I haven't been keeping up to date with the latest technology so I'm looking for some input.

CPU:
- Intel or AMD?
- I've already got a Q6600 so is it worth upgrading?

For the motherboard:
- Is SLI worth it? I had it some time ago, but never bothered when I upgraded last time so have things moved on at all?
- What is the best chipset to go for?

Memory:
- DDR2 or DDR3?
- I've already got DDR2 so is it worth upgrading?

Graphics:
- Nvidia or ATI?
- I've got an Nvidia 9600GT so probably some scope here

Thanks

_________________
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

I've upgraded my E6600 to a Q9950. I figured i could hold out for a while then. In your case i don't really see why the CPU upgrade. An i7 is nice, but if you don't do silly intensive stuff, your CPU still performs good.

For your memory, DDR3 currently performs better then DDR2, memory upgrades are always nice, just depends if you're willing to spend money on it.

On the grapics card, your best best currently would be ATI, they currently provide the most power for your money.

Frosty just came up with the best idea. Get yourself a nice 'n shiny Intel X25 SSD. It will feel as a brand new pc.

A new graph card for gaming wouldn't hurt either.
About the ddr3 story, I wouldn't say ddr3 performs better then ddr2 tbh. What ram modules do you currently have for instance? A lot of the ddr3s out there perform worse then high end ddr2 modules which still cost way less then the ddr3 basic modules. Then if you talk about basics, a standard 1333 ddr3 module will give you under 1% better performance over a standard 800 ddr2 module, not really worth all the cash you'd pay for it atm.
If you want an i7, you'd have to buy ddr3, if you don't per se want an i7, which in your case doesn't make sense if you would want an i7, staying with your old board and ram would be better.
Do you have 4gb of mem in your computer? otherwise it'd be wise to plug some extra in to get that.
Best way to upgrade your computer now would be to get yourself the ssd saint was talking about and upgrade your graphics card.

_________________
M.A.S.K. , is the mighty power that can save the day

Q6600 is a nice CPU, but you can get alot more performance by upgrading to an i7. That's what I would do

_________________
<@Howard_s> usa just has a made up economy - they can't really go broke

JuncoPartner: I could barely hold it up for long.

tbh, what kinda performance are you looking to get out of your i7 while you have a normal sata disk having your os on it for instance?
I can oc my cpu by so much, but it's all useless tbh. The bottleneck atm is mostly formed by your harddisk, in most cases.
Having an i7 is nice, if you're buying a new pc right now, why not, but upgrading while you already have a q6600 is a bit pointless if you're still looking to work off an old disk.
The ssd and vid card is in cherry's case the one and only best solution

_________________
M.A.S.K. , is the mighty power that can save the day

Making things easy in order.

1. New SSD link - http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Componen ... ctId=39093
2. New 260 Graphics card amazing price - http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Oth ... ctId=37691

They have the SSD on a special only a few left - http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Oth ... ctId=39093

Also get this cause its cool - http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Oth ... ctId=35296

_________________
Don't worry I got some silicon carrots - [SpA]Bucky O'Hare

and send in the benchies!
http://magicboxlive.blogspot.com/2009/1 ... -5750.html

http://magicboxlive.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... marks.html

Ahhhh, nvidia gets pwned

_________________
M.A.S.K. , is the mighty power that can save the day

My new rig is an Intel i5 750 + a GTX 260 (I already had the gfx card, I would have bought an ATI card if I didn't have it already) and its brilliant, I haven't even overclocked the cpu yet and I can play any game I tried on full graphics. If you can afford an i7 920 then I think that would be a good upgrade.

Although I upgraded from an AMD Athlon X2 5000+ to the i5 750, so the increase in performance was massive

I actually bought it to dabble in video editing as well as the performance in games, but I cba at the moment.

_________________
a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

The reason why you shouldn't get an i7 or an i5 is the difference between the q6600 and the i7 chip won't be that noticeable for the £400+ you would be spending and you would still end up having to upgrade the graphics card.

I'm guessing all this thinking is because of the time it takes you to load the next map on l4d2 this is more likely to caused by windows, l4d2 settings or another process running in the background. My work PC that is lower spec then yours and when I was using it to play l4d2 on I didn't have any long load times. If this is the reason why your thinking of upgrading check them out first

_________________
Don't worry I got some silicon carrots - [SpA]Bucky O'Hare

hmmm guess I need to start saving for an ssd drive

The upgrade is not related to my crappy l4d2 load times, although it would be nice if they were shorter

_________________
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

I wouldn't go with i7.

Better buy i5 this time, it's almost the same performance as i7 but it's cheaper but carefully to have a motherboard which can handle the full power of an i5.

DDR3 it's not worth the price, DDR2 all the way.


For a video card, i would go with the new series of video cards from ATI. 5xxx.

If it's your performance on TF2 then it is cpu dependent, my upgrade just proved it I couldn't keep a solid 60 fps with my athlon x2 5000 (even on 12 player servers ), with the core i5 750 I can have it on full graphics and it never drops below 60, even on 32 slot servers.

Going from the q6600 to a i5 750 or better will give a noticable speed boost, but it will be for a price. The core i5 750 has the best money/performance ratio available imo, eventhough its a lot.

Of course upgrading to a 5xxx will give a bigger performance boost in the majority of games and will be cheaper, so the gfx card + ssd is the best option (+super fast window boot as well).

Look for other reviews as well, but just a quick 5 second search came up with this: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/801/1

_________________
a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

lekker grote brokken, word je lekker snel stoned van!

Cherry, don't listen to the noobs out here, they'll let you spend a small 1000 bucks and still stick your ass with a regular 7200 rpm disk, an nvidia mobo and let you buy an older cpu for only about 50 bucks less!

There's a lot to what makes up your performance, too much to go into right here, too much to get your answer to your question out of a 5 second search if you don't have enough know how about the ins and outs.

_________________
M.A.S.K. , is the mighty power that can save the day

_________________
a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

id go with a faster hdd and a ssd hdd most apps are barely capable of using dual core let allown quad core