Upgrade dilemma, need some help

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11 Aug 2007
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Ok, I'm upgrading my system from a 2GHz E2180 dual-core, 2GB DDR2 memory. Everything is getting changed except the graphics card, which is a GTX 260, 216 core, 896MB and the computer case. I have already bought a new power supply (BeQuiet L7 530W), memory (Corsair 4GB XMS3 1600MHz) and a HDD (Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB, 7200RPM).

I now need a CPU and motherboard mainly but I could do with a few other items such as a new DVD drive as my current one has been playing up for ages (and could really do with upgrading as it's an old IDE drive), a new keyboard/mouse/mouse mat as I've had my current ones for years and they could just do with an upgrade and I am considering buying an SSD but I'm not sure how much I would need one of these tbh (only a small 30/40GB one for the operating system).

I have a budget of about £290. I can either go Sandy Bridge or i5 760 and I will only be able to buy the CPU/motherboard, so I still need to buy all of the other items and I won't have enough money for a while. Or I could go AMD Phenom II 955 and have enough money to buy everything I need in one go (DVD drive, CPU cooler for OC, keyboard/mouse/mouse mat).

What should I do? As I'm not too sure to be honest, I can't make my mind up. The PC is mainly used for gaming, thats the aim of this upgrade. Once I have upgraded I'm hoping for the computer to last me at least one to one and a half years, although I will upgrade the GPU later on this year so I will still be using the GTX 260 for a while yet. I'm not really interested in benchmarking or anything like that, the overclock on the CPU will purely be to get the best out of the CPU for running games, as I want to be able to run upcoming games with good quality settings (highs/maxed out). If I did go the Sandy Bridge route I could still use my computer as my current keyboard/mouse and DVD drive still work (DVD drive to a certain extent), but it would just be nice to get everything done in one go so I have essentially a whole new computer ready to go as opposed to having to wait to get the rest of what I need.
 
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Hey
I'd go AMD route and get as much as you can

If you have a look at this thread and scroll down to my post, post #11, that explains a bit more where Im coming from

Quick spec, doesnt include peripherals but has good cpu, mobo, new optical drive and a decent SSD

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £112.79
OCZ Vertex 2 "25nm Edition" 50GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTX50G) £91.91
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £60.67
Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail £17.99
Total : £283.36
 
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