hi,

I recently upgraded my dell e510 for better gaming performance for just under a couple hundred dollars. i went from P4 3ghz HT, 1GB RAM, Radeon x600 (what a lame card btw) to a P4 3ghz HT, 3GB RAM, Nvidia 8600 GTS. Im actually really impressed on the whole, for example the call of duty 4 demo runs at 1280 on high settings completely smooth, ut3 demo runs at 1024 on high smooth, quake wars is maxed out on 1280 smooth as is cnc3, and all old games run awesome. but i also have a few worries, world in conflict doesnt run that great 1024 on medium/high runs okish and doesnt look that awesome, nor does Company of Heroes when u change the camera around, neither does the crysis demo which runs pathetic tbh (yea im sure it takes more than a $200 upgrade to get that game working anywhere near good). anyway, i know that world in conflict and especially crysis take advantage of multiple cores. so these are my questions:

1. would upgrading to a Pentium D make a big difference on games that take advantage of multiple cores? is it worth it or not?

2. although it may seem i want maxed out gaming i dont (im sure crysis requirements are a year ahead of other games anyway right?), im just trying to get an idea if ill be futureproof for mid range gaming til the end of next year?

P.S im limited to Pentium D's on my e510 (and that might not even work properly so ive heard), also a new system with a core 2 duo is out of my price range for now so that doesnt help me. i could spend $150 on a Pentium D if its worth bothering with or if its probably better to live with the p4 til the end of next year.

Don't type thread titles in all Caps ... Jake.

Live with the P4.

Those 2 games that your having problems with are very hard on even better systems, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I would save your $150 and put that towards a cheap C2D system. You could get a e2160, 2 gig's DDR2, mobo and transfer most everything over to it for about $225 or so, depending on if your deal with MIR's. So if you have some more $ to spend you could get more performance with a cheaper Intel build. You could also get an AMD rig that would be about $30 or so cheaper, but wouldn't OC as well as the Intel build.

thanks guys. ill combine ur answers. ill stick with the p4 and i think ill hold off til next christmas then get a C2D system. i just upgraded and overall am really pleased. im aware crysis requires super specs. and i doubt thats gonna be the standard requirements of games for a while. i just wanted to know if more than likely the p4 can hold til the end of next year and not balls up new games coming out in 08?