Upgrade memory or CPU ?

[entoman]

My PC has an AthlonXP 2500, and 512Mb PC2700 DDRAM.

I'm not into gaming, but often have 2 or 3 large database files open, and probably Media Player running at the same time, and I want to speed up the PC, and increase stability with several programs running.

The motherboard will accept a more powerful CPU, and will support up to 3Gb DDRAM.

The cost of either upgrade is similar, but I can't stretch to doing both, so do I invest my money in a more powerful CPU, or do I upgrade the memory ?

[PrntRhd]

Personally, I would upgrade the RAM as your processor is not out of date too far from the Athlon 2800 sweet spot for general computing from your comments about not doing games. 1G more would be really beneficial and really easy to do. Kingston or Crucial memory are both pretty reliable.
Just an opinion.
:)

[jlreich]

I agree, ram is the best option. 512MB would make a significant improvement, 1GB would be even better. I would rather have more ram then a faster CPU. :)

[saphalline]

Yep, I agree, too. More RAM always helps; more CPU speed doesn't always help. ;)