New Parts?

[Glitcher]

I have my computer for about 3 or 4 years now. Although its still pretty fast, I'm having to notch down the settings for newer and newer games. Also some raw processing such as compiling maps and rendering effects is getting sluggish. I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to computers, but I don't know whether or not to start upgrading my computer. I have a GSO based graphics card so that would be easy to upgrade. Overall though I want the opinion of you experts on this forum about how much longer this system will last me.

GeForce 9600 GSO -DxDiag says it has 2540 MB of memory.
nForce 750i SLI MCP
Intel Core 2 Duo -I'm thinking this is my weak point.
Western Digital Caviar Green -Plenty of space left.
4GB of memory.

[TailsAndEars]

I can only see three upgrades that might help but most likely get you only 2-3 yrs more of use before a new build is needed to keep up with the more advanced games and programs.

First step up to the Intel Core 2 Quad to help spread the processing load between the 4 cores.
Second Upgrade the GPU to a NVIDIA® GeForce GTX card.
Third is to upgrade to 8 gigs of ram so the comp wont swap in and out of the hard drive so much.
Forth is to clean out (uninstall/delete) all the junk on your computer you don't need or use any more.
Then fifth of course is disc cleanup and defrag. (after uninstall and deleting)

That's all I can think of to get the most out of what you have and like I said that should hold you for a couple of more years before a new build.

[RobbieThe1st]

Actually, the first, most /noticeable/ step you can do? Replace that Caviar Green with a Caviar Blue or Black drive of the same size or larger.
Caviar green drives are relatively slow, which will manifest itself in long(er) loading times, slower startup etc.

[avwolf]

Oh, man, that's a 5400rpm drive? Yeah, Robbie's right, you'll get a lot of bang just from upgrading to a 7200rpm drive. The OS startup time (and loading times for games) would be noticably faster with a faster hard drive.

What's your operating system and the clock rate on your core duo? Those factors might affect recommendations (for instance, there's no point in buying more RAM if you're on a 32-bit OS, and upgrading your video card matters a lot less if you're on Windows XP, since it doesn't support DX11+ anyway). Your RAM is not really too bad, and while you've certainly got an older video card, it looks decent. It's not top of the line any more, so it's going to be a limiting factor for modern games, but you should still get reasonable performance out of it.

[Glitcher]

Thanks for the input guys, as I'm short on cash right now I think I'll just buy more ram and wait until I can afford a new hard drive.

Oh, man, that's a 5400rpm drive? Yeah, Robbie's right, you'll get a lot of bang just from upgrading to a 7200rpm drive. The OS startup time (and loading times for games) would be noticably faster with a faster hard drive.

What's your operating system and the clock rate on your core duo? Those factors might affect recommendations (for instance, there's no point in buying more RAM if you're on a 32-bit OS, and upgrading your video card matters a lot less if you're on Windows XP, since it doesn't support DX11+ anyway). Your RAM is not really too bad, and while you've certainly got an older video card, it looks decent. It's not top of the line any more, so it's going to be a limiting factor for modern games, but you should still get reasonable performance out of it.

I have Windows 7 64bit, and my graphics card is doing fine, the only games I haven't been able to play at max setting that I have are Skyrim and Deus Ex: Revolutions. As for hard drive speed my OS boots ups quickly, its the background programs that take forever, especially Rainmeter.

Now is it safe to say that if I buy another of the same graphics card and link them together that I would have double the power? As far as I can tell it should be so as the computer would split the load between the two cards.

[avwolf]

Now is it safe to say that if I buy another of the same graphics card and link them together that I would have double the power? As far as I can tell it should be so as the computer would split the load between the two cards.

Eh, Crossfire and SLI don't actually offer double the performance. It's really more somewhere around one-and-a-half or one-and-three-quarters the performance, as I recall. Sometimes it's cost effective, sometimes (I'd go so far as to say "usually") it's more cost effective to buy a better card. You're on a DX10 card now, and with Win7, you've got OS support for DX11, so it's probably going to be better for you to buy a new card rather than putting more money into outdated technology, unless you can get another card like yours for a real steal.