Worthwhile upgrade?

[helloyo]

I was thinking of donating my current motherboard, ram, cpu and graphics card to the g/f and buying me some slightly upgraded parts. This isn't going to cost much, but I'd still like for it to be worthwhile. These are the changes i'm planning on making and why:

CPU: AMD64 3200+ upgraded to an AMD64 X2 3800+
RAM: 512MB DDR400 (?) upgraded to 1024 DDR2 667
Graphics Card: ATI 9550 256MB upgraded to an nVidia 7300GS/GT or 7600GS 256MB

So is the CPU going to make much difference? Is the RAM going to be used effectively in KDE. I'm currently using half of my current 512MB for applications, and most of the rest in cache, but its not full... Finally, i'm switching to nVidia so i can use beryl properly but i'm unsure of which model to get. Very rarely play games, so not sure if its worth the extra for the better cards.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Spr0k3t]

If you rarely play games, I would go with the 7300GT over the 7600GS if the price is about the same. You will see a difference, but it will not be blinding. I think the CPU isn't what the key difference is here... I believe it's the factor of all three components that will give you a significant boost. If you don't care about AMD vs Intel, the better bang for buck right now is via Intel processors.

[helloyo]

well i'm open to intel processors. for similar money i can get a Intel D820, D915, D925 or D935 (depending on how much i want to spend.)

[Spr0k3t]

well i'm open to intel processors. for similar money i can get a Intel D820, D915, D925 or D935 (depending on how much i want to spend.)

Those are chipsets... not really processors. When you look at AMD vs Intel, the latter has the better pricepoint for performance right now. True, that could change at any moment, it's all about timing there. If you want a decent integrated Intel based graphics processor, go with the 945 chipset or better. True, the 915 will give you what you need, but I would consider the 915 as the breaking even point. If you do go with an integrated graphics processor, make sure the board supports at least PCIx-16 so you can drop in a good quality graphics card later if you need it.

Hope that helps.