Opinion: Upgrade? (e8400 vs i5 2500k)

[internetlad]

Story: I've had parts trickling in one at a time over the past few months for a new build. (little stuff, peripherals, new SSD, mainly interchangable stuff between my last gen board and the current gen) I've finally been able to convince my wife to let me spend the main chunk of the upgrade and i'm currently looking at the i5 2500k (the general concensus is that it's an absolute beast for the $210 you pay) an Asus P8Z68-V and a general 50 dollar kit of RAM (8G, 1600 mhz, 9-9-9-24 probably, brand isn't an issue, I think Corsair Dominator was what I had finally dumped in my cart due to it being the lowest price for the most recognizable name.)

After all is said and done, 450 is about where this is coming out to, the only problem is that i'm not sure if I NEED this upgrade, I'm not looking to play any hardware-crushing titles besides skyrim, and that's still a couple months away. Video-wise i'm currently running a Sapphire 4870 1Gb, outdated but still solid, just like the rest of my machine.

ATM I'm hooked on Nuclear Dawn, which isn't a graphics or processing beast by any means, and even if I had to play Skyrim at lower settings I probably wouldn't be bothered.

tl;dr Upgrading from an e8400 4G DDR2 to a i5 2500k 8G DDR3 for $450, Worth it?

Side note: Asus P8z68-V vs P8Z68 PRO vs P8Z68 DELUXE Vs other comparable boards from other brands (i've used asus in the past and it's run solid for years, so it's got an edge there.)

Edit: Is it generally speculated that bulldozer will cause a price drop on SB cores? is SB-E/X79 really worth waiting for?
I've been putting this upgrade off for a long while now waiting for a game changer and I haven't seen it for almost a year.

 

[abekl]

The Intel price roadmap doesn't show any price drops on SB CPUs in the near future, so I wouldn't wait based on that. Sounds like you just need some convincing to go ahead and spend the money, and while that's easy for me to do, you really have to ask yourself whether you need the upgrade.

 

[internetlad]

Thanks for the info about the intel price drops , other than that pretty much hit the nail on the head, The big thing for me is that I don't think I'll see 450 dollars worth of performance increase from what i'm doing with my computer. Like I said, i'm playing a source-engine based game, and then doing general internet stuff (social networking, time waster flash games)

Even my current, outdated machine is fairly overpowered for the stuff i'm doing right now. I know that the stuff i'm suggesting would, performance wise, blow my current machine out of the water, but I guess I can't really think of anything I'd use it for besides bragging rights.

Obviously i'd like to play the hottest new releases at max settings, but i'm not really sure if that's worth 450 dollars. I guess that's a personal preference, as there are people who have no issue tossing their old card on ebay to sell for 1/8 what they paid for it and shell out 350 bucks when a new card comes on the market, and it's not that money is an issue here.

General computer usage (Windows, Internet etc.) probably wouldn't be too affected by the new core and RAM, I wouldn't think. I mean it would be there but probably not noticable over the e8400.

 

[internetlad]

I just remembered that my wife was looking to play Arkham City, I know that's sandbox, any clues how that'd fare on my current system (it meets the minimum specs but that never means much)

 

[internetlad]

I guess another number to factor into it would be that I was approached by my Father in law to build him a 400 dollar computer. After getting him a 40ish dollar case, a 650w Antec Greenwatts and a windows product key, I was willing to offer him 200 dollars for my old parts to put into it as well, which is right around where they'd be if you got them off e-bay. It sweetens the pot considerably if i'm only paying (upgrade) 250 for these parts. Is that number a solid point where you would be stupid not to upgrade?