Reasonable words from Wayne there Bongas.
Regarding this, to quote Wayne from another thread (I think it more relevant to reply here).
sastusbulbas, I do believe you may be more concerned with "justifying" your personal upgrade choice than helping bongas "consider" his options . . in bongas original [LGA775] Board for Overclocking thread you were advocating he essentially sold off his LGA775 DualCore/Mobo/DDR2-800 and replaced it with LGA775 QuadCore/Mobo/DDR2-1066 . . . much discussion was had and a lot of time and effort was made by the various contributers . . . . your viewpoint has now been updated as a result of this previous discussion . . . I am not here to make you feel you made the wrong upgrade choice but instead to answer bongas questions so he makes the "right" upgrade choice . . . if indeed he upgrades at all!
I was not advocating your suggested opinion see post 26 above, and I have nothing to justify and I did not make the wrong choice, I chose this route instead of an AM3 or i7 rig as I felt it offered ME more bang for buck with the least amount of hassle I decided I wanted a Q9550 or Q9650 and some in this forum advocated it too. When I find the Q9550 and 8Gb of PC-8500 a limiting factor or loose interest I can still move on, it's second hand value won't be much less than I paid. At this moment in time I would have been even more of a muppet by trying to justify an AMD 1090T with 8gb or ram or an i7 930 system as pound per performance it was less value and more about me wanting a nicer bling system. It may still happen, but I have still to play around OC'ing my current P45/Q9550 with 8Gb of ram.
If I was to ask advice now about upgrading my current system and improving my gaming experience I would expect to see SSD and graphics crop up as more viable alternatives to current Quad i5/AMD X4 CPU/platform choices. But I like playing with kit as well so even if I decide to change I will have still had some experience and fun
Regarding your opinion of me NOT helping Bongas consider options, letting him know how my own experience went after being in the same situation as him and having experience with one of the choices he is currently considering may well serve to give insight into what he may expect by going that route, your own graphs in the thread linked below don't show upgrading old 775 kit to be a massive waste of time and money. And I am sure the Athlon II X4 you suggested offered less gaming performance than his current E7400 when Custom PC reviewed it. Considering the machine requirement is gaming I am surprised to see no consideration into graphics card upgrades. I don't know, but how would an OC'd E7400/P45/PC8500 with a better graphics card perform in games compaired to a new AMD Quad/AM2+ with his current GPU and memory? What PSU does he have and how will it perform OC'ing a Quad? Is a straight platform upgrade going to save time and hassle?
Bongas,
I think it is apparent I have been in your shoes, having went from Sempron and AGP through some unfashionable upgrade choices to where I am now. I always preffered getting the most out of what I had spent money on before moving on, I like playing with PC's it's an interest, a hobby, not a means to an end for me, and as such most of my PC upgrades have been funded by beer money or selling bike parts. I have no regrets over my choices nor would
I have regrets buying an i7 930 OR 1090T based set up.
I wondered if I would benefit from a Quad, I have on a few occasions thought about buying a new set up but end up playing with cheaper 775 upgrades. Maybe I read too many Computer magazines such as Custom PC and read into things too much, but every time I do think of upgrading a few months down the line the proposed system is different from last and affected by what I have read in a magazine or forum, it's not chosen due to being so limited with my current system that I cannot live with it any more, nor is it related to spending money. I bought Dominator GT and the Maximus II Gene retail because I wanted to try them in a gaming HTPC with a low wattage CPU and passive GPU and had some 775 kit to swap around if it took my fancy. I didn't care if it was fashionable or stupid old kit past it and overpriced. That said I have not made any real use of the Q9550, can't even say anything about it's performance or benefits as yet.
I am not advocating a complete change to a new 775 system, just pointing out that upgrading the mobo
may well be worthwhile in the short term if not going for a new platform till the end of this year or begining of next, that upgrading your memory won't cost much if you end up selling your old memory. Later on you can still try a Quad with this route if you want to. The price you pay for a second hand 775 motherboard, 775 Quad, or PC-8500 is pretty much the price you can expect back. Buying new 775 kit would be a waste. But your not wasting your money if buying a second hand P45 and/or PC8500 gets more from your E7400 and improves the user experience for the next few months.
That said, £100 is about a third of what you require for the move to a reasonable Quad AMD/AM3/DDR3 platform. If you do plan to move platform soon and have £300 or so to spend now it is a waste of time and money continuing with your current 775 and DDR2 components. If you are still saving, buying a 775 motherboard now may not affect things too much?
If you are positive you want a new platform, Quad, and for gaming, I see no point in sticking with DDR2 and using anything less than an AMD Phenom II or Intel i5. AMD seems better supported, i5 750 with Gigabyte very overclockable.
If overclocking, buying budget AM3 or AM2+ may well lead you back to where you are now, limited with a poor OC'ing motherboard.
Another thing to consider is the graphs on post 8 within this thread
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18182722.
Look at the CPU's (I would put an OC'd E7400 in a similar area of performance to the listed E8400 at stock), specifically think about the prices of the Quad CPU's and real world noticeable performance differences. I believe those AMD X4 and X6, i5 and i7 results are with DDR3 and maybe the memory related benchies reflect this, would the X4 945 score less with AM2+ and DDR2?
Edit,
Remember if you spend around £50 on a 775 P45 motherboard, it may well sell later for a similar amount, you may get something for your old board, it will certainly be worth more and probably utilise better quality components than a budget AMD board.
If you spend around £50 on 4gb of second hand PC-8500, it may well sell later for a similar amount, you may get a reasonable amount for your current memory making actual upgrade cost akin to buying a takeaway meal, even if you upgrade to AM2+ with DDR2, PC-8500 is still better memory than your current PC-6400 so won't be a waste of money.
Buying new is a lot less hassle, more straightforward and more secure, it will cost more short term but comes with warranties and such. Buying and selling second hand kit costs money takes time and has risks. All of which makes a new platform more atractive! I myself bought PC-8500 second hand and never recieved it, I had to wait for a paypal dispute to settle before getting my money back, and due to this got a little insecure and ended up buying new to save hassle, Dominator GT as it was only a little more expensive than XMS2 and came with a fan. Though later I plucked up courage and got XMS2 second hand for £50 with Special Delivery.
Only got £120.00 for it on MM, albeit that was a year ago, was a great clocker as well.
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