Should I upgrade more than just my memory?

[cplindem]

I have a 7 year old computer:

EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard (limit of 8GB DDR2 ram)
BFG GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 Video Card
Silverstone 750W power supply
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz processor
Windows 8.1 32-bit (limit of 4GB ram)

I had 4 x 1GB sticks of DDR2 800 ram

1 set of those sticks just died (Windows wouldn't boot. Removing them it boots fine). I figured it's time to upgrade anyway. Unfortunately a year or two ago I chose 32-bit Windows. As far as I can tell, there is no discount available for me to purchase 64-bit even though I already have 8.1 32-bit.

I was thinking of purchasing 2 x 4GB 800 DDR2 ram to set myself up for the future. Does this make sense? I am a gamer amongst other things, but it doesn't necessarily have to be top-end.

Should I be upgrading other components in addition to ram? Should I get a new motherboard so I can go for DDR3 or DDR4? New CPU? New GPU? What is most cost-effective?


Any advice is appreciated.

 

[prit87]

you need a full upgrade your configuration is quite old adding more ram will not make your pc fast and give you any better performance in games.

 

[cplindem]

you need a full upgrade your configuration is quite old adding more ram will not make your pc fast and give you any better performance in games.

What about keeping some of the components?
PSU?
Hard drives?
DVD burner?

I'm guessing you're saying I absolutely have to replace CPU, GPU, motherboard, ram.
Could I replace them piecemeal—one at a time? What to prioritize if so?

Thanks

 

[Tradesman1]

680i is getting a little long in the tooth, it came out in 2007, if budget doesn't allow for a new rig, could upgrade DRAM and maybe look to CPU next (there are some good prices out there on Q6600 and better CPUs these days)

 

[cplindem]

Assuming I replace most of my components in addition to the memory and os, I'm looking at these:

Intel Core i5-4430
geforce gtx 970
ASUS Z87-PRO motherboard
G.Skill 8gb ddr3

Sound reasonable?

 

[prit87]

Assuming I replace most of my components in addition to the memory and os, I'm looking at these:

Intel Core i5-4430
geforce gtx 970
ASUS Z87-PRO motherboard
G.Skill 8gb ddr3

Sound reasonable?

Yes its a very good upgrade from what you currently have and you can keep the old HDD,DVDrom and PSU.