Debating whether to upgrade

Deception

Deception

Deception

Soldato
Joined
23 Apr 2006
Posts
6,500
Location
Nottingham
Hey there!

My current system is:

Q6600 @ 3.2ghz (Tuniq Tower 120)
4gb OCZ 8500 (2gb of it currently faulty and needs RMA'ing)
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R
Akaska Zen Case
Corsair HX 520W CPU
ATI 4870 1GB

Now I purchased this sytem back in 07:p and it still works fine in everything (can still run games in high) etc. I was just going to RMA the ram and wondered if i was better off getting a 775 Board with all DDR3 or maybe getting an I3,I5,I7 overhaul in the near future.

As you can guess, Ive probably been out of the loop for some time now, so dont know which is obviously my better offer!

Thanks

Steven
 
I dont think you would see much improvements in games getting a new cpu. I reckon upgrade graphics or get an SSD as a boot disk.
 
Thanks so far.

At first it did just turn out to be a case of RMA'ing RAM, then i thought would i be better off with upgrading to DDR3 (didnt know howmuch of a difference it would be apart from future proofing), then it turned into a "hmm wonder what else i could do with" haha.
 
I wouldn't bother with any of the current generation quad/hex core cpus, save your money for another 12-18 months and see what's available then. 8500 RAM won't hold you back in anything atm so don't bother going DDR3 until you replace the rest.

If you've really got the upgrade bug and can't resist buying something then I agree with the others than a new graphics card is a nice option. HD 5850 pretty much seems like the best option atm.
 
I would stick with what you have but maybe upgrade the graphics card at some point. Intels current sockets are EOL next year (1156 Q1 2011, 1366 Q3 2011) so upgrading to those makes little sense from what you already have.
 
Yeah as above mate. It's like you said, 'it still works fine in everything (can still run games in high) etc'. Wait another year + as theres gonna be new intel and amd chips out. You could pick up another 4870 and run in crossfire. You'd need to pick up another psu in that case, but that would be fine as long as you go for a decent wattage/make in terms of future proofing.

bm
 
there is actually quite a big difference with cpu, which most people seem to deny. i used to have a q6600, oc'd to 3.6 and thought it was awesome! upgraded to an i7 920 and was utterly stunned with the performance increase with windows, load times, games, hd movies etc.. to me it made a MASSIVE increase. crysis went from 26 - 27 to 30 - 32, thats just from the cpu at 3.6 too. and with gta iv i cant even describe the smoothness it added to the game.
Also with these new chipsets you can oc much further, 4ghz on pretty much any i set-up, which compared to 3.2 will add a huge amount of performance.
I agree with the others that a new gpu will be the best, i just wanted to point out that they're wrong when they say you wont see a difference upgrading cpu etc..
It all comes down to if you have the money to spend, and really would like the extra performance. go for the 5850 as said, and then after that only you can decide what you really want
 
What do you use it for??

I'd say just leave it as it is. I only went for i5 because I had a Core2dual and wanted quad.
 
:confused: I've tried running an i7 and some of the things you mentioned (windows, loads times, hd movies) really weren't noticably different from the Q6600. In fact windows performance/load times are usually HDD limited. Did you do a fresh windows install by any chance when you upgraded to the i7?

Games - okay yes there are a few titles such as GTA IV which are ridiculously cpu hungry and you will see a change when running an i7, but we're talking a tiny fraction of games.
 
yes i did, but that is because with the upgrade i bought a samsung spinpoint 500gb to use as main hd, so i did the fresh install. old installation was on a seagate barracuda (so yea im sure that helped with things a lot too) so like was said on above posts, a ssd drive would probably be a big difference too (although for an uber-expensive price for a hd imo).
Im also thinking that games like bfbc2 would utilize a new cpu quite a lot. also it depends on what games will be released in the next year or so, and the year after that for the new processors coming out for you to really know if its worth the few hundred quid. Take also that 90% of games coming out are console ports, where their processors are the main factor when designing games, making them quite processor intensive.
i take back what i said about people being wrong, but like i said, i noticed too much of a difference in almost everything for it to be a simple cheap hd upgrade.
Just a point to be made, that if and probably when you upgrade your gpu, i would think that 3.2 would bottleneck the gpu
 
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Sorry for the delay in reply! I see a reasonable upgrade in graphics card would be my best bet, but here comes another question.

Im currently using a 4870 1gb.. Would I be better off getting a new motherboard and going Crossfire or going for a 58xx everyone keeps going on about.

Or is it really down howmuch i want to spend, I guess.
 
I'd agree with those who said don't bother...

You won't see increase with DDR3, If you upgrade HD4870, minimum to HD5850 (but if your card don't struggle with games, no point to do it)

I was thinking to upgrade to i7, but really don't see point now, as mine system (see sign) copes with everythin' ...
 
Its not like the 4870 is that outdated, and you can't play all the new games, unless you think DX11 is a must?

What about your monitor? keyboard, mouse? maybe some new speakers?
 
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