what should I upgrade on this rig

[thedreameater]

Built this PC for Age of Conan and I've been using it to 5 box. Seeing some of the amazing vids ya'll are posting, I think it's time to upgrade a piece or two.

Windows Vista 64

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127325

ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813127030

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

8 Gb Ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145197

Thanks all and happy holidays!

[Bovidae]

Assuming this is the list of what you are considering replacing, and you are not interested in an i7 conversion:

Yes, new video card: GTS250 - GTX295
No, new mobo
Yes, new processor: Q9550
No, new RAM

[thedreameater]

I am probably going to end up buying a new mobo and CPU. With that said - would you still recommend the same video card? I figure I can still get some nice mileage out of my rig, but want to upgrade over time.

Thanks again.

[Sajuuk]

Assuming this is the list of what you are considering replacing, and you are not interested in an i7 conversion:

Yes, new video card: GTS250 - GTX295
No, new mobo
Yes, new processor: Q9550
No, new RAM

GTS250 is essentially the card he has now with less power used/die shrink/slight overclock. Dual GPU cards can provide an advantage, provided you can shunt part of your workload to the second GPU. (Innerspace can do this) Your current card is fine.

Why immediately the Q9550? Why not get a slightly less powerful (at the start) cpu like the Q6600 and overclock it?

A quad core processor will provide the biggest boost in performance for five boxing on one PC in this situation.

I am probably going to end up buying a new mobo and CPU. With that said - would you still recommend the same video card? I figure I can still get some nice mileage out of my rig, but want to upgrade over time.

Thanks again.

This may be contradictory coming from my mouth, but sometimes it's best not to upgrade just for the sake of upgrading. If you're genuinely bottlenecked by one component or another you could upgrade it, but to say: "WANNA UPGRADE, WHAT SHOULD I DO?" isn't always the best thing.

I genuinely think that this point you'd gain a big boost from getting a quad core.

[Trick]

Surprised that no one has suggested replacing the OS with Windows 7 64 bit yet...

[d0z3rr]

Get an i7. Q6600 is some seriously old architecture. This coming from a Q6600 owner.

[thedreameater]

Thanks for all the replies.

Sajuuk - I can't afford to upgrade at the moment, just looking ahead in 2010. I might be able to get one or two pieces.

Looks like I'll be upping the mobo+CPU for i7 support and adding a 2nd video card. Will probably boost the ram at that point as well.

Trick - Will Windows 7 really show an improvement? The OS will be the last thing I upgrade, but if others have noticed W7 is kicking some ass, maybe I'll have to knock it up the list sooner.

Took a break from WoW for a month to do some music. Stunbled across this video, reminds me of boxing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYv5jqHMe5c

[Shodokan]

Thanks for all the replies.

Sajuuk - I can't afford to upgrade at the moment, just looking ahead in 2010. I might be able to get one or two pieces.

Looks like I'll be upping the mobo+CPU for i7 support and adding a 2nd video card. Will probably boost the ram at that point as well.

Trick - Will Windows 7 really show an improvement? The OS will be the last thing I upgrade, but if others have noticed W7 is kicking some ass, maybe I'll have to knock it up the list sooner.

Took a break from WoW for a month to do some music. Stunbled across this video, reminds me of boxing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYv5jqHMe5c

I'm LOVING windows 7... just got my new comp today

[yaki]

Switch to a quad core CPU, then see if any further upgrades are necessary. Do not start swapping out half the system at once unless you have cash to burn.

Get an i7. Q6600 is some seriously old architecture. This coming from a Q6600 owner.

Still works fine. WoW is damn old, and most things that can actually benefit from four cores need parallelism more than brute per-core power. Really, modern CPUs are overpowered for most things that end up being done with them even more generally.

[spannah]

The dual core is your bottle neck. You may have trouble finding a Q6600. I suggest a Q8200 or Q8400, $150 and $160 respectively at newegg.com
Save your bucks on w7 and video card for a new system at a later time.