well...i got 3 years out of it

[hepcat]

I swear to god, I can change out power supplies on the servers at work until the cows come home (Cows have a warning system that let them know when a power supply has been changed, i would assume), but the moment I try to work on my home system, I inevitably bend or break something.

Earlier this week, I tried to put in a new Corsair power supply to replace my old, no name psu. I have (had) the following setup:

E6600 OC'd to 3.0ghz
4 gigs Corsair RAM
2 300 gig SATA drives
Dual layer DVDRW
Asus P5N-E SLI mobo

The reason I was sweating over the system trying to insert the new psu was because I wanted to upgrade the video card and the old 500 watt no name psu wasn't going to cut the mustard.

Soooo...during the whole ordeal I screwed something up. My guess is that I bent something on the board. It was DOA.

here's my dilemma.

I like the ATX case and the fans and don't want to buy another system. I just want to replace the mobo and cpu.

To that end, I've given myself two choices.

1) Replace the LGA775 board with another LGA775 board (an Asus P5N-D...I'm an asus man, myself) and put in an E8500 cpu. It will only cost me about 250 bucks (360.00 with the new psu) and I can reuse the 4 gigs of DDR2 memory. Use the cash I save over option 2 below to buy a nice video card (a 470 or a 5850).

2) Upgrade and get an LGA1156 board with an i5 760 cpu. That's about 400 smackers (510.00 with the new psu). Of course, I'll need to upgrade the memory to DDR3, so that's another 100 dollars for 4gigs. Keep the 8800 GT i have now and hold off until the holidays for a better card.

I use the system for gaming and some work, by the way.

I've ruled out the i7 and supporting motherboard as I think the benefits significantly diminish at the level for the amount you spend.

Thoughts?

[Zarathud]

You're cursed, aren't you?

When I upgraded my PSU after the HD crash, I kept the LGA 775 board and picked up a new video card (Nvidia GTX 260).

[hepcat]

I think I subconsciously screw things up every few years when working on my home system so I can use that as an excuse to upgrade. I did the same thing when I built THIS computer.

I think I may just bite the bullet and do the i5 upgrade. Unless someone can tell me if an i5 760 isn't a significant upgrade over an E8500? At least not one worth 300 dollars?

[EvilHomer3k]

I think you either go to the i5 or you just replace the motherboard and keep the processor (assuming it's good). The i5 is going to be a fair bit faster than the E8500. The E8500 isn't significantly faster than the overclocked Q6600 (and is going to be slower in anything that takes advantage of the 4 cores). The 8500 runs at 3.16 and you've got your current processor running at 3.0. Games won't take much advantage of the larger cache (though the FSB increase would be an advantage depending on your current fsb). You didn't mention it but an i3 would also not be much of an upgrade. I'd say i5 or just replace the motherboard.

Overall it's tough to say what's faster without knowing what you're doing. Games will definitely benefit more from a new video card, though. To be honest if it was mine I'd probably replace the motherboard, keep the Q6600, and get a new video card.

PS: If you decide to sell the old stuff let me know.

[hepcat]

To be honest if it was mine I'd probably replace the motherboard, keep the Q6600, and get a new video card.

i dropped it off at a local computer shop so that they can test the cpu with another board (i don't have an extra 775 laying around). if it is just the board, i'll replace it with a 750i and put in a new power supply along with a better video card and call it a day. being without my gaming rig is drivin' me nuts.

[hepcat]

I give up on the LGA775 path. The motherboard was definitely shot, but the CPU seemed unstable in the two motherboards I tried it in at the shop (i fear i've been taking advantage of the little computer store i buy parts from occasionally ).

Since I'm jonesin', I decided to just go ahead and go for a decent, mid range upgrade.

Asus P7P55D-E PRO with usb 3.0 and 6Gb/s SATA
i5 760 processor
4 gigs of 10666 DDR3 memory
Corsair 750 PSU

All told, it's running me around 700 bucks.

Not bad, i must say.