Time to upgrade again... What's lacking?

I'm preparing to get ready for Skyrim and Battlefield 3 (among other things) and have decided that now might be a good time to upgrade my late-2008 system. As often seems to be the case, I haven't really followed hardware trends, though, so am at a bit of a loss as to what's needed or possible. I don't have a budget yet but would like to stay cost-conscious and not break the bank.

CURRENT SYSTEM:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo 3000 mhz (9x333), socket 775
RAM: Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 - 4 GB (2 x 2 GB)
Video: EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+ (512 MB)
PSU: Silencer 750EPS12V
Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW
OS: Windows XP SP3
Visuals: Dell flatscreen @ 1280x1024

-- First off, is there anything you see that even needs updating, right off the bat? Or maybe it'll still be fine?

-- I plan on keeping the harddrives, optical drive, etc. so didn't bother listing those. I don't overclock nor ever want to.

-- I've been holding off on going to Windows 7 but thought this upgrade cycle might be a good time to do so. It would also allow me to take advantage of the full 4 GB of RAM I have (rather than just 3.25), or more if I upgrade that too.

-- Note that I don't have (or necessarily want) a huge/widescreen resolution, in case that factors into things; I'm perfectly fine gaming at 1280x1024.

-- I guess my overall inquiry is about the status of the processor, graphics card, and memory in particular... Are they still okay for newer games, or would they theoretically present bottlenecks? And if you guys recommend replacing any of them, would the Gigabyte board still be able to take them?

Thanks, as always... I know how frustratingly common these "help me!!" posts are.
m19

 

That's quite a modest setup, really give us a guesstimate at least of your budget as what you bought previously doesn't sound too good either considering you're just upgrading to a C2D and I can't even find a normal supplier that still lists the 9800GTX card. Will this be pre-built for you?

 

Huh...?

Per the intro paragraph and the big letters that say "CURRENT SYSTEM", that's the computer I built in 2008 and am using right now. To clarify: the list is my OLD system. I'm looking to upgrade it, not upgrade TO that list.

m19

 

Oh gawd! Sorry.:-o:-o:-o:-o:-o Agreed, a decent machine for its time. So, do you want to go up to the level of my machines?

 

If you intend to upgrade the system you now have two things jump out at me.
The CPU i would upgrade to a quad E.G. http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?spec=SLB9Z

The graphics card but this is depending on your budget. the 400 series from Nvidia are good but you could always go for a bigger card depending on how much you want to spend so if you give us an idea we can go from there.

 

Well every round I've updated in the past decade or so, I've managed to keep the various components in the $100-$150 range, largely by not jumping on brand-new hardware. I'd like to continue doing so, if possible. Beyond that, I'm open to all suggestions, particularly if it means being able to keep other parts (like the motherboard) to minimize how much needs to be upgraded.

The link you provided for the CPU seems to just link to a Core2? I trired searching for a "quad E.G." but am not familiar with the names and didn't come up with much, so I'm at a loss.

m19

 

Sorry i meant http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_...tm_term=Intel+Core+2+Quad+Processor+Q8400+CPU

But now you have said you would like to stick around $100-$150 maybe the Duo would be better, if you search around no doubt you could find it cheaper than the one i found.

 

The best you can do is get a C2D quad and as you can see, they're not cheap. I would rather go to an i3/5/7 with a new mobo or go AMD for a more inexpensive solution if you decide to change the mobo, but that's me talking. Plus your memory will also have to go to DDR3. I'd take the hit for a quad and a new video card, financially wise as that will last you another three years.

 

I'd always heard that Quads were bad for games, though, to the point that it can actually hinder performance. I'm sure that might've changed recently as more games use multicores (are they?), but if the processor's decent I have to wonder if maybe focusing on the videocard (more memory on it, etc.) might be a better plan of attack, given the game-focused nature of the upgrade?

m19

 

It could very well be as I don't game so I don't know. At least you still have options for the CPU for now. Ya, I'd concentrate on the video card first and as I see you have a strong PSU, so no worries about slapping a power hungry GPU in there. As Bill said, check out the 4xx or 5xx series.