Is it worthwhile upgrading my 2180?

[brendan.mclaugh]

My aim is to get a nice new mobo/ram/cpu combo in, probably about 4-6 months, likely an i5/i7 around the £500 mark

In the meantime though, is it worth spending a wee bit (max £100) on upgrading my venerable 2180?
Just about to get a new GPU/CPU due to hardware failure, and my CPU is definitely going to be the bottleneck.

So, whadda ya think people, get a 775, for a bit of a boost, or just wait??

Oh I have a P31 mobo, and the CPU is clocked at 3.1GHz (50% OC)

 

[eddiew]

4-6 months is less time than you think. While the CPU might bottleneck a high end GPU, it's not going to deliver worse performance than you're getting from your old graphics. Sounds like a sit on it and wait to me

Also 3.1 isn't a bad overclock at all. My 4300 ran 3.0, and the only thing that actually got me to move off it was Photoshop's love of RAM and the need to move to DDR3! Other than that it was doing me just fine

 

[brendan.mclaugh]

Yeah, thanks, I agree, I've decided just to put the money towards a nice i5 bundle.

 

[eddiew]

Definitely a good choice Since you're not demanding to be on the bleeding edge all the time, I'd imagine an i5 will last you for years, so every £ saved now and used to make it a bit better is a good investment!

(Wish I'd gone i5, to be honest, but AMD sold me on the whole "You'll be able to put Bulldozer in that motherboard!" line. Then turned out to be lying )

 

[linktoinsanity]

Yeah, thanks, I agree, I've decided just to put the money towards a nice i5 bundle.

Good choice.

The CPU you have is fine. My dad has an E2200 at stock so similar performance there, he doesn't game (boring ol' man ), mainly using it for spreadsheets and web browsing/checking his emails. When it does occasionally get used to fire up the odd game the 8400GS with CPU copes fine. I would stick with what you have for six months and upgrade to i5 when funds permit.