I am currently looking at these (I gave plenty if spare mobo and hdds so they are not listed)1. Intel Core i3-2120 (3.3 GHz, 3MB L3) Nvidia GeForce GT 440 (1GB 128-Bit GDDR5) 2. Phenom ii x4 840 (3.2 GHz, 2MB L2) Radeon HD 6750 (1GB 128-Bit GDDR5)3. Intel Core i3 2100 (3.1 GHz 3MB L3) GeForce GTX 460 SE (1GB GDDR5 256-bit)My current build is a Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66 GHz paired with a Radeon HD 3870 (512 MB 256-Bit GDDR4). Mu friends say this build can still service me a year while waiting for th bulldozer. Should I upgrade or wait? Which build?
You should wait because there's a rumor that Intel will drop the price of their non-K series chips to greet Bulldozer. Sadly, the cheapest Bulldozer processor is suppose to be $200. If you're looking into a gaming PC, I would save up a little more money for a quad-core. Games are finally just starting to get to the point that they're actually making use of these things. Build #3 is the best. But, I would save up a little more just to future proof a little bit. It seems your last build was made of of some top shelf parts. You won't get as much time out the the parts you've picked, as you did with the last one.
Build 3. The CPU may be a tad faster in the first, but the GPU is far superior in the third. A low-end Phenom II x4 vs the i3 in gaming? It's a bloodbath. The i3 slaughters it. After all the delays and AMD's admission that Bulldozer needed more work to be competitive, I don't think it's going to be all that great. However, if you can, save up to get one with an i5 2500k and a better video card. $150 more could change this from a good gaming build to a great one. And you have plenty of spare socket 1155 mobos?
I have to say number 3 is a lot faster than the rest of the ones listed. That's a second generation i series so it should do nicely. It beats the x4 840 by a little bit. The 460 SE gtx definitely beats the hd 6750 by a lot. Go with number 3
Does the computer do all the things you use it for in reasonable time? Does the gaming performance suit your needs? If the answer is yes then perhaps you should wait. If the answer is no then perhaps you should upgrade. Only you can decide if it's time to upgrade or not. Bulldozer is probably gonna be a great CPU but bear in mind that it's not going to be any better at running games than any quick quad core CPU.
