Opinions please on keeping x38

[mrtbig]

I have an asus maximus formula with 4gb and q9400 cpu on xp. Been thinking about possible upgrade and here is a thought.

Upgrade to 8gb ram, go win7 64bit, get a ssd drive. I am thinking i might get more performance for the buck and skip the 1156/1366 since new socket be out end of 2011.

What do you think?

 

[Twitch22]

...wait for that new Intel socket, which is what I'm doing! Check out my rig down below. I'm running pretty much what you're thinking of: Intel Quad-Core 9450 overclocked, 8 Gigs of DDR2-1066 RAM, 2-TB's of hard drives, nVidia GTX-260 and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

While it's no longer even considered fast by benchmarking stats, in real-life application, it's fast enough to do EVERYTHING I need it to do. Seriously. I rip, encode and burn movies and music. Work with photos using Paintshop Pro X3. And I play games ranging from Civ 4 to Crysis and Far Cry 2...all at good frame rates and with moderate to high settings.

Since moving to Windows 7 (I used to run Vista Ultimate-64), my rig's been super-stable and responsive. Love the way Win-7 feels and performs when compared to Vista. I really think you can squeeze more time out of your existing hardware.

Like you, I'm waiting for the "next generation" of multi-core CPUs to come around...

Arvin

 

[Blain]

I have an asus maximus formula with 4gb and q9400 cpu on xp. Been thinking about possible upgrade and here is a thought.

Upgrade to 8gb ram, go win7 64bit, get a ssd drive. I am thinking i might get more performance for the buck and skip the 1156/1366 since new socket be out end of 2011.

What do you think?

We can't really give you an informed opinion, since you haven't told us how the system will be used.
You talk about "performance for the buck", but "Performance" doing what tasks?

I'll still proffer an opinion even lacking that critical information...
* IF you're going to do some heavy lifting, like video editing or editing large photos, I'd say go for the memory upgrade also.
* IF you're going to use the PC for some VM work, the answer is the same, go for the added memory.
* If you're not running any of those types of applications, save your cash and stick with 4GB's.
* If you do decide to add the extra memory, make sure and keep the speed and voltage ratings the same as the old memory.

 

[Reincus]

You probably won't need 8GB, depending what you do with your PC. Upgrade to the 64 bit Win 7 and then decide if it's still sluggish.

 

[Absolution75]

If you're itching to spend money, then go with w7 64bit + ssd, but keep your mb/cpu. You don't even really need 8GB unless you are doing something very specific that uses a lot of ram.

Q9400 is a solid chip, even for these days. Wait for x68

 

[yh125d]

I wouldn't spend any more on DDR2 these days

 

[MisterDonut]

GPU (if you game) + SSD are the only reasonable upgrades. 4GB to 8GB or a faster processor probably won't make a difference unless you actually need the speed. No reason to upgrade an already good quad-core. If you use this comp for general computing and gaming, you might even be able to skip Sandybridge (assuming the rise of games stays GPU-dependent). I have a buddy still running the classic E6600 chip.

 

[mrtbig]

Thanks for all your suggestions!

I just placed an order for a fast SSD drive!

Decided to wait on ram for now like you all suggested.