How worthwhile would upgrading be?

[SilentScreams]

My current rig is nearly 4 years old. It's still passable because it was pretty much the best of everything when I built it, but lately I've had to start turning the occasional graphics setting down on the better looking recent games.

Anyway, I've recently found myself with some extra cash and I'm thinking I might upgrade just to stay ahead of the curve and so that I can keep on pushing games as far as they'll go.

Anyway, my question is what gives the best bang for the buck and how noticeable a performance boost would I get from an upgrade? My graphics card is actually fairly new because my 4870X2 died. The rest is still the original parts from my initial build.

My current specs:

Mobo: Gigabyte X48T-DQ6
CPU: Intel Q9550 @2.8ghz
GPU: 2gb Radeon HD6870
RAM: 4gb Corsair TwinX DDR3

Any input is welcome. I have a good budget, but I don't care about getting the absolute best if there's something cheaper that is almost as good (as usually seems to be the case with PC hardware).

[Narradisall]

Hah, I've been thinking the same recently. Although my old rig is a laptop about the same age, and the crows feet are starting to show.

At the time I wanted a mobile device as I gamed consoles more, but I'm starting to get kicked out the PC gaming due to my rig, and it's tempting to get a new desktop just so I'll have the option to upgrade in the future.

Afraid I can't be much help though, I haven't been following PC stuff in a while. I've noticed 8gb RAM is starting to become the recommended for many higher end games. Is there space for you to add to the RAM?

Graphics cards are easy enough to swap and I've so lost touch with processors I can't even tell if your's is 2.8 or more because no one seems to list the speed forthright (whether it's dual, quad etc)

[Khrymsyn]

I'd say the most likely place you'd need to upgrade is processor. unfortunately, that would also mean new motherboard, and possibly new memory.

But overall, your machine generally looks fine. The CPU is the only place I can see you might be showing your age so to speak.

[biosc1]

Honestly, the machine is pretty decent still. I have a similar build with 8GB of RAM and an E8400 Dual-Core and it still performs very well.

If you want a bit of snappiness, then add in an SSD for your OS and most used apps, it really makes a difference.

Otherwise, you're in the same boat as me where an upgrade requires a new motherboard which means new RAM and a new processor.

[SilentScreams]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I figured a new CPU would mean a new motherboard, but I wasn't counting on needing new RAM too, although I could certainly do with more than 4gb. The only reason I don't actually have more is because this was originally a Windows XP machine and more than 4gb is pointless with XP. I just never got around to adding more after I switched to Windows 7.

I've looked into getting an SSD before. They were prohibitively expensive the last time I checked on them, but they seem to be more reasonable now. My brother uses one on his machine and it seems nice. That might be the best place to start upgrading anyway. Maybe add another 4gb of RAM too.

[jpublic]

Personally, I'd boost your memory to 8GB and that's it - it's a cheap upgrade that gives you great bang for your buck.

Even with the recent drop in prices, SSDs are pricy. Save it for your next machine.

[Khrymsyn]

to be honest, SSD will likely not do anything for any gaming you might do beyond loading some levels faster. You won't see any increases in FPS though, unless your setting texture levels so high you're getting HDD thrashing.

Now if you want fast boot and instant application access? grab that SSD and hold on to your hat, they scream. =)

I run SSD as my boot/app drive, and a regular old HDD for my steam/data/gaming.