Q9550 upgrade?

[zeruin]

Hey guys.. I'm thinking about upgrading my computer with a new CPU. This build is about 2 years old and I'm running an Intel e2160 with a mild OC to 2.4ghz. I'm thinking about moving up to a Q9550 which would allow me to keep a majority of my current components.

For the most part, I just play online FPS games like L4D2 & CoD4.. and I don't do a whole lot of video editing or anything along those lines.. My computer seems to handle these games pretty well so far, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to consider an upgrade to increase the performance and decrease loading times.

Another thing I had considered would be to buy a completely new computer, but that would probably end up costing me well near $2000 to buy all the components I'd want.. i7 920, hd5870, 24"+ monitor and etc.. lol

Here's what I'm running now:
mobo- Gigabyte P35 lga 775
cpu - intel e2160
gpu - 9800gtx+
ram - 2gb ddr2 800
psu - 450w corsair
monitor - 22"

My question is, would it even be worthwhile to buy the q9550 to upgrade this system, or should I consider the alternative and building a completely new setup?

 

[Hellboy]

wouldnt bother buying new... upgrade to a 9550 quad core, you wont regret it and it will run games for a long while yet. Ive upgraded mine to a i7 920 and to be honest the performance increase was smaller than going from a q6600 to a 9550.

later on replace the video card for something quicker like a 5850 ati..

if your running vista, ditch it and go for windows 7 that will speed it up a bit too.

 

[zeruin]

Oh snap, I forgot to mention.. I'm still running XP, never bothered with Vista and haven't looked too much into Windows & yet.. lol

I'm also curious about my memory, I only have 2 GB, how would adding a couple more sticks work with the setup?

I wouldn't mind upgrading to another GPU, but I think I'd have to look into upgrading the PSU too.. then I'm nearly upgrading everything at that point.. lol

Maybe it's just me, but I have my monitors resolution and most games at 1280x768 resoultions.. anything higher and the letters get too small to read >.<

 

[Hellboy]

if youve got a 24 inch monitor then 19--x1080 would need a decent card

xp can only access 3gb anyway, but if your going with 7 youll get a sign up saying 4 gig even if you can only access 3.5 of it. its a limit of 32bit os


the 9550 will fly for a while yet as its a good chip. for a little more a 9650 is available - check that out too. gpu go for a ati 5850 - psu might need a boost too. but cheaper than spending 2k - save up and go for a new when the 3d stuff is sorted out.

 

[Hellboy]

XP 32-bit can access as much memory as any other OS which is 4GB.

xp only says 3gb on its properties page unless its 64bit version.

 

[mi1ez]

It's a 32 bit limitation, not OS dependent. 32 bit XP and Vista will have the same addressable memory, somewhere between 3 and 3.5GB

 

[fjiekie]

xp only says 3gb on its properties page unless its 64bit version.

it goes from 3 to 4 gig that is shown.
it depends, the one guy gets 3.2 gig, the other gets 3.8, something to do with addresses that are still available

 

[shubham1401]

Buy Q9550 or even Q9400 will be fine(Q9550 is too costly these days)

Get 2 More gigs of RAM.

HD5850 is a good card.If you have money purchase it.

A lil Advice from my side:
Switch to Windows 7. It is much faster than XP for everything.I use both.