Got the upgrade itch

Boozebeard · 6 Jan 2012 at 03:34

My current rig is in my sig and I'm feeling it may be time to do an upgrade. Really I could probably make do with just a ram upgrade but seeing how high DDR2 prices are compared to DDR3 really makes me think that it's time to do almost a full rebuild. mobo/cpu/ram/case and maybe even a bigger SSD and a second 480 which would also mean new PSU.

What are your opinions? Is it worth doing an upgrade now or should I hold off for a bit? I hear new intel CPU's are coming out in April but I dunno if I really want to pay release prices and I'm wary of early adoption. Might be better off with the cheaper more matured sandybridge platform?

I mostly game and make content for games, so 3ds max, zbrush, photoshop stuff. Also worth mentioning I am not flush with cash; I am a student and most of this would probably come out of my humble savings account.

beejjacobs · 6 Jan 2012 at 10:41

What sort of budget are we talking?

You can get an i5 + RAM + Mobo for around £300 (without SLI support). The GTX480s are quite loud, noisy, power hungry. So I wouldn't SLI then if you can help it! It may be better to wait for the 6xx series (or whatever it will be).

My understanding is that ivybridge won't be a huge improvement, moreso for the graphics (which most of us don't use

) so maybe get an i5 now then a new gpu later?

stueng · 6 Jan 2012 at 10:50

ivybridge will run on 22nm which means less heat and less power consumption as well as whatever other tweaks there are and that improved GFX thing that we will never use

Herecy · 6 Jan 2012 at 13:10

Boozebeard said:
My current rig is in my sig and I'm feeling it may be time to do an upgrade. Really I could probably make do with just a ram upgrade but seeing how high DDR2 prices are compared to DDR3 really makes me think that it's time to do almost a full rebuild. mobo/cpu/ram/case and maybe even a bigger SSD and a second 480 which would also mean new PSU.

What are your opinions? Is it worth doing an upgrade now or should I hold off for a bit? I hear new intel CPU's are coming out in April but I dunno if I really want to play release prices and I'm wary of early adoption. Might be better off with the cheaper more matured sandybridge platform?

I mostly game and make content for games, so 3ds max, zbrush, photoshop stuff. Also worth mentioning I am not flush with cash; I am a student and most of this would probably come out of my humble savings account.

If your not too flush with the case then I wouldn't upgrade, mostly everything listed there is pretty good. You have a decent SSD, processor is pretty good (I have the Q9550). If I would upgrade anything it would be the RAM but like you said you would need new board and cpu as well. I would wait a few months for Ivy see if you can pick up some cash by then and get the 2500k equivalent (3770k?).