Upgrade or wait?

[mattyboyywonder]

Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.6 GHz) OC'D
RAM: Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200 RPM
Graphics Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 1GB
Cd/DVD Drive: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner
Power Supply: CORSAIR 750W

Those are my specs but i dont now whether to upgrade? Is there anything worth waiting for? This setup up plays all my games on the highest settings (DOW2, Bad Company 2, Starcraft 2). The reason i though id upgrade is that my parts (CPU, GPU, memory and mobo) all have a salvageable value. I will upgrade before battlefield 3 so is it worth doing it now or later?

 

[ethel]

Now the sandybridges are out (and good value) it might be worth upgrading and you would probably see some benefit from 2500K / 2600K cores.

You could even keep your graphics card for now and splash on that later, but there are also some great deals around on those too (e.g. gtx560 / HD5950).

You might also consider an SSD for your system drive as your PC will then boot up Windows and Apps nice and fast.

 

[mattyboyywonder]

Any other input?

 

[themarin8r]

I would personally wait if you are happy with the performance it has now. If you upgrade now, you will miss out on new tech before BF3 comes out. New AMD Chips and Graphics are coming out, and I am sure Intel and Nvidia will have new offerings or lower prices by then.

 

[RetiredChief]

I'd say Scratch that itch a little longer before upgrading cpu/MB.
On current system I'd only upgrade components that would cary over to new system ie GPU and as ethel suggested a SSD.

(1) New intel chipset Z68 coming out shortly, Alittle further out (maybe 9 Mon -> 1 yr, Ivybridge (hopefully Intel supported USB3/Sata III vs added on marvel support), and BD.

(2) On SSD. The biggest single Bottleneck on a system is the HDD. I've upgraded both my laptops and my desktop to SSDs - What a diff in overall performance (Not really a boost to gaming). Recommend you buy a SATA III SSD (not C300). Min size 80 gigs, recommend 100 -> 120 gig (if deep pockets go for the 200 gig catagory). You would have to either (A) use on SATA II (Would not get full performance, but close on random 4K read/writes) or (B) buy a pci-e card for SATA III. A major player for this card, Asus, I think have discontinued the U3S6 card in hopes of boosting people upgrading their MB - Shame on Them. Luckly I go one when they first came out for my P55-UD4P MB.

 

[mattyboyywonder]

I mean it'll only be sata II until I upgrade the board.

 

[dan4patriots]

I would wait for Z68, in the meantime you have a great rig

 

[mattyboyywonder]

Best answer selected by mattyboyywonder.