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[Jake]

Since I became a dad 7 months ago, the time available to play games on my computer has decreased dramatically.

Having bought and only played Battlefield 1942 since its release last fall, my computer has been a bit on the slow side when I enable the great visual effects of this game and want to run it in 1280*1024 or greater resolutions.

I have been able to save a little money and have been considering how to invest it best.

My current config is:
Asus GeForce 3 Ti200 Pure
Asus A7V333 mobo bios ver. 1007
AthlonXP1700+ on TT Silent Storm (T-bred compatible cobber cooler)
512Mb Crucial PC2100+ DDR-RAM

I have considered two different sollutions that fit my budget:

1. AthlonXP 2400+ and ATI Radeon 9500 PRO.

2. ATI Radeon 9700 PRO.

So the questions are:

Which would be the best sollution for me?
Will I be CPU limited if I just buy a Radeon 9700 PRO?
Is my current processor sufficient to drive the 3D games we can expect in the next 6 months in the highest detail in combination with the 9700 PRO?

Would a 9500 Pro become a bottleneck in six months if I upgrade my motherboard, CPU and RAM to be "Barton" standard?

Any other suggestions?

Regards,

Jake

[Topha]

I would go for the 9700 (not pro) and decide whether or not you want a faster cpu a few weeks later, when they are even cheaper.

I think its quite easy to overclock the 9700 to pro level