Planning on upgrading my PC

Hi.
Wow, 3 years have gone pretty quick.
It was exactly 3 years ago today when I ordered my current PC.
It still plays most games at quite good FPS and high res, so it’s done me pretty well.
I’m currently in the mood to upgrade it a bit, I don’t really want to buy a complete new unit, just upgrade some parts and get the maximum performance out of it.
My current setup is:
CASE: CoolerMaster CM Stacker 831 Black Aluminium Case
CPU: Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9650 (4 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/12MB Cache
MOBO: ASUS® STRIKER || EXTREME: DUAL DDR3, S-ATA II, 3 x X16 VGA
RAM: 8GB CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 1600MHz – LIFETIME WARRANTY (4x2GB)
GPU1: 896MB GEFORCE GTX260 PCI Express + DVI
GPU2: 896MB GEFORCE GTX260 PCI Express + DVI
Power: 900W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Heatsink: ASUS SILENT KNIGHT II PURE COPPER ULTRA COOLER
I presume I can’t really do much regarding the CPU… maybe upgrade it to the extreme edition Q9650 ?
Ram is probably enough.
Power supply is probably ok – might need to change this depending on the upgradable GPU(s) ?
How about the graphics cards?? What could I go out and buy without bottlenecking something else ?
Thanks in advance.
Answer #1
How much are you looking to spend?
There really isn’t any room for improvement with that motherboard…you can’t upgrade your CPU (the extreme edition wouldn’t be worth it), the only thing you can really do is upgrade your video card(s).
Answer #2
Overclock the system…
Answer #3
You will be wanting to upgrade to something like a GTX570 or 580 if changing GPU.
The CPU is still going to last you a while longer as far as gaming is concerned. you can overclock it for a bit extra grunt in the CPU department.
Answer #4
Yeah I know I’m a bit out of luck as far as the motherboard / cpu goes… shame.
Would a 570 or 580 be restricted from running full performance? What I mean is, would the cpu be the bottleneck here?
I’ve got about £300 to spend I guess + £100 extra for the two GTX260’s that I would be selling. So about £400 in total – MAX.
Christmas bonus coming up, that will give me a lot more to spend, but I don’t really want to waste it all on a PC if you know what I mean – fancy a nice holiday somewhere.
Would just one GTX580 be better than my 2 GTX260’s ?
I could get just one now, and when the bonus comes, get another.
Answer #5
your computer still strong ) I think you don’t need to upgrade it
Answer #6
I wouldn’t even bother for the time being, unless you want to add SSD, and overclock it a little.