PC Upgrade Help!

Basic Specs on Current System

DG33FB Motherboard
Dualcore E6850 Processor
8800 GT 512 Graphics Card
2 x 2gb DDR2 800 Ram
Windows 7 32 Bit

Not looking to replace the MOBO quite yet but looking for better gaming performance without spending too much.


What would be the best bang for the buck things to look at GPU/CPU wise?

How much are you looking to spend?

Personally I wouldn't buy a brand new CPU for a socket Intel has discontinued, although if you can get a cheap second hand quad core it might be worth it.

Video cards is another story since you can take them to a new motherboard later and even current midrange cards (eg HD 5770 and GTX 460) will be significantly faster.

Was wanting to stay $200 or under...figured that would be a stretch for both items and replacing something that I can move to the new computer whenever that happens makes sense.

The HD5770 and above seem like a great place to start!

Any chance to get a used quad core for around $100 that would be a decent upgrade to my E6850? Is Ebay the best place to look for used processors or are thier other/better avenues for that?

I have never looked much into OC'ing but maybe that is a good solution to milk what I can out of my current proc and spend my money on video card.

Anyone know some good OC forums where I could get my feet wet?

Theres no point upgrading your CPU if your only going for the HD5770. You won't see any extra gaming performance going with a quad core.

@Fire
Not changing voltages? Ha, good luck OCing past 20%.

Heres a bit of a guide:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] king-guide

Do you already have an aftermarket cooler?