Machine Upgrade for GAMEING

[clok1966]

maybe not the correct forum, but it is the PC gameing forum. I normally upgrade every year or two and am wondering if its time again. Current rig is a 8400 OCed to 4.2, 4gigs of ram and 5870. Really have no issues to speak of with games, but more speed is always nice. Would moving to a I5 or I7 and Oc'ing improve me much? Most benchs dont list older 8400's, and the few I have found dont show much of an improvment in the games (most reviews I seen where older games). I'm not talking any perticualer games, just overall.

Any thoughts? I'm still (honestly) leaning towards waiting as I wont see any huge improvments. But when I upgarded video cards last time I wished I had done it much sooner.



Moved from PC Gaming

Anandtech PC Gaming Moderator
KeithTalent

 

[gorcorps]

The rule I use for GAMING is that I won't spend the money to upgrade until I'm having problems playing the games I want at the resolution I want. If you wait until you see a drop in performance, then what is expensive today will be cheaper and there will be a whole new breed of "top of the line" products. IMO you NEVER lose when waiting to upgrade, especially if you're not having any issues.

 

[zebano]

It really depends on what games you're playing/planning to play. The ones I play are all 1+ years old and not stressful on my system so I make incremental improvements every couple of months (just bought my first SSD).

 

[HeXploiT]

For gaming the fastest i7 system on the market is only going to give you a 20% performance increase over your current setup.
Stick with maximizing what you have until the next platform arrives. Otherwise you'll be spending a great deal of cash now and then again in a year when you're in the same position.

 

[Patrickz0rs]

If you can't spell GAMING correctly, I think I would be worried about other concerns than upgrading my computer.

 

[clok1966]

If you can't spell GAMING correctly, I think I would be worried about other concerns than upgrading my computer.

Yes, sorry, I know you have correctly spelled every post you have made. I tend to type way to fast and do on occasion mix letters around. You may want to go over a few of my older posts, I can pretty much promise you can point out other words I have swapped a letter or two around in, it will give you a warm fuzzy fealing (<oh no>) to correct them. And you forgot to mention that I used upguarding instead of upgradeing. Sorry, hehe, all in fun, but silly waste of a post (mine and yours).

thanks all, I sometimes need to reconfirm what I think with others. I really didnt see any major improvments in the stuff I have read on the net with upgrades. I do agree with the wait a bit and prices will be better mentality. My PC tweeking habit is getting the better of me, 2 years on the same MB and chip is almost killing me sometimes. Reading to many hardware sites and all the new stuff comming out doesnt help.

Zebano, how do you like the SSD? been on the fence, but really thinking about one. I'm interested in real world performance, not benchs.

fealing correctly spelled is feeling.

 

[zebano]

TBH, I really like it as a boot drive because my wife has a bad habit of turning my PC off and it is massively faster. That said, I don't run games from it so I can't comment there. However I do use an OCZ Vertex at work and for building winmobile 6 platforms a blddemo -clean -cleanplat takes half as much time as it previously did which is awesome (the sysgen phase is where most of the real savings is if anyone actually cares about my particular scenario).

Yes, sorry, I know you have correctly spelled every post you have made. I tend to type way to fast and do on occasion mix letters around. You may want to go over a few of my older posts, I can pretty much promise you can point out other words I have swapped a letter or two around in, it will give you a warm fuzzy fealing (<oh no>) to correct them. And you forgot to mention that I used upguarding instead of upgradeing. Sorry, hehe, all in fun, but silly waste of a post (mine and yours).

thanks all, I sometimes need to reconfirm what I think with others. I really didnt see any major improvments in the stuff I have read on the net with upgrades. I do agree with the wait a bit and prices will be better mentality. My PC tweeking habit is getting the better of me, 2 years on the same MB and chip is almost killing me sometimes. Reading to many hardware sites and all the new stuff comming out doesnt help.

Zebano, how do you like the SSD? been on the fence, but really thinking about one. I'm interested in real world performance, not benchs.

fealing correctly spelled is feeling.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Yes, sorry, I know you have correctly spelled every post you have made. I tend to type way to fast and do on occasion mix letters around. You may want to go over a few of my older posts, I can pretty much promise you can point out other words I have swapped a letter or two around in, it will give you a warm fuzzy fealing (<oh no>) to correct them. And you forgot to mention that I used upguarding instead of upgradeing. Sorry, hehe, all in fun, but silly waste of a post (mine and yours).

thanks all, I sometimes need to reconfirm what I think with others. I really didnt see any major improvments in the stuff I have read on the net with upgrades. I do agree with the wait a bit and prices will be better mentality. My PC tweeking habit is getting the better of me, 2 years on the same MB and chip is almost killing me sometimes. Reading to many hardware sites and all the new stuff comming out doesnt help.

Zebano, how do you like the SSD? been on the fence, but really thinking about one. I'm interested in real world performance, not benchs.

fealing correctly spelled is feeling.

Coming only has 1 'm'.
Benches has an 'e' before the 's'.

 

[MisterDonut]

Games don't benefit much from SSD's. And you won't be able to put a lot on one without spending $$$. It does make general usage, opening certain apps, booting, etc. much, much quicker though. Wait for the next platforms. Only gain I can see is minimum frames in certain games, which wouldn't be worth the $400 or so you'd have to pay for new CPU/Mobo/RAM. If you use your computer for everything, SSD might be worth a shot. Otherwise, I'd hold out for the new Intel stuff and hope for a price drop on the current ones they have.

 

[mfenn]

The rule I use for GAMING is that I won't spend the money to upgrade until I'm having problems playing the games I want at the resolution I want. If you wait until you see a drop in performance, then what is expensive today will be cheaper and there will be a whole new breed of "top of the line" products. IMO you NEVER lose when waiting to upgrade, especially if you're not having any issues.

This times a lot.

If your system doesn't feel slow (and your system is not slow by any means), why spend the money?

My philosophy: If you need it, buy it now, if you don't, don't.