to see what it is:

link: CPU-Z
(under "mainboard", look at "Graphic Interface" in the "Version" line)
The memory on a video card can no longer be used as an effective yardstick like it (sort of) could in years past. For instance, a 512mb 7300gs would get destroyed by a 256mb 7900gs. The core speed, memory speed (& memory type) are the most determining factors in how good a card will perform.

I agree that the 6600 is a good card. My 128mb 6600gt could play Oblivion pretty decently as well, and is still running strong in an old rig.
This was the case until a few months ago, when Intel released the Core 2 Duo (Conroe) processor line. As StaticX just mentioned, you'll find that it completely destroys the performance of the current AMD offerings (including games) and does so at a reasonable price. That said, I still love my AMD 4400+. :nodding:

Re: What should I replace?
 

I believe my RAM is dual channel, but I never plan on getting Vista. I heard it does some nasty stuff to your sound and my sound card is already giving me a hard time. Plus, I don't want my dad using the friggin gay parental controls. I think what I need is a new cooling system and a new video card.

Re: What should I replace?
 

Wow.. I must be behind on my shit, guess I have some reading to do =/

Re: What should I replace?
 

yeah a core 2 duo e6300 can be oc to beat an fx - 62 processor from amd

Re: What should I replace?
 

Why even talk about processor, HIS IS FINE! Haha, seriously, all that needs changing is the graphics card. DO NOT BUY A 7950GT for 250! You could get a 8800GTS 320mb for 300! It would be much better! Don't want to pay that much? 8600 ULTRA will be around what, 200? That card is going to be sweet...