Upgrade from [email protected]

[baked188]

Been running e6400 @ 3.4 for a few years now and think its time to upgrade, spec in sig.

System is used for gaming mainly @ 1920x1200, I was thinking either
q9550
e8500
i7 920 (cost putting me off )
Maybe 955 BE with new board & ram

I will be wanting crossfire at some point in the near future so will need a new motherboard anyway.. and probably buying 2x 5850/70's

I would be happy with a 25% boost in gaming performance from the cpu/board/ram upgrade, which would i achieve this best with on a budget of £300 tops.

 

[markiejt]

probably find saving for graphics card would be best as your cpu is ok really for games unless your plays surpreme commander...

most games are gpu dependant and not CPU. you would probably need a decent i7 clock to see 25% increase in games but i think you would still struggle

 

[HangTime]

Most cost effective would probably be dropping in a Q9550 to your existing setup, although you wouldn't see a 25% increase in most games (stuff like GTA4 and SupCom would though).

Obviously to get that kind of improvement in more titles you need a heavily clocked i7, but that would be way outside your budget.

I'd steer clear of a move to AMD, better off saving up until you can afford an i7/i5 setup. A 3.4ghz C2D won't be far behind the 955BE when it comes to gaming.

 

[baked188]

Thanks for your advice guys, I'll hold out and see what i5 has to offer in comparison with i7 and its price.