Should I Upgrade - Please Advice!

[Sam25]

Hello

I am thinking about upgrading my rig but I'm unsure whether I should or not. My present PC specs are as follows:

AMD Phenom II X 4 940 BE
TRUE Black [Push-Pull]
Asus M4A78-EM/1394 Motherboard
6 GB Corsair XMS2
Powercolor HD 5850
Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 60 GB SSD
Asus Xonar DX
2.5 TB HDD
Corsair VX 550 PSU
Lian Li A70F Full Tower case

Now, I was planning to change the processor to an Intel Sandy Bridge i5 2400 and the motherboard to a Asus P8H67M or a Gigabyte P67A-UD3R. Memory will be 4 GB XMS3 for now and later on I might upgrade to better sticks of RAM.

Is this upgrade really worth it? Will it bring about a huge change in the overall computing experience over my current rig? As PC usage goes, I'm the occasional gamer these days (mainly due to more work pressure at office) and other usage is general surfing, music and the like.

Please advice. Thanks!

- Sam25

 

[mnewsham]

With your current setup i say wait for Bulldozer or wait for ivy bridge.

 

[Denithor]

Wait.

You've got a solid, well-balanced system there. If you haven't, consider overclocking that processor a bit and just leave it alone.

Especially for general surfing and music, you won't notice any difference at all...

 

[Vette73]

Wait.

I have a 775 intel system and it does what I want.

I would wait till later this year after BD has come out and Ivy is near enough to see what it may offer.

 

[Rifter]

Wait. Even though i upgraded to system in sig from a AMD 940, i still say wait

 

[Edrick]

Upgrade.

You can play the waiting game forever if you let yourself. If you need it get it. If are able to wait, then you don't really need it.

 

[mnewsham]

Upgrade.

You can play the waiting game forever if you let yourself. If you need it get it. If are able to wait, then you don't really need it.

In my opinion he wouldn’t see very many gains from going to Sandy Bridge. At most he might see a few FPS boost in games. The most I would upgrade on that system at the moment is a newer GPU, but TBH his current GPU is good for almost any game (@1080p) at medium settings for the next year or so. It is in my opinion that waiting for Ivy Bridge in late 2011 or early 2012 would behoove him greatly. He could then do a full upgrade of GPU and CPU and see the most gains. He has a good CPU and a decent GPU, AND an SSD already there is no real need to upgrade now.

 

[Edrick]

In my opinion he wouldn’t see very many gains from going to Sandy Bridge. At most he might see a few FPS boost in games. The most I would upgrade on that system at the moment is a newer GPU, but TBH his current GPU is good for almost any game (@1080p) at medium settings for the next year or so. It is in my opinion that waiting for Ivy Bridge in late 2011 or early 2012 would behoove him greatly. He could then do a full upgrade of GPU and CPU and see the most gains. He has a good CPU and a decent GPU, AND an SSD already there is no real need to upgrade now.

True. And I agree. But if he wants to upgrade, then he should upgrade. He clearly does not NEED to. But WANT and NEED are very different things.

If you NEED to upgrade, that usually means you can not wait.
If you WANT to upgrade, that means you are the luxury of waiting.

These "should I upgrade" threads are just dumb in my opinion. If you have the money and want to upgrade all the time, then do it. If you have to upgrade to do what you need to do with your computer, then upgrade. If you like to wait, then wait. It is not rocket science.

 

[mnewsham]

True. And I agree. But if he wants to upgrade, then he should upgrade. He clearly does not NEED to. But WANT and NEED are very different things.

If you NEED to upgrade, that usually means you can not wait.
If you WANT to upgrade, that means you are the luxury of waiting.

These "should I upgrade" threads are just dumb in my opinion. If you have the money and want to upgrade all the time, then do it. If you have to upgrade to do what you need to do with your computer, then upgrade. If you like to wait, then wait. It is not rocket science.

Yes but for the less informed populace they might want a second opinion when possibly spending hundreds or even thousands of THEIR hard earned money. Ofcourse if you have the money right now you CAN upgrade. That doesnt mean you SHOULD. If i wanted to upgrade my P4 2.8GHZ the day before sandy bridge released to a socket 1156 i5-760 i would feel pretty damn stupid the next day. Informing the OP to wait for the next thing to come out makes sense for him as he is already running a fairly high powered computer, it has more then enough CPU and GPU power for nearly any home task, and again most games can run at 1920x1080 with his setup at medium/high detail settings. If he were lacking an SSD i would have suggested that as an upgrade in lieu of a complete overhaul.

 

[Vdubchaos]

If there is a need (which is ONLY defined by you) then upgrade.

If there isn't one, don't.

Simple as that, I would never upgrade for the sake of upgrading. Sure I love building PCs and selecting hardware....it just sucks when everything is up and running and you sit there and ask yourself "why did I just spend 600-1000 for this PC over the one I had?"

 

[dpodblood]

I would hold off. If you were doing heavy gaming I would say go ahead, but just for general desktop use you aren't going to see a lot of improvement.

 

[veri745]

Wait + 1,

You're not going to see massive gains in performance for any reasonable amount of money (<$1000) compared to the system you currently have.

Overclock the CPU if you haven't already

 

[Mopetar]

If you're not running any games that struggle on the system, there's no reason to upgrade right now if you're not using it for anything beyond the occasional game or general web surfing.

Sure you could get a faster rig, but it's not going to be something that you'll notice. Even after BD and IV come out, if you're not running a game that's stressing the system pouring money into an upgrade would be fairly pointless. Put the money aside and save up until you do need something new. Honestly, I wouldn't put a system together until AMD and Nvidia's 28nm cards show up.

 

[Morg.]

I would say hold on to your cash, the next big wave is coming anyway.
On the other hand, if you do really want to upgrade, get a good cpu like an i7-2600k and OC it to death - because honestly the upgrade you were planning is going to be a waste of money.
Plus with that you'd like 3 Channel DDR3 .. and if you don't change your GPU it's pointless to change anything.

As some others said, OC the shit out of that Phenom II and wait for a real change in the CPU market that will drop the prices / get you something that really is better.

 

[Black96ws6]

You are GPU-limited in games with that setup, not CPU.

Spend the money on a better GPU if you're not satisfied to see the biggest gains.

And if you most upgrade now, get at least a 2500k...best bang for the buck...

 

[nyker96]

wait. you next upgrade should be to something much faster. I'd say Bulldozer/8core or Ivy Bridge to make it worth your while. unless you got money and don't care, then just buy a 2500k.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Don't bother upgrading until your PC feels too slow or wait for a component die to use that as an excuse.

 

[fire400]

sell your old parts and do a swap with parts you want to keep.

obviously you wouldn't be considering this if you didn't have the cash.

new generation of parts come out, sell and swap, it's the enthusiast way of keeping up with the trends.

if having fun upgrading isn't going to add to your happiness, then forget it.

 

[Vidman]

I don't like jumping in on first gen cpus/chipsets. You're gonna pay full freight for them and most of the time the 2nd revisions are better and cheaper. With what you have, I'd let the fanboys shake out the new stuff first and then pick/choose.

 

[taltamir]

These "should I upgrade" threads are just dumb in my opinion. If you have the money and want to upgrade all the time, then do it. If you have to upgrade to do what you need to do with your computer, then upgrade. If you like to wait, then wait. It is not rocket science.

I always wondered why people even bother listing their current system... and yet never tell us how much disposable income they have.

Upgrading is something you do when the money spent on it seems "worthwhile" to you. This is, to some degree, a function of your current speed. But the biggest aspect of it is how much money you currently have to burn on your hobby.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I say wait too. Upgrading to an i5-2400 would be weak. If you're going to upgrade, make it a substantial upgrade. Go Bulldozer or 6-core Sandy Bridge coming out later in the year.

 

[pitz]

I moved from a Phenom II X2 550 / Asus M4A78T-E to a Sandy Bridge i7-2600 with H67 motherboard. Don't use graphics on either board (mostly remotely accessed). The difference in performance is impressive, especially for VMs.

I was able to sell my old gear for good money. So going to SB only cost me a little. I suspect the issue with you is similar; if you can sell your existing mobo/CPU for decent $$$, then going to an i5-2500 or i7-2600 is probably well worth the money. But if you're stuck with the existing gear or are forced to sell at a massive discount, then its probably not worth upgrading yet.

 

[BD231]

sell your old parts and do a swap with parts you want to keep.

This is a great tip if you know how to sell/trade your parts. That being said I wouldn't consider anything less than a 2500k on a 4ghz oc or better to replace a quad like yours.

 

[T101]

I can only say that going from a Q6600 @ 3Ghz to a Core i7 2600k made a big difference in games, and when it comes to general use, compression of files, video compression, 3d rendering, or just plain multitasking, the difference is huge. If you dont game, or dont do video/3d rendering, etc. Then I dont see much reason to upgrade from what you have now.