Should I upgrade from my Core 2 Quad set-up?

[xcvtop]

My system is as followed, core 2 quad q9400 oc'd 3.3, 8gb OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Reaper memory oc'd, MSI P43T-C51 Mobo, MSI R6970 Lightning, Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W and 3 Hard drives. I feel like i should wait till the end of this year as im very interested in what AMD do with Piledriver and see the performance benifits of Ivy Bridge over Sandybridge. Right now I get good fram rates in all games i play BF3, DIRT 3, MW2, FIFA 12, BRINK, APB RELOADED etc etc... but my friend recently got an Alienware pc and he has used my PC and has said to me that I do not understand how fast it is compared to mine. So my question is should i upgrade or wait?

bdw i live in the UK and my budget is around £1200 and i will be keeping my Graphics Card as it is a beast

 

[13thmonkey]

if you are getting good frames then only upgrade if you have the urge to build
If you have just spent a lot of money on a branded machine then you'd also say it was awesome .

You'll get a big bump from an SSD, in terms of feel, they are great.

At the moment you could get increased smoothness (maybe not frames) by going 2500K, so that + mobo + 16GB = £350ish.
+ 128GB SSD, perhaps in cache mode, add £120.

Well under budget. But I'd say wait for IVB, its only 10weeks away.

 

[xcvtop]

ok i have been reading alot about AMD Piledriver and there claim that it will be 10%-15% faster then bulldozer and that should help to close the gap on Intel, what do you think about Piledrivers potential and should i wait for that?

also as with my core 2 quad i always go for the top with processor as i do alot of music production aswell will the hyper threading in the i7 offer benifits over the i5?

 

[13thmonkey]

i'm really sorry to say that 10-15% better than middling performance is just OK performance.

Your quad wasn't top of range as far as I am aware, would not really be able to comment on hyperthreading on audio other than to say, given that its effectively 2 threads on one core i'd suggest that its not great, as surely 1 core 1 thread is better for audio so that its more consistently available.

Scount out some audio builds from companies and see if they are happy with the i5, the i7 is drop in, but given the cost and your budget, why not.

Sorry if its a bit rambly.

 

[xcvtop]

ok thanks for the quick reply, i will take it all on board was really hoping that AMD would pull their finger out and really do something special but it seems they are still far behind.

appreciate your help