Looking for upgrade advice...

[Cybergooch]

A little over 2 years ago, I built this system:

Motherboard: Asus P5B-Deluxe
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM: 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB

It's been a great system, but I recently bought the Dell 3008 WFP 30" monitor, and I want to beef things up a bit, though I'm not wanting to build a whole new system just yet. I know that if I get a new faster graphics card that there's a possibility of the cpu becoming the bottleneck, so I'm looking for advice on upgrading in a "balanced" way.

I'm looking at going with the Nvidia GTX 275 for graphics, and possibly the Core 2 Duo E8400 for cpu. Does that sound like a good combination? Is there something else I should be looking at?

Also, RAM has gotten crazy cheap since I built this system. I could either get a couple more sticks of the 2GB I have now, or should I upgrade the RAM as well?

Thanks,

[Midknyte]

If you upgrade the ram, you will have to upgrade to a 64bit OS.

Did you try overclocking anything yet? I'm guessing not, since you're looking to buy new hardware.

[Cybergooch]

Hey Midknyte, haven't overclocked anything yet. The RAM's not an issue, I'm already using XP 64 bit.

[Shinma]

... Motherboard: Asus P5B-Deluxe ... Core 2 Duo E8400 for cpu...

May want to update the BIOS prior to upgrade process.
Current BIOS version listed is 1238.
Fix system hangs at POST while using certain 4GB memory and CPUs.

ASUS has listed BIOS version 1236 required as a minimum for support of Core 2 Duo E8400 (rev.E0)

[Midknyte]

Ok about the XP64.

The E6600 should get you a decent OC, but the E8400 ain't a bad chip.

[jankerson]

Is the graphics card that you are really needing or the CPU too? I know you said you got a new monitor and I am guessing you are playing games if you are concerned about a bottleneck.