I'm looking at my approximately 4 year old PC and wondering what level of upgrade I should go for. I could still run games like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, etc., but it's chugging between turns late in games like Civ IV and Elemental: War of Magic. So my question is: How much am I going to gain jumping up to a 5600+? Or is it time to go for a full mobo/processor upgrade, or maybe a whole new computer to start upgrading. Thanks for the help.




System Specs:

Originally bought HP a6000n
HP a6000n Specs

Motherboard specs
M2N68-LA

Upgrades:
Power Supply - Thermaltake TR2-430w
Graphics card: EVGA GeForce 9800 GT
Ram: 3GB

If you could OC a 5600 it might tide you over for a while, but with the pre-built system you are currently running that probably won't happen. Your money would be better spent by researching a new Build.

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Antec 1650B
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910w
ASUS M3A79-T DeLuxe
1090T x6 @Boiling in the La-Boratory
Corsair H70
OCZ Reaper 8500 2x2 *Pending
ASUS 5970 (under OC investigation)
EVGA 260 55nm (holding pattern)
SeaGate 320x2 16GB Sata
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
Logitech Z-5500
XP Pro SP2

Yeah, that's what I started to figure out the more I looked around. I can get a 2.9 ghz 5600+ for about US$60, so I think I'll do that upgrade. But that will be it, and my next buy will be a new rig. Thanks.