Upgrade or new build?

[TheVanillaChinchilla]

Here is my situation. Lately I have noticed my computer is a lot slower than it used to be and I desperately want to speed it up some. Should I try to upgrade the one i have or bite the bullet and buy a whole new one.

My current setup (from memory) is ASUS Striker II LGA775 mobo, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, 4GB of basic Corsair RAM, EVGA GeForce 9600 or 9800 GTS graphics card, PC power and cooling 750W power supply, 500GB WD HD.

Everything above was purchased about 3-4 years ago. My harddrive is only half full and while playing games, if I remember correctly, my CPU is running at around 75% capacity. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[inzone]

If you went the new build route what would be your udget?
If you wanted to try and get every last bit of usefullness out of whaot you have then you would have to overclock the cpu and video card , knowing that your headed for a new build anyway you could crank those up to thier limit and see what you can get out of them.
Sometimes a fresh install of windows can give you a boost in performance , are you running Windows 7?
So your alternate route would be a fresh install of Windwos and overclocking. That would give you some time to save for a new computer and check out what you might want to go with for parts.

 

[popatim]

yeah, reinstall the os & driver.
but, imo, its a good time to sell that system while the core2quads are still selling good.

 

[TheVanillaChinchilla]

Thanks for the quick replies... Sorry for my ignorance ahead of time but I have been out of the gaming community for a couple of years now. I believe I have Vista 64bit and I'm not even sure how to reinstall the OS & driver. My budget would be around 1200 for a complete rebuild and i definitely dont have a GTX card so it must be the 9600 GT (i can check when i get home.) Im just trying to find the cheapest, most efficient route to take keeping in mind I want to be able to run games at max settings.

Also how much are Quad cores going for used as i never thought about selling what i have to help finance the new build.

 

[inzone]

A good idea is to go on E-bay and see what people are getting for them and that would tell you what you can get.
For $1200 you could get a real nice gaming rig and are you ok with building it yourself or do you want a prebuilt.

 

[inzone]

COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

LG DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS90 - OEM
$17.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136247

Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i53570
$214.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115233

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+ $34.99 and a $5 rebate makes the final price $29.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-8GAB $56.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231550

ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$149.99 and a $20 rebate makes the final price $129.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837

SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $86.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096

MSI N660Ti PE 2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $299.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127697

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128B/WW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $118.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

The total for thid build comes to $1225.89 and includes the OS (Win 7) and a SSD for the OS to boost performance.