I want to upgrade my computer, help please?
 

Here is what I am running right now

Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro 2 mobo
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.16 GHz processor
2 gigs of 3200 DDR ram
ATI Radeon 9550 128mb video card - AGP
dual 500gb drives

I am not a gamer by all means, I use my computer only for internet and photo and video editing. I would like to keep my HD's, RAM and video card if possible. Is it to old to salvage? I have no problem finding used components. Is my ram to outdated? I would like to keep this project budget to $250-300. What I really want is to be able to run Vista with no problems. I tried and failed.

In the long run, would it be a wiser decision to just keep the system I have, and buy a nice $800 laptop?

IMO, if you're targeting Vista keep your system as is and buy an $800 lappy with vista on it already. you can find them easily, my laptop was about $800 and its a NICE setup.

but, if you really wanted to wing it with the desktop you'll need a new MOBO, more faster ram (2 gig min), and at least a 512MB vid card. it'll be a major upgrade to say the least.

The system sounds like a pretty good system for what you use it for. If I was going to build you a new one and keep the budget I would build you an AMD 5000+ Black Edition or better on a Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H, or GA-M57SLI-S4 board with 2GB of DDR2 800. THen we would pick out a mid level videocard. What power supply are you running now? That may need an upgrade also. This would work just perfect for you as it does for me. ;) I would ditch the AGP and build the new setup. Plus you can OC the 5000+ BE by just upping the multiplier and not overclocking anything else. Mine is currently at 3.0GHZ. 8)

I am running a ENERMAX Noisetaker II EG495P-VE 485W Power Supply

Buy the laptop I recently purchased a Toshiba laptop from BestBuy and thats saying a lot because I dont like best buy at all and Ive never tried Toshiba before but it was such a good deal I couldnt pass it up

Dual Core Processor 2.6 GHZ
1GB Ram
120GB Hd
great graphics card except for gaming
The battery lasts about 3 and a half hours

All this for only $450 I thought it was the deal of the century

Well there you have it. That would work just fine. I would stay away from Vista and the laptop. My bro just bought one and has called me for tech support like 20 times in a week and a half.

yup, for the budget and not wanting to scrap out the whole desktop i'd go with a retail laptop.

I really am jealous of my girlfriends new laptop, she got an HP dv6736nr

I think getting the laptop would probably be best at this point. I really want to get dual 22" monitors for my desktop, but thats like $400-500, and then if I do the upgrade I'm looking at $1000 for everything.

I would have to disagree with a laptop. For that much you could build a killer system that will always be more powerful than a laptop if you decide to do something more like photo or video editing or who knows maybe record music, or decide to start gaming. You just can't do these types of things with a laptop IMO.

Blownville, can you get me some direct links to all the parts you think I need? That would be awesome.