it depends on what your wanting to do with it.... quad core cpus you still dont even need yet, its good for stuff like video editing and video capture, but there is still a very limitation of games that actually use the full quad cores yet.... You could just keep your e8600 chip and upgrade just the graphics card to a gtx280 on your high end machine..... but you can always just upgrade the graphics card later anyway, the g260 is still a very good card.

Well if you have the spare money yeah.

But are you gonna do Tri SLI (780i, 790i thats what they are good for) ?  or use DDR3 ?  because I personally think they are not worth it unless your a hardware enthusiast  with lots of money.

"Well if you have the spare money yeah.

But are you gonna do Tri SLI (780i, 790i thats what they are good for) ?  or use DDR3 ?  because I personally think they are not worth it unless your a hardware enthusiast  with lots of money.

Top of the line stuff means you wont need to upgrade for a little longer and prices may also go down by xmas.

It's kind of hard to tell what you're upgrading from... want to list out what you currently have? You might want to say what resolution you plan on running as well... example: if you're only running 1680 x 1050, you might be fine with just a 4850 or even whatever you currently have.

get the cheaper one.. DDR3 isnt worth it right now. in about a year, if the prices drop and it becomes faster with better timings, it would only be another 100 bucks for the memory and a new mobo.

You dont need DDR3, or a quad core. The high end rig is just fine.

"Maru said:

"Well if you have the spare money yeah.

But are you gonna do Tri SLI (780i, 790i thats what they are good for) ?  or use DDR3 ?  because I personally think they are not worth it unless your a hardware enthusiast  with lots of money.

well, ddr3 would be future proofing tbh....
i wasn't thinking of going tri maybe sli though not sure, but with that mobo and a 850w power, i could if i wanted too.

i would like to future proof myself, but as my system at the moment can play crysis with all eye candy at max with....fair framerate, the upgrade to the "high end" would be enough
but at the rate games are evolving, it might not be enough for future proofing and i'll end up making the wrong choice and should have gone for the Top of the range......im just not sure :(

i suppose i could wait, theres not any demanding games coming out till what....summer 09?"

if you getting a computer to play games..  DDR3 and DDR2 make almost no real noticeable difference.. the amount you have does.. like 8GB is better than 4GB ( specially in vista 64bit )
in some games having a dual core CPU or a quad core CPU does make a difference ... big example is world in conflict.
the videocard(s) you want to get depends on your screen and the resolution you play games... if you only have a 22" screen and your resolution you play games is 1680 x 1050 .. one single mid/high-end card is enough...
multi sli/crossfire is more useful when your screen is bigger like 24"to 30" and at higher resolution  example1920 x 1200 / 2560 x 1600

Might aswell spend that little extra to buy the top of the range PC, its gonna be with you that little longer than the high end.