Best bang for buck gpu and cpu upgrade?

[jonnyd]

hi there been out of the upgrade game for some while having put together my system 2 years ago and coasted a bit, not really paying attention to the advances etc

now looking for my best bang for buck upgrade for around £300

Current setup is

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.33GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Corsair HX 620W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-620HXUK)

Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black


Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)

Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

GeIL Black Dragon 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz DDR2 Dual Channel (GB22GB8500C5DC)


With that cooler I have got the CPU running at 3.10GHZ no problems so my question is what would be the best cpu and gpu upgrade I could make for around that price?

So far I have been looking around and considering the:

XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express for £150
which supposedly has comparable performance to a 280

and then I'm at a loss for new CPU. Given that Core2duo's still seem to be as good as quads for gaming, and im not looking to update the whole motherboard to go i7 what would you suggest?

Main aim is to have a system thats going to handle Modernwarfare 2 on a 22" monitor at good/high graphics detail with no fps loss.

cheers in advance for any opinions!

 

[tecmo34]

You have two options... IMO ... spend all the money on a GPU... or CPU and GPU upgrade...

GPU Only Upgrade Path:
BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Terminator Salvation PC Game)(£234.99)
WAIT for the DX11 Cards to be Released!! The cards will be out before or at the same time as the release of COD ModernWarfare 2. These cards will out perform the current cards I've listed in both sections... Running your CPU at 3.10GHz is a good number for gaming, so you'll see a bigger impact with a DX11 card when they come out.

CPU & GPU Upgrade Path:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.16GHz (1333FSB) - Retail (£137.99)
XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Terminator Salvation PC Game)(£149.99)

 

[jonnyd]

thanks for the reply, do you reckon that new CPU would offer better increases ie. if i got it to 4ghz to make it worthwhile or would you put all the money into the GPU?

 

[xaira]

from the looks of it the 6550 at 3.0 should be sufficient the real gains will be seen with the gtx285