Upgrading my PC...

[Kemal]

Thanks for offering to look for them akots, but I think I should keep in mind that my current system is already very old and almost absolete. *If* I'd get new memory, I think it would be a good idea to have mem that should be able to fit into a newer system as well, instead of it only being capable of fitting into this old MB.

Otherwise, once I do away with this system, that mem would be wasted, and has to be thrown away. And also considering the fact that with my current MB, I cannot take full use of the video card, replacing that might be a good idea... only problem would be the CPU, getting a new one is way too expensive so somehow the old one would need to be fitted on the new MB, if possible, so that I'd need to spend only 110 euro total or so for the upgrade.

If a new MB would require a new CPU as well, I think I'll just stick with this old system until I change the entire PC altogether, but there is no immediate need for that atm, so I'd rather wait with that for now and get more value for money later on when an entirely brand new PC is really needed.

Tomorrow I'll visit some PC shops and ask about the new MB and whether they can fix that, at what price, and if my current CPU could be put in (either done by me or by them)... then I'll decide on how to proceed.

Again thanks all for your input, I had no idea about this RIMM stuff etc, and how sucky this MB is. For sure this saved me lots of frustration of buying and trying to fit in the wrong memory modules.

[DrAlimentado]

What you need is a friendly PC guy who will fit a new mobo and ram with your current cpu for free, failing that one who will reassure you that you can fit it np

If you cant find the guy and you chicken out of DIY then save your money until you can afford an athlon64 barebones system imo. I have done some research into cpu/mobo/ram types and prices recently (I am upgrading in a month and a half hopefully) and I reckon bottom-range athlon64/good mobo/cheapish ram is where the real bang for buck is. Athlon64's arent dirt cheap but the 3000 and 3200 are pretty reasonable - and good fast 'forward looking' chips (64bit windows is coming...) Radeon 9800 is a nice value/power card to go with it - and if you want to upgrade gfx later on the cpu/mobo will drive something much more powerful too.

[Rik Meleet]

My advise is to not continue the dead end road of RIMM. Instead save your money for a new system.
Your Radeon 9800 is still ok, and will be for 2 or 3 years to come. Invest your money in a motherboard-CPU combination that is ready for the future. Athlon 64 is a good CPU for that. And for memory: go DDR (not DDR2) type memory. It's fast, relative cheap and will be around for a long time. With the correct balance, your motherboard-CPU-Memory combination will be workable for 3 to 4 years (which is good). And if you spend a few extra euros, you give yourself the chance to add memory, upgrade your video-card or other parts of your PC (HDD for instance) in a couple of years, for little money.

Edit: I nearly forgot; get a Powersupply which can deliver the voltage needed; It doesn't look like devices will get more economically (power-wise) in the near future.

[akots]

Don't know. IMO, your PC is just fine. It needs a little bit extra memory (1Gb) and can probably last for at least another year. May be even 2. CPU is OK, it would still be fine to run Civ4. And graphics card is excellent and should last at least 3-4 years. It might be a good rule not to upgrade unless you can boost your CPU at least 10-fold. Which mean having now P4-1.4GHz you can relax and live until 6-7GHz machines start to show up. Getting more memory and bigger hard drive (if you need one) is a way less expensive way to boost performance.

[Kemal]

Went to the Mycom shop today, and received some bad news, my current CPU cannot be fit in newer MBs, so to replace the MB would also mean getting a new CPU, which would at least mean a 250 euro spenditure, on top of which the new memory would need to be bought as well.

On the other hand, they do have 256 MB Rimm memory, but it is sold for 110 euro a piece, and you apparently need them in pairs of 2 indeed, making it a total of 220 euro for 512 MB extra mem.

You all already indicated this of course, but still a disappointment nonetheless.

So, I've decided not to upgrade for now, and save the cash until an entirely new PC will be bought/assembled, since the upgrade is not critical at this moment. Thanks to all for all the help and info nevertheless.