Hardware Upgrade before WOTLK

[firest4rter]

So with a fresh expansion around the corner and with no doubt even more stress on your machine in some areas than a busy day in Shatt I have decided that I am going to do an upgrade to my PC just before the expansion arrives. I am not a hardware guru and I don't stay up to date with current trends, however when its time to upgrade I always by the pieces and do it myself.

The objective of this thread is to get some input from those that are up to date on current hardware and can advise me what I should be looking at buying to increase the performance of my 5 xWoW on 1 box solution. I don't really have a budget, however I don't like throwing money away on pointless upgrades either, thus the creation of this thread.

*I know there are significant advantages of a hardware solution, but I don't really have the space and I like my software solution.

My current setup is:

CPU - Intel Quad Core 2.4GHZ
Ram - 4gig ( cant recall type speed but its good stuff from memory)
Video- NVidia 8800 Ultra 512meg ram
Hard Drive - 10K Sata not running any raid config
OS - Vista x64

WoW is running at 1900 x 1200 on my main screen and the 4 others on secondary screen split up with maximizer sharing a 1900 x 1200 space. Main WoW running from one Dir on seperate hardrive to the 4 others that share a folder on a different drive.

Current performance is generally good. Next to no lag anywhere except for Shat and the AH areas of IF and SW and maybe just a little lag on the starting are of the Isle.

So my question. What components can I upgrade to see a significant increase in performance?

Is there a new CPU I can throw some money at?
Would I see a large improvement with more ram? 8gig and what type?
Surely its time to upgrade my Video card, I hear that Radeon are performing well again, or should I just get the latest Nvidia?
I know my hard drives has room for improvement, or is it really worth it if I ensure I have enough RAM? if its only load times I can live with that.

With prices always dropping and better gear always coming out, I'll probably put this off until a month before the actual release of WOLTK, so I still have a few months up my sleave.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to recieving some good advice from the resident hardware gurus.

Thanks Fire.

[Wide]

Read this:

OCZ Core 64GB MLC SSD Review.. (Testing in progress..)

[firest4rter]

Thanks for the link. Well a SSD is on the cards for me. I will be giving it a try soon.

What is the best CPU to be looking at?
Will 8gig ram be worth the spend? I guess so.

[Wide]

I have about the same system as you, and i have been thinking about upgrading too - but desided not too. I hope that SSD drive will fix all my issues (which is lag in Orgrimmar/shattath). I dont have any problems elsewhere (5boxing).

[Bovidae]

I would suggest the following, in order of upgrade/dollar:

SSD - These things are blazing fast, and prices are dropping

Vid card - The latest cards with both NVidia and ATI chips have more than double the horsepower of your current 8800, and cost approximately $325

Processor - Either overclock your Q6600 to 3.0, or buy a Q9650 (assuming your mobo is compatible with the 45nm architechture)

64bit, Vista, 8gb ram and WoW: Don't bother, World of Warcraft is a 32 bit application and runs on a 32 bit emulator in Vist64 called Windows on Windows (Yes WoW-on-WoW) and is still limited to the same restrictions you are accustomed to. That said, ram is cheap, other games are 64bit compatible, hopefully Warcraft will be one day (perhaps a hidden WotLK change), but don't expect much (if any) performance increases due to using more than 4gb ram.

[firest4rter]

Thanks for the advice.

I will get myself an SSD now. Then a new Video Card just before WOTLK release and seriously consider a CPU upgrade however this will also require a MOBO upgrade so I am not sure I will go so far just now.