Upgrade choice

[alskahawk]

The cheapest upgrade would be to buy another gig of ram.

A new cpu may require a new operating system to be installed. Windows doesnt like major component changes detects it as a new system Depends if you have a retail version or a system builder version of windows. 939 cpu's are getting more scarce every day. Wait a month and you may have to settle for a slower chip.

Video card-recommend the Nv 7950. bit more expensive than the others but if you have SLI you add another later and your still competing with the big boys. A slow cpu will bottleneck a good video card tho. ATI has some good cards too, tho the newer ones are power hogs and may require new psu.

[alskahawk]

Sorry for the double post of essentially the same message. Getting used to new laptop.

 If you don't have to mess with windows, cpu is the best performance upgrade. And given the scarcity I would do it soon.

 You can reactivate windows sometimes. Like most here I have built and upgraded many systems and it is not a slam dunk that windows will accept a new cpu. I think there is another post in the forum about the different window versions ie; Retail 250$ full install/$90 system builder disk. I'll see if I can find it.