Good enough as is, upgrade now, or wait to upgrade?

[weedundant]

Hi everyone

Seeking advice on what to do with my current computer that I built about 3 years ago. First off, the specs:

Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz
Memory: 4 GB DDR2
Video: VisionTek Radeon HD 4870
Storage: WD 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (x2)
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
(let me know if I left anything pertinent out)

So my question is, with all these new games coming out (BF3 and Skyrim most importantly), how do you think my computer will fare? I haven't paid any attention to new hardware coming out in the last 3 years, so I'm not sure what would be worth upgrading. I know my comp won't perform as good as, say a new i7, but do you think this is pretty good right now?

I was thinking it might be worth it to upgrade to Windows 7 and get a new SSD specifically for that, and I think that would be a fairly cheap upgrade (~$300?), but I'm not sure if my mobo supports it (SATA III right?). The other upgrade I was considering was for the video card, but I really have no idea how my current one compares to newer ones, and how much benefit I would really get from upgrading it.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[inzone]

You didn't list the power supply which is important in upgrading the video card. Your motherboard is not sata3 or usb 3.0. You can get a sata3 SSD if you also have a free x1 slot and want to gat a sata3 addon card for it. As far as the games go there was a review posted in TomsHardware that you should read;

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063.html\

This will be helpful in your decision making for a new video card.

 

[weedundant]

Thanks for the quick reply, I will check out the review. Also my PSU is a Corsair 620W

 

[inanition02]

SATA3 is backwards compatible to SATA2 - so you can use a newer SSD. Also, many SSDs are SATA2...and they are still considerably faster than mechanical HDDs. I have a 60gb SSD SATA2 boot drive - Win7 starts up in <25 sec.

 

[chelu]

Win 7 would be a great update for you. I also think that you can safely overclock your CPU up to around 3.2 GHz with stock cooling and maybe add in a GeForce GTX 560 TI if you want to play BF3 and Skyrim. A SSD wouldn't be a great update for gaming. You didn't mention the resolution you play at.

 

[swifty_morgan]

I wouldn't upgrade the opsys until I was going to replace the entire system. My gamer is a q9550. Your weak link is the video card.

 

[weedundant]

Thanks everyone. So the idea I'm getting is that a new SSD/windows 7 won't really impact gaming that much, but might just be nice in general for regular use. I do have a brand new monitor and would like to play in 1920x1080 if possible, so it sounds like I would most likely need a new video card for this. Is there anything stopping me from getting a new top of the line video card, like either my mobo is too old for it or I should upgrade to 8GB memory first? Any video card recommendations for the best bang for your buck?

Edit: I'm now debating between a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 560Ti, but am not 100% positive my PSU will support them. They say they require a 6-pin connection, but the specs for my PSU doesn't list a 6-pin connection. It does however list 2 x PCI-Express connections, is that the same thing?

 

[swifty_morgan]

pci-e connectors.......... yes 6pin/some are 6-8 pin.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I suggest that the 9550 is reaching the end of its useful life, and would start prep to upgrade to an ivy bridge processor next year