Almost upgrade time again - advice

Soldato
Joined
28 Nov 2003
Posts
11,713
Location
Manchester, UK
I upgraded my PC last Dec/Jan, and the same time the year before. Each time I managed to get a really good price for my old parts and managed to grab a real bargain on some used (but almost new) kit.

It's almost that time again but I am wondering if there is anything really worth upgrading - my spec is in sig.

I went from:

Asus A8N-SLi Premium
Aopen 7800GT
2GB OCZ Gold 3200
Athlon 64 X2 3800
74GB WD Raptor

to (in 2008):

Asus A8N-SLi Premium
8800GTX
2GB OCZ Gold 3200
Athlon 64 X2 4600
74GB WD Raptor

to (in late 2008):

Asus Maximus Formula X38
Q9450 2.66Ghz @ 3.4Ghz
4GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-8000
GTX 260
500GB Seagate

to (in late 2009):

current spec


The SSDs in RAID-0 were the biggest noticeable upgrade. As usual I have been completely out of touch with hardware for another year - is my current spec still upto scratch? Is it even worth upgrading anything?

Thanks :)
 
Depending on the res you game at maybe a new graphics card. Apart from that the rest of the rig is'nt exactly going to struggle with anything. There are new sockets coming from both manufacturers over the next 10-12 months.

Intel is replacing socket 1156 with socket 1155 in the next couple of months. I get the feeling that this may happen this side of Christmas as reviewers already seem to have boards and some are getting cpu's to play with in the next week or so. Despite being only a pin less, both platforms are not interchangeable.

AMD is next with Bulldozer and it's new AM3+ socket in Q2 next year.

Lastly, Intel replaces socket 1366 with it's new socket 2011 in Q3 next year.
 
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Most my gaming is done on the xbox 360 or PS3 these days, can't even remember the last time I played games on the PC. What is the best gfx card atm in terms of price/performance - and is it a big step forward from a GTX 260?
 
If your not going to be gaming on the PC then i don't see any need to upgrade the GFX either.

Edit: Just beaten to it :)
 
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