Q6600, 4GB RAM, HD4870...what upgrade?

[Boopop]

As per subject.

My GPU has been on the blink a bit (crashes when I play games for too long), I even tried removing the cooler and cleaning it all out, but that only fixed it for a couple of months ago. It hasn't played up lately but I think it's passed it and could possibly do with an upgrade. I know that AMD is releasing their HD 7XXX series at the end of this month so I'm wondering whether it's worth waiting for that.

My budget will probably be above £200 or so. However I also partake in photography and Lightroom seems to chug along these days quite slowly, so I'm wondering if it's worth pocketing the money I get for Christmas and save for a new motherboard/cpu/ram combo instead of getting a new GPU. I was looking at the i7 2700k I think it was as it's hyperthreaded and will get me the best performance with Lightroom.

My birthday's in May and I intend to have both the GPU and mobo/cpu/ram upgraded by soon after then.

If TL : DR - would it be better for me to upgrade my CPU and all the rest of it in a couple of months, my GPU now, or my GPU in a month's time when the next generation of AMD GPUs come out?

Thanks!

[ed^chigliak]

It's worth waiting to see how the 7XXX series pans out or how it affects AMD 6XXX & Nvidia 5XX series cards. No point deliberating about the rest until April.

[pooley]

As above, gpu first then rest of your system later.

[xiaogray]

don't buy any newest GPU unless you are craze on it. Since the price of the newest GPU normally drops fast

[flearider]

an intel 2500 or a amd x6 would be a good start ..and for the gpu .. well a 6870.. my bro just traded out his 4850 .. and loves it ..if and when just crossfire 2 and your fine for about 3-4 yrs again ..
just stick mid range with boards £60-80 8gig of ram works wonders just remember your psu will need an upgrade as well .. buy somthing decent corsair do good psu's as do ocz and enermax..

[[GSV]Trig]

Pretty similar to my old rig, I ended up binning the Q6600 and getting an i7 860 setup, then a few months ago got a new GPU.

If you use lightroom and play with photo's then I would say board/ram/cpu before GPU but would depend on the specific apps you use and if they support GPU acceleration or would gain more from extra CPU ummph..

[Boopop]

Thanks for all the help everyone I've got £210 spending money which I might top up with savings a little if I see something I really like. I think I'll wait until mid February if I can hold out for AMD to release the HD 7xxx series and buy my new GPU then and then upgrade CPU/RAM/Motherboard in May.

I already have a Corsair TX 650 running quite happily so I shouldn't imagine I need to ugprade that, but thanks for pointing it out all the same flearider.

At the moment with it being Winter I tend to spend more time gaming than taking photos so the CPU upgrade can wait for a bit as I imagine a new GPU will give more of an oomph to my gaming experience compared to the CPU upgrade.

[Pob255]

Are you still running it at stock speeds or have you overclocked your q6600? a bit of overclocking would probably keep it running better for a bit longer.

a 6870 or gtx560 (non-ti) are currently very good value for money both are under £140 with similar performance http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-x...i-hdmi-2x-mini http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...i-plusfree-bat which is above that of your current 4870