I can feel and upgrade itching

[S1ght]

I can feel an upgrade itching

As the title suggests I'm thinking about it but maybe its just cause I haven't in like a year

So presently I have:

AMD 4600+ dual core
2x1 gig DDR2 800 corsair
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
XFX 8800GT XT with Zalman cooler
Coolermaster CM590
Samsung 2253GW

Now what I'm thinking is maybe a nice Sammy T260 and wait to upgrade CPU/mboard/gpu later in the year when maybe some of the new generation cards start to surface or I could maybe go for a Phenom II 955 with new mboard (that supports DDR2 and not DDR3) and stick with the rest. In terms of the usage, its my gaming/media/work pc and although I can still run games on high the cpu does cause a bottleneck at times esp. with the higher resolutions.

The questions are

1) Would a 26" monitor be worth the cash over my current 22" (besides the obvious higher res and bigger screen)

2) Any ideas of AMD releasing any good cpus worth waiting for or should I just take the dive now and go for new cpu/mboard.

3) Any news when the new gen cards are going to start getting released?

Thanx in advance
S1ght

 

[TheRift]

I heard a 965 was on the way, but think it might just be a higher speed rating on it.
Maybe go with a AM3 board to futureproof yourself.

 

[S1ght]

You do get AM3 boards that support DDR2 800 which is what I had thought about since DDR3 still doesn't seem to justify itself. I wonder if this 965 will at least push the price of the 955 down a little then

 

[TheRift]

Hopefully. But I'm not waiting for it and will be trying to get a 955 within the month.

From what I've seen online there really isn't much benefit to DDR3 right now. Only the triple channel shows higher bandwidth throughput when connected to the correct memory controller, but only Intel have those. The downside is the latency goes up. But we all know how it goes, DDR3 will be pushed and next thing you know they're cheaper than "that ancient" DDR2.

 

[SaiyanZ]

1) Your screen is good enough for now. If you get the T260 you wont be able to max out the latest games with your 8800GT. So you'd have to upgrade your graphics card as well. Only get the screen after you upgrade the card. If you only plan on working on your pc for a few months and are not going to play games then get the T260 and upgrade the graphics card when you decide to start gaming.

2) You could get the Phenom II 955 and a new motherboard or upgrade the graphics to at least a HD4870 or GTX260. You'd see a performance increase with both upgrades. For gaming you'd see a higher jump in performance by upgrading the graphics. For work purposes and multitasking the CPU upgrade would be better. Either way you'll have to upgrade the CPU sometime so I would go for a new CPU first. (because you'll be using it all the time and it will also increase gaming performance a little, but not as much as getting a new graphics card for newer games). A new graphics card is not going to speed up calculations in excel

3) From what I've read online, AMD will release their HD5000 series in the next 2-3 months and Nvidia is releasing the GTX300 series earliest next year January.