Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Upgrade question
Hey guys I have a quick question. I'm thinking about upgrading my current processor (Core 2 duo overclocked to 3.2ghz) to a Core 2 Quad, but the top of the line Core 2 quad costs around $300. Seems a little high for an older chip, I can get an i7 Motherboard processor combo from new egg for the same price. what do you guys think? get a whole new MB and processor or just upgrade my current board?
The rest of my box is pretty solid.
Comments
I'm pretty sure you'd have to get a new motherboard... I usually do anyways when i upgrade because somehow they always make them run faster or add new doodads to them that make them run better.
Unless its the same processor type.. or the motherboard supports multiple processors gonna need a new board.
Could overclock it till it burns out i suppose.. maybe prices will drop in a few months
I wouldn't spend more on a older generation chip than you can get a latest generation chip for, but that's just me. I would hold out until I could afford the motherboard/CPU together, and look at a i5 2500 with a good P67 motherboard - that wouldn't be much more than $300 together.
Older generation chips don't get any cheaper to produce because they don't really stay in high enough volumes to keep costs down. Intel and other companies many keep making them for systems which require compatibility - like 5-year supply contracts for server vendors, 10-year maintenance contracts for defense buyers, etc. Heck, there is still a contract to provide 8080 CPU's, so you can still buy those if you need, but you can be sure they aren't going to come at a big discount just because they are old and slow: if anything they are massively marked up just for the reason that Intel needs to keep them on hand and retain the ability to produce them.
*edit* now if you can find one on ebay/craigslist for cheap cheap and it fits your current motherboard, then that's a different story...
Coincidentally, no need to spend so much on a cpu for gaming. Anything around $199 will do. If ur building in a few eeks, grab an AMD am3+ board, as the new 6-core Bulldozer is comming out next month. Great time to jump on a brand new platform.
"No they are not charity. That is where the whales come in. (I play for free. Whales pays.) Devs get a business. That is how it works."
-Nariusseldon
Depends what you use the PC for. Personally, I wouldn't do anything. Keep the $300 in your account, save $60/month for the next 12 months and then drop $1000 on a whole new build next summer. Tell us what you do with the PC and list out your specs and we can help guide you more.
Current set up:
Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case
ASUS P5N-D
Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 overclocked to 3.25 ghz
4 gig of DDR2
GTX 460
Corsair TX750 psu
Vista 64
System runs good but I want to be able to run SWTOR in high quality, it doesn't seem like its going to be a hard game to run. My Case, V-card, and PSU are all good and fairly new, I was thinking new MB, processor, and ram for under $500 I should be good. What do you guys think?
I'd say keep what you have until you've got a budget of over $1000 to replace everything. And even if you did have a $1000+ budget, I'd still wait about 9 months or so for some better parts to come out before spending it.
The one upgrade that might be worthwhile now is an SSD. But that doesn't usually help with gaming performance; it just makes your system generally more responsive.
from what i've seen of swtor so far, your machine is more then capable of running it well. it doesn't seem like they will have any large scale raids and the group size is only 4 people... the graphics is optimized for mass audience so it's not going to look like or require the type of hardware as crysis/crysis2.
if swtor is your main concern, then save your money for a MUCH later upgrade/rebuild. oh and buy a SSD like quizzy said:D