Simviation Forums

I plan to build a new system toward the end of the year but for now, I would like to upgrade a little. What would be the best as far as bottlenecks.
Spec..

CPU----- Core 2 6300 (the board manual says I can upgrade to any core2)

RAM---- 2 gigs of pc5700 (667) up to 4 gigs possible
Card---- X1950 pro pciE 256 video memory
Drive--- 320 gig sata
            100gig IDE for storage.
Sound-- intergrated sound realteck high def
OS------ Windows xp sp2 32 bit ( I have vista 32 but decided to stay
            with XP for now.

I have about 500 or a little more what would be the best choice or should I just buy alot more games. Or flight yoke.

I'd buy a decent heatsink/fan for the Intel, overclock.
Replace the videocard to 8800GT or 8800GTS
Buy a new soundcard.

Thanks, I am not a overclocker lol, But I might try alittle I would need to do some research cause I have heard nickn and ctjoyce several times say dont do it if you have to ask how. LOL

I would say your ram will probably slow you down the most.  Try going with pc2-6400 (800MHz) ram.  

I've also heard that in gaming a CPU with 2.2GHz or better is optimal. The E6300 is only at 1.86.  You could overclock it to 2.2, but you said you don't really want to.  Another processor to look at would be the E4500.  It runs at 2.2GHz, and it is actually cheaper than the E6300.  

Check out this article for Core 2 Duo bottlnecks in gaming: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/cpu_bottlenecks/