Quad a 775 board or mobo/cpu upgrade?

[FixupSellon]

Ignoring my thread in the other section I decided to put my compaq setup in my new(well second hand) gaming case as I like the setup and it's the only system up and running properly lol.

Now as my plan is to have a decent gaming system, I'm thinking whether to upgrade my current cpu to a quad, it's an hp and think the highest support was Q6600 and upgrade my gpu and ram and stick it out awhile longer(only had it few months) or sell some computer bits I picked up in a job lot and Try to fund a new mobo/cpu and ram, I can't sell my running machine bits until I got a full replacement as I still use it, but I could least get the mobo ready.

Current rig.

Now Gaming case large
Hp ipibl-la(Berkley) Lga 775 uatx
Intel core2duo E6550(Q6600 max)
4gb ddr2 ram(8gb max)
Geforce 8400gs 512mb, Dx11
Corsair cx430 '80 plus bronze'(Brought brand new days ago for upgrade)
3x old sata hdd's(2 connected for now)
Vista 32bit home premium

Upgrade path:

Asus H81 M-Plus
Pentium g3220/G3### or i3
8gb ram
Not over the top Gpu
Stick to hdd or look at a decent first ssd

Don't ask for a budget as I don't know, but it be tiny.

Quick breakdown:

Mobo £40 from c world with gift card
Cpu £32 for G3###?
Ram probably be 2nd hand
Gpu probably reuse 8400gs

I dont pc game like I used to so don't need anything too special.



What you guys think?

 

[AMDIT]

If your budget is so tight then upgrading may be the way for you. I also have a 775 setup but upgraded to SSD and a modestly older gen GPU for less than £70. A GTX 460 is a decent upgrade from yours and the SSD will be too. Recommend the SSD first then the GPU upgrade.

 

[ghost.florian]

If you can fit your Windows partition onto 120 GB, then get an SSD:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-051-KS&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=1427

This will be by far the best upgrade you can make at the moment.
Bear in mind however that Vista isn't great for SSDs. You will need to install some utilities to send manual TRIM commands. You can read all about it if you google "SSD Windows Vista".

If you don't really game that often, what is the point of a new graphics card ? When you have tough budget constraints, you need to select those parts which will make the most impact.

Going from a dual core to another dual core isn't a smart investment. Try to aim for an i3 or AMD quad core at least, since more and more applications require multiple processing threads.

 

[AMDIT]

A Q6600 should be cheap to get and do O/C well. May need to O/C it to 3 / 3.2 to get more benefit out of that GPU. But Do get the SSD first and then see what you have left to fund a GPU for a modest upgrade for your gaming rig.. I used to have 9600 GSO and the GTX 460 blows it away. Plenty on ebay to find as most are getting 6/7/9 series GPU's to replace.