Advice on future upgrades please

[Dharok]

Okay firstly, I'd just like to mention I've been away from Overclockers for quite a bit. This has had a knock on effect with my experience these days in hardware and what to buy and upgrading etc.

I mainly do a lot of multi-tasking and gaming on my computer, so I think to future-proof my machine I'd need a nice upgrade before Christmas as I'd like to play a lot of games I've missed out on recently.

Current spec is as follows:
E6300 @ 3.1GHz
AF7 Pro CPU Heatsink
GA-P35C-DS3R
GeIL 2GB PC2-6400 800MHz (Running in the 900MHz region atm)
Nvidia 8800GTX 768mb
Coolermaster 650w PSU
250gb Seagate 7200.10
IDE DVD/RW Drive
Akasa Zen Case
24" DGM Monitor

The last time I upgraded was before Christmas when I bought the 8800GTX and the 24" Monitor. The machine in general is feeling a bit old, the case isn't really all that and I just fancy a nice upgrade to stay futureproof.

There isn't really a budget, although I would like to buy quality parts at good prices and stay up to date with hardware.

Advice please?

 

[semi-pro waster]

If you do a lot of multitasking then you may benefit from going quad core, at the lower end of the range the Q6600 is still good value for money and many will overclock well, if you want to spend a bit more then the Q9550 is a 45nm part (may require a motherboard upgrade or bios flash at the minimum) and is better value than the Q9450 at present. You may also need/wish to upgrade your cooler at the same time.

4gb Ram would also seem like an obvious option.

 

[Skidilliplop]

Off the top of my head I think the P35 DS3R does support the 45nm chips... though gigabyte have in the past brought out new Bios's with new features during a production run thus it can often depend when you bought your board. Even so, bios flash should fix that

 

[Dharok]

Alright sweet. Is my graphics card still able to cope with the new games at high detail and a good resolution?