Is it time to upgrade? (Lynnfield)

[phobiarg]

I am contemplating upgrading my desktop. I am starting to feel that my i5-750 is dying which is now bottlenecking performance. I had a 3.8GHz OC a few years ago, then after being stable for about a year I started having issues with it. I dropped my clock to 3.6GHz, again it was stable until about 6 months ago, then it started crashing. I dropped it to 3.4 GHz and then yesterday it started crashing again, I'm not sure if it is my PSU just getting old, or my VRMs starting to burn out, but I couldn't get anything stable past 2.8. This system is just over 3 years old.

Intel i5-750 @ 2.8GHz
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
Asus P7P55D-E Pro
Coolermaster GX750
GeiL Corsa 16GB 1600 MHz (this is only about a year old)
Gigabyte WF3 Radeon 7950 (Also cannot seem to OC this much; I bought this to replace my 5850 about 6 months ago)

 

[Dangman]

Upgrade the PSU first: It's of very low quality and I wouldn't be surprised it's causing your overclock issues. Go for the Seasonic SSR-650RM 650W PSU for $109 shipped.

 

[Moneyless]

I agree with Danny Bui, you should definitely look into getting a new PSU -- subpar power supplies can cause all sorts of problems. (And besides, if you do end up upgrading the rest of your rig later, you'll keep your awesome new power supply.)