In need of upgrade advice

[morbidaza]

Hi, I'm new here, and really in a tight spot, so I figured I'd ask those in the know.

I'm looking to upgrade my computer, mainly video card, from what it is now, but don't really know what path would be most wise. Heres what I'm running now.

The computer is a gateway, by the way...i wish i'd have built my own, but oh well.

Athlon 950mHz
GeForce 2MX 400 32mb
384 mb PC133 ram
250 watt powersupply
40GB harddrive(not sure of make)

I was looking at upgrading to a GeForce 4ti4200 128mb, which I'll almost definitely do, but how much of an improvement will I see?

How much would I need to spend on processor/mobo in order to really see good performance if I were to upgrade that as well, and would I need a stronger PS? And lastly, would they even fit in my gateway case? I've heard that it's not possible to upgrade certain parts in alot of store bought computers.

I'm on very limited funds(around 200 bucks for now, and around christmas I'll probably be able to do a little more upgrading).

How should I go about doing this?

I apologize in advance if this is wasting anyones time.


{EDIT} Just realized I butchered the title.

 

[arjan de lumens]

GF2MX to GF4ti4200 should be a rather noticeable upgrade (the GF4 should be about 3x as fast, if not more), and will give as good performance as you will get in that particular price class.

Will the GF4 fit? Probably, if you have an AGP slot.

If you want an overall speed boost not limited to games, you will probably need to upgrade to a system with at least DDR RAM and a low-end AthlonXP - new cpu, new mobo, new RAM - which may well cost $200, if not more.

250 Watts sounds rather low - upgrading may or may not lead to instability. I would guess that the graphics card upgrade alone will go fine - if you experience instability and/or upgrade anything else, you will almost certainly need to upgrade the power supply. 400 Watts should be safe unless you plan to run dual-processor+15K SCSI raid or something. I've heard a few horror stories about replacing the motherboard and not the power supply in certain store bought computers (mostly Dells though), so to be safe you should probably upgrade motherboard and power supply at the same time.

 

[RiotSquad]

I'd go for a new case too...these brand name PC's usually have easy connections and stuff to make them faster to build...
Besides,the cost of a decent case with 350W PSU shouldn't be much higher than a 400W PSU...
I'm running my XP1900+ w/ 8500LE on a 300W PSU without any form of problems.(a good 300W is better than a not so good 350W...)