What Upgrade Path to Choose

[davito92]

I was just wondering, what would be the best upgrade path for me? I'm on a tight budget (but I could save), so my choices are limited, leading me here to ask what you guys think would be the better path.

I have a C2D E6400 clocked at 2.8Ghz, 9600GT and a Gigabyte 965P-S3 Mobo.

I was thinking of a few diff paths:
-Buy a new Mobo w/ DDR3 and Crossfire, 4GB RAM and support for 45nm. Then I could buy a Quad Core when I got more cash. Then I could later upgrade the Mobo to 1156 Socket and CPU later when price comes down a bit, and transfer the RAM and have a spare decent spec PC for HTPC/Server/etc use.
-Move to an AMD X3 or X4 when I can afford it (is it that much cheaper?), and go from there, or
-Just wait for 6-12 months and just buy a whole new i5 or i7 1156 system?

Would my money be better saved or spent now. I could get the mobo and ram in a week or so, or should I just wait?

And with the 9600GT, would it be worth buying another and getting an SLI board instead of Crossfire? I really like the idea of buying a half decent ATI 5xxx card then adding another when I get the money, but would like to get use out of the 9600GT.

Any insight would be awesome, and sorry for such a confusing question.

EDIT: I forgot to say that I'm an Aussie, so pricing is different. Thats my main issue with using the advice on this site, its hard to tell price : performance and the like.

 

[Lmeow]

Well, in a year's time there will be a new AMD architecture which you might want to hold off. I suggest you buy a Phenom II X3/X4 and motherboard combo, as well as DDR3 RAM if you do get an AM3 board (A Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Black Edition OEM with aftermarket cooler costs ~ $100, a motherboard $100, and 4GB RAM $100, generally speaking. I reckon the GeForce 9600 GT is still a pretty good card, you'd need to buy an ATi Radeon HD 5670 or above to see a noticeable performance increase.

 

[asteldian]

I would spend the money on a decent ATI card now, that should help with performance in games currently, and regardless of architecture changes for CPU in the next year, the card can be transferd when you build a new machine.

 

[davito92]

I suggest you buy a Phenom II X3/X4 and motherboard combo, as well as DDR3 RAM if you do get an AM3 board (A Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Black Edition OEM with aftermarket cooler costs ~ $100, a motherboard $100, and 4GB RAM $100, generally speaking. I reckon the GeForce 9600 GT is still a pretty good card, you'd need to buy an ATi Radeon HD 5670 or above to see a noticeable performance increase.

Well the X3 720 is out of the question for me, with it at about $160USD here, but I can get the Mobo and Ram for about $170USD and a X4 925 w/ aft cooler for $200USD.

I agree with the 9600GT. A very decent card, and I use cuda Badaboom for encoding, so I want it until I get a decent CPU before swapping to ATI.

 

[davito92]

Cool, I'm decided. AM3, here I come!

 

[davito92]

Best answer selected by davito92.