Upgrade help

[k1000]

Hi everyone

I have a computer I use mainly for web surfing and gaming. It's a 3 year old machine
E6700 core 2 duo @ 2.66 Ghz
4 Gb DDR2-800 Ram
Asus P6w DH-Deluxe Motherboard
Enermax Galaxy 1000 PSU and Silverstone TJ-09 Case
150 Gb Raptor HDD as primary HDD
Had a 8800 GTX that I swapped a few weeks ago for a Radeon 5870.
I am still running XP but I am going to switch to Windows 7 (My copy just arrived by mail)
Just by changing my graphics card, the FPS in my games improved a lot. In some games , my FPS almost doubled (like in Risen).
I was thinking of upgrading to a core i7 920 with 6gb of Corsair Dominator ddr3 Ram and an asus p6t Deluxe V2, and an intel-m g2 SSD, and trying to OC it. But I am wondering if it will really be worth upgrading to a core i7. Will I see a big improvement compared to my current build? I am hesitating now between just getting the intel SSD before I install windows 7, or going with the full upgrade.
Any advice will be welcome.
Thanks

[Gorath]

Did you check if you can only upgrade the CPU? Your intended upgrade sounds like overkill to me.

[k1000]

The best CPU I can upgrade to with my motherboard is a quad core q6700. I'm pretty sure that would not be worth it since it's the same CPU than the one I have, but a quad core instead of a dual core.
I'm pretty sure that with an SSD and a clean install of Windows 7, my PC will feel quicker. I am considering doing a full upgrade to an i7, but am not sure it would be worth the money performance wise for playing games. With my current configuration plus an SSD, does anyone think upgrading to a core i7 plus 6Gb of Ram lead to a considerable improvement in games?

[GothicGothicness]

I don't think it is worth it, while risen might be CPU limited.. most games are still limited by your GPU the "upgrade" you want to do sounds more like a system change to me... new mobo, new processor, new ram ? the only thing you have left of your old system is the graphics card ?

[k1000]

I don't think it is worth it, while risen might be CPU limited.. most games are still limited by your GPU the "upgrade" you want to do sounds more like a system change to me… new mobo, new processor, new ram ? the only thing you have left of your old system is the graphics card ?


I would keep my graphics card, hard drives (as secondary hard drives), PSU and Case, and my sound card. But yes you are right, the core of the system would be different. Just don't know if it's worth doing.

[Moriendor]

I don't think that it's worth it just for games. You might get an improvement in loading times from using SSDs but from the benchmarks I've seen we're talking about something like just a couple seconds here and there.
Your CPU is solid, your graphics card is top notch, RAM is a-OK. Your system is actually pretty up-to-date for games.
I'd recommend to wait until there are more games that require or at least take advantage of a quad core before upgrading to an i7/i5.
There are also new 32nm i5/i7 CPUs coming out in January (Westmere = the ones with an integrated graphics core) so it may also be worth waiting for how those turn out performance-wise.

[JDR13]

There are also new 32nm i5/i7 CPUs coming out in January.


This is what I was going to say as well, you should hold out until then to see what happens to the current prices. I have the same Core 2 E6700 also, and I wouldn't even consider upgrading until next year, there's really no need to.

[k1000]

This is what I was going to say as well, you should hold out until then to see what happens to the current prices. I have the same Core 2 E6700 also, and I wouldn't even consider upgrading until next year, there's really no need to.

Thanks for everyones advice. I'll follow your advice and wont be upgrading my computer except for the SSD (I'm waiting for it before installing Windows 7). We'll see if next year, a more powerful CPU comes out, that will really make a difference in games, or if games start taking advantage of quad cores.

[Remus]

I have pretty similar system and been tempted to upgrade with the release of socket 1156 m/b and its processors. In the end considered that my currently rig is still capable to handle most games, i delayed the plan until late 2010 or into 2011 - depending on the new games hardware requirement.

[KapitanUnterhosen]

Dragon Age for instance really takes advantage of 4 cores instead of 2, search the watch's news for a site with benchmarks.

[Cm]

Just be sure to check your power source can handle it all. I was told my old rig would be able to handle an upgraded video card but it couldn't. That extra drain from the built in fan did me in.

[JDR13]

Dragon Age for instance really takes advantage of 4 cores instead of 2, search the watch's news for a site with benchmarks.


It might take advantage of 4 cores, but it certainly doesn't need them. I'm playing DA with everthing maxed, and it runs like a dream. :)

[Jimmith]

I'm running dragon age maxed out (except aa, haven't tried that above *2) at 1680*1050 smoothly on a dual core e8400 and a Geforce 8800gt.

I might think of upgrading next summer but not before i think.

[k1000]

It might take advantage of 4 cores, but it certainly doesn't need them. I'm playing DA with everthing maxed, and it runs like a dream. :)

I'm running Dragon Age on my Rig with the specs in the first post @ 1920x1200 , everything maxed and am getting between 55 and 60 FPS.
I'm not sure this game really needs 4 cores to run well...

[jhonywillsh]

Nowadays my project is going in my computer and i have well and good configuration and there are also good anti-virus to prevent any virus.
Then also there is problem sometime due to my work i face visual problem.How it will become remove?