About to pull the trigger on an upgrade. Any thoughts?

I already have a 1GB GTX 460, and I'm now looking to upgrade my CPU, motherboard, and RAM which are about four years old.

I currently have a Core 2 Duo E6600, 4GB Corsair XMS DDR2, Intel D975XBX2. I'm looking at upgrading to an i5 760, 8GB Mushkin DDR3, Gigabyte P55 USB3, which with a combo deal I can get on newegg for around $400 shipped. I'll be reusing my video card, case (Antec P180), power supply (PC Power and Cooling 610W), HDDs, optical drive, and Zalman CPU cooler (which actually works on the new socket type).

Is this a worthwhile upgrade? Should I wait for sandybridge? Does the hyperthreading on the i7 really make that big of a difference, or is the i5 just fine? I'm really tempted to go ahead because the prices, especially on ram, are dirt cheap at the moment.

I already have a 1GB GTX 460, and I'm now looking to upgrade my CPU, motherboard, and RAM which are about four years old.

I currently have a Core 2 Duo E6600, 4GB Corsair XMS DDR2, Intel D975XBX2. I'm looking at upgrading to an i5 760, 8GB Mushkin DDR3, Gigabyte P55 USB3, which with a combo deal I can get on newegg for around $400 shipped. I'll be reusing my video card, case (Antec P180), power supply (PC Power and Cooling 610W), HDDs, optical drive, and Zalman CPU cooler (which actually works on the new socket type).

Is this a worthwhile upgrade? Should I wait for sandybridge? Does the hyperthreading on the i7 really make that big of a difference, or is the i5 just fine? I'm really tempted to go ahead because the prices, especially on ram, are dirt cheap at the moment.

cmdrmonkey45

The i5 760 is one of the best Intel CPUs for gaming (and overclocking). 8GB RAM is overkill. 4GB is largely sufficient for gaming and most other things you do on a computer.

Just be sure to check the compatability list of your motherboard to make sure that what RAM you buy is compatible with the mobo. The list can be found on the manufacturer's website.

Zalman have some flashy coolers, but their most recent releases aren't very good. Try Scythe or Arctic (formerly Arctic Cooling).

I say get 4GB ram and a good CPU cooler and overclock the sh*t out of it.

Let's put it this way, I've had the i7 since it came out, it's still stock, and I've never been able to max out all 8 threads, even when I'm gaming and compressing files at the same time. That said, sandy bridge is not necessary. If you think the prices can't drop any more, go for itistuffedsunny

That's exactly what I'm thinking. And not to sound ignorant but Sandy Bridge looks more like a refresh than anything. I really couldn't tell you what exactly it offers over P55/1156.

[QUOTE="istuffedsunny"]Let's put it this way, I've had the i7 since it came out, it's still stock, and I've never been able to max out all 8 threads, even when I'm gaming and compressing files at the same time. That said, sandy bridge is not necessary. If you think the prices can't drop any more, go for itcmdrmonkey45

That's exactly what I'm thinking. And not to sound ignorant but Sandy Bridge looks more like a refresh than anything. I really couldn't tell you what exactly it offers over P55/1156.

The two main things for me are its got much lower power consumption and you get much better performance for the price. The i5-2600k performs better than top of the range current i7 processors, yet will cost the same as an i5 760.dominic_cfc

Alright, I'll wait then.