Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
You don't need to start from scratch.
That's actually a very decent computer. The Q6600 at stock speeds is too slow but overclocked, is comparable to a modern 4 core CPU. With a Asus P5K Deluxe, 3.0GHz is almost 100% guaranteed (IIRC, possibly even at stock voltage) with 3.2-3.4GHz also in the realm of possibility. My old Q6600 was at 3.6GHz.
At those speeds, it stops being a GPU bottleneck and you can upgrade to a modern mid-range video card.
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I very much beg to differ. The e8500 (in an Asus P5N-D) I swapped out of my wife's PC was overclocked to 4.0 on air (yes it was loud), and was literally getting 25-30 fps @ 1680x1050 in most modern games with a 570. Switching to a modern mainboard, a modern CPU and DDR3 had such an intense change to the overall effectiveness of the videocard it can't be understated. This goes double for games that are more CPU intensive like MMOs and Civ 5 (or Sim City upcoming).
This is also keeping in mind that an e8500 (esp at a 4.0 OC) has better gaming performance than a q6600.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=55
Hell, look at the FPS differences between a q6600 at stock (worse for OCing) to a 2500k at stock (can OC up to 4.5 without breaking a sweat).
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=288
It's almost a 50% difference with the same hardware other than the CPUs, and those tests were done at stock speeds with a GTX 280, which certainly has much less bandwidth than a modern GPU.