Uprgrading with a budget

[11wow11]

I built my computer about 5 years ago and have only upgraded the graphics card and hardrive around last yearish. Im looking to spend around 300 dollars and would like to put in a new motherboard/cpu. Im loving the i5 with the sandy bridges but I think it would be a overkill with my current rig. Looking for a little advise.

Western Digital 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5

GeForce GTS 250

OCZ S.O.E 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

psu 610W

 

[abekl]

Well, if you get a new MB and CPU, you'll need new memory also, as all the new boards require DDR3, and you have DDR2. For 300 you could get a pretty nice setup. For example:
Intel Core i5-2400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074 190.00

GIGABYTE GA-Z68P-DS3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128520 110.00

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231274 30.00

Total: $330.00

 

[geekapproved]

Good advice for $300. If you live near a microcenter you could get a much better deal.

 

[11wow11]

grrr yeah I figured there was gonna be no way to get around not having to buy new ram. You still think my psu will be able to handel all of it?

 

[Kamab]

Depends on the PSU, but I'm guessing your running WAY under 610W with your current rig, and most PSUs wear slowly at 30-50% load.

There are always deals on these CPU/mobo combos or cpu/mobo/memory combos but I agree that the 2nd generation i3/i5 processors are probably your nicest options.