Looking to upgrade my rig, any suggestions?

I'm playing STALKER Clear Sky and at max settings I'm lagging. I hate playing any games at less than optimal settings, and I also recognize that it's been years since my last upgrade and it might be time again.


I am using XP,

2G DDR2

Processor a
2.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium Dual
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache


Main Circuit Board
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5K SE Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0401 07/19/2007

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
LGE T710BH [Monitor] (15.7"vis, March 2003)


I'm looking to upgrade to somethign that will run my games a little smoother as well as my photoshop cs4, get at least a gig more of ram, but the main thing I wonder is should I up my vid card, and to what? I'm looking for affordability but quality,

also if I were looking for a new monitor, what's a good lcd or led monitor with black blacks and not-overexposed whites (eg, a graphic designer's monitor) that you'd reccommend?

 

a Core 2 Duo is a nice cheap and beneficial upgrade that will do very well in games and Photoshop (i use it myself) and if u prefer Nvidia then u can try the 9600GT or something along that range for an affordable and good card, or if u like ATI the 4570 is a pretty good cheap card. but IMO ur vid card shuld be alright. and some OCZ, Patriot or Corsair 4gb memory sticks will be good.

 

remember that while ram is cheap 32bit operating system will see around only 3.5

 

For upgrading you can 'feel', as said a Core2Duo of some sort will definately give a boost if it is significantly faster than your current cpu.

Video card, I would agree, most games you should be just fine with esp considering your max resolution on that smaller monitor. Step up to a 27" monitor like mine, and you need to run at 1920x1200 for it to run best, so your video card also needs to handle that in games for best picture.

Ram, definately up that, even if you are currently on 32bit, you should still be able to 'feel' the difference in certain instances, like photoshop.

But for me, perhaps the most 'felt' improvement is always a new harddrive. Many times once you have started a program, you can't really tell the differences. But a harddrive can noticeably increase load times and seeking files etc.

Just my 2cents.

Sul.

 

Regarding Stalker clear sky I originally played it on a E6850 with a 512mb 8800GT ,4gb system ram on x64 windows at 1920 x 1200 and it lagged bad had to lower at a lot of the effects as well as the resolution etc. This was however when the game was new id imagine multiple patches and driver updates have sorted out most of the lag for a modern gaming setup

But I would check the Stalker forums regarding advice for which GPU to go for. but be careful as if you don't game at 1920 you wont need a 4870 x2 GPU for a screen that size, you mentioned monitors but I cant advise you on what one all I can say is 22" TFT's are cheaper now just read some reviews for your requirements.

CPU as advised a decent Core 2 should help shift things nicely along. according to the Asus website on the correct BIOS your board can support the E8600 Core 2 cpu and later Quad core cpu's

Memory DDR2, I would go for 4gb which would allow you to upgrade nicely to a x64 OS if/ when required