Upgrade or rebuild

[BadLizzard]

Hey there all, great looking forums

I am a gamer, and have recently purchased COD Black ops and have been getting a lot of stuttering when anyone comes near me in game.

so here are my current specs. I have monitored usage for gfx and cpu while trying to play.

CPU: Intel Core2 Duo CPU E8400 @3.51ghz (2 CPUs)
(both processors get pegged 90% - 100% during game play)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275
only uses 50% of it's ability during game play, at end of round utilization goes to 75% and higher.
Sound Card: SB X-Fi Audio DC00
Since the latest patch my ambient sounds are distorted
Monitor: Flatron 22" LCD
Motherboard: psn32-e
Power Supply: 700 watt
Hard Disk Drive(s): 4 sata (Raid)

I know that the machine is out of date, but I am on a budget. Is it worthwhile to just upgrade the processor to a quad core Q9650 or would my money be better spent on a new build. Of course my current set-up is ddr2 and if I rebuild I would need to replace CPU,MOBO and Mem. to ddr3

newegg has some combo's on i5 's and i7's but this is virgin territory for me and I can't tell from all the reviews I have read if the i5 is still best bang for the buck for gamers, or is the i7 better since it hyperthreads.

Thanks in advance for any tips

i5 deal Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

i7 deal Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

 

[BadLizzard]

oh wanted to add, I have a water cooler on my cpu right now and running windows 7 64 bit OEM

 

[Hapx4.0]

Core i5, Core i7, CrossFire, And SLI: Gaming Paradise, Redux? : Introduction

Good read

imo - if your just gaming. Save some cash and go i5, DDR3 Dual Channel.

Your graphic should be fine, i get 90-140 fps on a i7 920 stock with a GTX 260 right now in black ops.

 

[BadLizzard]

Yep I read that already, read a lot of stuff on Toms trying to figure this out.
I currently run 90-125 FPS in black ops, my problem is when people get close to me :/ when my FPS drops in the 40's and under.

Just trying to figure out if it's best either to upgrade to q9650 on my same mobo, or go with an i5 or i7 where I would need new mobo, and memory
________

Well after further review of my finances, I have decided that I can spend around $500

So if I get and i5 with mobo and memory should be close to that, can you recommend those 3 things for me that will keep me in budget ?

When I looked at the combo deal mobo Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more! it didn't seem to have many reviews and seemed that some people had issues with them.

 

[patonb]

You're sorta screwed, your mobo is a 650i nvidia chipset..... no quad higher than a q6700.... I know as I'm doing this right now, an its looking like $650 to do a i7 1366 cpu/mobo/ram.

 

[BadLizzard]

do you think that the i5 is a good upgrade ?

new egg has a package deal on this $300
ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760

I just don't know if that is a good combo or not, I have been reading reviews on the mobo, but not sure which review to follow :/

is it not worthwhile to go i5 ?

 

[memory]

I am looking to do something similar for my Dad's Pentium 4 system and every place I have read says the i5 is better for gaming. If you do go the i5 route, make sure you get a quad core. With the parts I picked out, it comes out to around $350.

Here are the parts I am considering:
CPU+MOBO

G Skill 4gb DDR3 1600

Since you can spend up to 500, you can probably get 6gb's of ram instead of 4gb's.

Just curious, is your original machine custom built or a prebuilt? What case do you have?

 

[patonb]

6 gigs isn't great for i5s/1156 boards as they are dual channel ram.

 

[memory]

6 gigs isn't great for i5s/1156 boards as they are dual channel ram.

Well then I guess it is either 4 gigs or 8 gigs. IMO, 8 gigs seems like overkill. I would just go with 4 gigs.

 

[patonb]

Yha, 90% of us don't need over 4Gigs... spend the extra 100 on something else.