Upgrading Dilemma

[dudeman007]

I am thinking/saving to upgrade my old e4300 and P965 motherboard and it seems to me that the i7 is probably the way to go , considering i dont upgrade often.
I mainly do gaming *bf1943 and Star wars online are the first games that come to my mind.


when i think about those 250ish bucks for the cpu + 220 for a MB+ 70 for RAM + some 45ish for a fan , i realize thats like 600 bucks i have to throw in.

I know the price will only go down and i will be ready to pull the trigger last week of july.

I was wondering if theres a non-i7 build i should consider ?

Anyone on the same page?

the rest of my stuff is a gtx260 216 and a 24inch monitor.
smilodon case<- no the coolest one but it does the job.
Enermax liberty 500w psu.

i guess i can spend around 450 without a problem.
I know i can get an upgrade for alot less and i know it kinda silly to look for prices 2 months in advance but ive been waiting for their prices to come down and they just wont( i know Microcenter had i7 for 199 and then ewiz the x58 and some cheap ram for like 210


any input help , bump , bashing/trashing is welcome

 

[fffblackmage]

If you're looking for a quad core, perhaps the PhII x4 could be an alternative? The PhII 940BE is $190 at the egg and an AMD 790 based mobo cost around $100.

 

[jkresh]

looking this early is kind of silly, prices will continue to fall, but having moved from a q6600 (at 3.6ghz) to a 920 (still working on final oc somewhere between 3.6 and 4 seems likely), I can say that the i7 is a major upgrade and I wouldn't spend a lot of money on anything else right now (though if price is really an issue and you don't oc much then a phII might make sense)

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: dudeman007
I am thinking/saving to upgrade my old e4300 and P965 motherboard and it seems to me that the i7 is probably the way to go , considering i dont upgrade often.
I mainly do gaming *bf1943 and Star wars online are the first games that come to my mind.


when i think about those 250ish bucks for the cpu + 220 for a MB+ 70 for RAM + some 45ish for a fan , i realize thats like 600 bucks i have to throw in.

I know the price will only go down and i will be ready to pull the trigger last week of july.

I was wondering if theres a non-i7 build i should consider ?

Anyone on the same page?

the rest of my stuff is a gtx260 216 and a 24inch monitor.
smilodon case<- no the coolest one but it does the job.
Enermax liberty 500w psu.

i guess i can spend around 450 without a problem.
I know i can get an upgrade for alot less and i know it kinda silly to look for prices 2 months in advance but ive been waiting for their prices to come down and they just wont( i know Microcenter had i7 for 199 and then ewiz the x58 and some cheap ram for like 210


any input help , bump , bashing/trashing is welcome

If your gonna upgrade your GPU anytime soon, or even add another one for SLI, your gonna need a new psu as well.

Also, if your gonna SLI, the i7 is highly recomended as it handles multi gpu platforms very nicely.

And if your lucky and you get a D0, you may want to consider an after market heat sink to unlock that chips true potiential, so your figures are underflated. :X

Is it worth it? That question can only be answered by the owner on a case by case basis. If you ask me, there is no single Chip Amd machine (even with overclock) in the world with 24/7 settings that would keep up with Haruhi or even my secondary Miyuki.

 

[Denithor]

PhII 940 $190
XFX 750a SLI $130 - $30MIR
G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-1066 $50
EVGA GTX 260/216 $185 - $25MIR (+free CoD:WaW)

Total: $555 - $55 = $500 shipped

That will give you a major improvement in your gaming experience. Much more so than just upgrading to an i7 and running a single GTX 260.

I would second the recommendation for a new PSU: Corsair 650TX is a very capable model for $80AR.

 

[Munky]

Are you upgrading because your current system can no longer provide playable fps in games? It seems like your system is good enough to play any game out there, especially if you're overclocking that cpu. I'm not sure if your mobo supports Core2 Quads, but if it does, that would be the most logical upgrade on a limited budget. Just don't skimp out on the L2 cache, it makes a difference in games.

If money matters, then forget the i7. If you aren't going for sli/crossfire, then forget the i7 too. Another good alternative is a triple-core Phenom2, it's just as fast as a quad in most games, particularly with a single gpu.

 

[dudeman007]

well my pc is 2 years old , one thing i didnt mention that i will be in the US in july.
the good thing is that i can sell my stuff for a better price because everything is alot more expensive here.
i guess i can pull out around 210ish bucks for the mobo+cpu+ram+powersupply combo.

The i7 Sli support seems nice, i didnt consider sli at all.

I really dont need to have the ultimate pc , i considered i7 because i guess that will last longer.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: dudeman007

I really dont need to have the ultimate pc , i considered i7 because i guess that will last longer.

i7 manditory if your looking at future.

i7 has multi card support, meaning it can do SLI and Xfire.

Only thing is look at a good PSU please. Around 700W+ class for sli requirements. Make sure the PSU is more then 100 dolars also, and its a quality PSU.

Look at your psu forum if you need recmoendations.