Upgrade questoin ..need your opinion

[Jerm300]

I currently have a Q6600 running at stock speed. ..3 gigs of ddr 2 800mghz ram ..micro-star P35 MB.. geforce 9600 GT running windows xp
with a 500 watt PS
i was thinking about buying a new CPU cooler so i can overclock to about 3 gig mabye 3.2 .. upgrading to win 7 home prem .buying a new 650 watt PS and a video card ..would all that be worth the $500 dallor price tag or should i wait till i can afford to build a New PC.
oh btw .video cards i was considering is either the Geforce 260 or the ATI 4890

 

[moody89]

What do you mainly use your computer for and what would be your reasons for upgrading? Do you game? Is there a particular game you wish to play but can't with your system?

 

[Jerm300]

i use it my PC for pretty much everything ..i play alot of diff games as well as recordings with my guitar / Keyboard .reason for upgrading my 9600 gt is showing it age with newer games... i wanted to build a new machine with a i7 920 but if i can get by for 1/3 of the cost and it last me another year was gonna go that route ..thanks for the advice ct1615 ill do some research on the 5770 not needing the PS would save $100 bucks off the upgrade

 

[moody89]

I would agree with ct1615, your Q6600 should be more than adequate for your needs and for today's games. Since games are more GPU intensive, an upgrade here would probably offer you a more noticeable improvements than a CPU upgrade. As you suggested you could also attempt to overclock your CPU with a new cooler and squeeze a bit more performance out of it. Good luck!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

^5 +1 what ct1615 and moody89 said!

Your best bang for the buck is to upgrade to an ATI Radeon HD5770 video card and Windows 7.

The 5770 is an energy efficient video card.

Here are the official ATI recommended power supply requirements for the ATI Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 video cards:


450 Watt or greater power supply with one 75 watt, 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended

600 Watt or greater power supply with two 75 watt, 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode.

The recommendations are for an entire pc system..