Some Advice Needed

[Arazi]

Hi All

I need some help on deciding what to do.

Ive decided system is due an upgrade, i only need to look at the motherboard, cpu and ram.

I have the following in my system:

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Motherboard
Intel Core 2 E6550 CPU
Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 C5 XMS2 Ram

Now i have 4 options i think.

1st option is to upgrade to a Quad core that fits my existing board and keep the ram i have. Budget would be £200 approx.

2nd option is i upgrade to a quad core that fits my existing board and also buy 4GB of DDR3 ram because this board i have supports DDR2 and DDR3 (would i see an improvment over the DDR2 i allready have?) Budget would be £250 approx.

3rd option i have is replace motherboard, cpu and ram and go down the AMD route and get the best i can for my budget. Budget would be £300 approx.

4th option i have is replace motherboard, cpu and ram and go down the Intel route and get the best i can for my budget. Budget would be £300 approx.

It would be great if other suggestions come up, so what do you all think my best option will be.

The reason for different budgets is because depending on what option is the best i would be able to sell some of my gear to put towards the money i have spare.

Hope it makes sense

Thnaks

 

[95thrifles]

Hey

Firstly I'd immediately discount option 2, wont make any difference
That leaves you with options 1, 3 and 4

For 1 I'd get a Q9550

For 3 something like this

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail + Colin McRae Dirt 2 Full Game £136.99 (£119.12)
Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £83.98 (£73.03)
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM) £82.00 (£71.30)
Sub Total : £263.45
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £40.87
Total : £313.32


And for 4, this

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail + Colin McRae Dirt 2 Full Game £149.98 (£130.42)
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £82.98 (£72.16)
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM) £82.00 (£71.30)
Sub Total : £273.88
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £42.43
Total : £325.31

In gaming terms they're all going to perform very similarly, so you have to make choice on what you want to do, obviously option 1 is cheapest/easiest but with the other two you get nice new shiny kit to play with, and the probability you'll be able to upgrade the cpu later, as you could do now with option 1

 

[Arazi]

Thats great

Im going to have a ponder and get back and let you know which i decide on, its looking like the options 3 and 4 though.

Thanks for the help