Is it time to upgrade?

[PascalT]

Hey guys (and girls),

I haven't been up to speed in the latest hardware for 3-4 years now. My computer has been pretty steady and powerful enough but lately I have noticed that when running multiple applications, one in perticular uses a large database, it has been laggy and overall not performing well. I mostly use the computer to play poker (multiple softwares running consistently) and some photo editing (Raw files). The poker software is very CPU intensive. My cpu usage spikes to 90-92% when using it.

So I am wondering, would a solid mid/high rig from today improve my performance enough to justify a $1,000 expense? I would be looking at a new cpu, 16gb of memory and a new motherboard. It use to be that new upgrades would improve performance in multiples but these days I am not sure.

thanks

Specs:
Intel Q9450 (no oc)
DFI p95 bloodiron
8gb of memory (forgot speeds)
2x SSD
Windows 7

Buying from: Canada

Parts I would re-use: Casing, OCZ PowerStream PSU, 2x SSD, HDD, Nvidia GT4600 (not sure on the # but I don't game)

 

[frozentundra123456]

Hey guys (and girls),

I haven't been up to speed in the latest hardware for 3-4 years now. My computer has been pretty steady and powerful enough but lately I have noticed that when running multiple applications, one in perticular uses a large database, it has been laggy and overall not performing well. I mostly use the computer to play poker (multiple softwares running consistently) and some photo editing (Raw files). The poker software is very CPU intensive. My cpu usage spikes to 90-92% when using it.

So I am wondering, would a solid mid/high rig from today improve my performance enough to justify a $1,000 expense? I would be looking at a new cpu, 16gb of memory and a new motherboard. It use to be that new upgrades would improve performance in multiples but these days I am not sure.

thanks

Specs:
Intel Q9450 (no oc)
DFI p95 bloodiron
8gb of memory (forgot speeds)
2x SSD
Windows 7

Buying from: Canada

Parts I would re-use: Casing, OCZ PowerStream PSU, 2x SSD, HDD, Nvidia GT4600 (not sure on the # but I don't game)

The Q9450 is 2.66 ghz while something like an i5 3570 is 3.4 ghz, about 30% faster clockspeed and faster per clock as well. So if your apps are CPU limited, I would think you could get about 50% faster, and even more if you build it yourself and overclock.

Whether it is "worth it" to you is a value decision on your part I guess. I would say though that unless you are going from dual core to quad or something like that, the days of doubling performance with each upgrade are unfortunately over. And Haswell will be only a moderate improvement over Ivy, so I see no reason to wait.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Why don't you overclock it and see if a faster processing speed will cure things? If it does so then there is part of your answer to "would a solid mid/high rig from today improve my performance enough to justify a $1,000 expense?"

How is the reliability of those SSDs?

 

[mfenn]

The Q9450 is 2.66 ghz while something like an i5 3570 is 3.4 ghz, about 30% faster clockspeed and faster per clock as well. So if your apps are CPU limited, I would think you could get about 50% faster, and even more if you build it yourself and overclock.

Whether it is "worth it" to you is a value decision on your part I guess. I would say though that unless you are going from dual core to quad or something like that, the days of doubling performance with each upgrade are unfortunately over. And Haswell will be only a moderate improvement over Ivy, so I see no reason to wait.

:thumbsup: to this. Is 50% faster worth the ~$400 it would cost? That's up to you. We can certainly put together a build for you if it turns out that the answer is yes.