My current system served me well since April of 2008 ,now I am looking at upgrade options
System is based on E8400 CPU (no OC), 9600 GT 512 MB GPU, 8 GB RAM, SSD HDD ,GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L MB, Win 7 x64 as OS . Gaming on 25.5 inch monitor at 1920:1200. Not sure about PSU, I think something in the 600-650W range from MicroCenter which I leave close to.
Gaming interests : Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins, Total War (Empire/Napoleon)
Gaming interests 2011: Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2 Total War, Mass Effect 3.
based on reading these forums, my next upgrade is likely to be GPU as I have some overclocking room in E8400 and already have 8 GB of RAM + SSD (both of which I love)
Budget for GPU $150-200, consider low noise to be advantage with performance being near equal.
No interest in either Nvidia 3D or AMD Eyefinity technology
If doing new build altogether, no attachment to either Intel or AMD for CPU
Questions:
1) and what point would GPU from the price range above will start to get constrained by CPU? with/without OC if I bump it up to 3.6 Ghz.
2) any GPU recommendations for the prince range above?
3) any real advantages to doing a new build (given that I have SSD and enough RAM already)?
4) Microcenter sells Q9300 (2.5 Ghz quad with 6 GB RAM) for $99. Any point to consider that an 'upgrade' over E8400?
Thank you for any comments
System is based on E8400 CPU (no OC), 9600 GT 512 MB GPU, 8 GB RAM, SSD HDD ,GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L MB, Win 7 x64 as OS . Gaming on 25.5 inch monitor at 1920:1200. Not sure about PSU, I think something in the 600-650W range from MicroCenter which I leave close to.
Gaming interests : Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age Origins, Total War (Empire/Napoleon)
Gaming interests 2011: Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2 Total War, Mass Effect 3.
based on reading these forums, my next upgrade is likely to be GPU as I have some overclocking room in E8400 and already have 8 GB of RAM + SSD (both of which I love)
Budget for GPU $150-200, consider low noise to be advantage with performance being near equal.
No interest in either Nvidia 3D or AMD Eyefinity technology
If doing new build altogether, no attachment to either Intel or AMD for CPU
Questions:
1) and what point would GPU from the price range above will start to get constrained by CPU? with/without OC if I bump it up to 3.6 Ghz.
2) any GPU recommendations for the prince range above?
3) any real advantages to doing a new build (given that I have SSD and enough RAM already)?
4) Microcenter sells Q9300 (2.5 Ghz quad with 6 GB RAM) for $99. Any point to consider that an 'upgrade' over E8400?
Thank you for any comments