Need some advice on CPU upgrade

[Deleted member 174368]

Right now, I'm running a socket 939 X2 3800+ @ stock speeds (can't overclock due to an inadequate cooler). Obviously this is bottlenecking my HD 3870 on current games, the most apparent being Unreal Tournament 3. Was holding out for the Phenoms to upgrade, but that didn't turn out so well.

Anyway, I have some money to spend, and these are my 2 current options I'm looking at.

1) Wait for an SB700 790X board, and pair that with an X2 5000+ BE, which would tide me over until K10.5 (45nm/6MB L3) early next year. Problem is no one knows if they really will offer the performance/stability upgrade AMD promises.

2) Go Intel (after 5 years of AMD!), spend more for an E8400.

Obviously the safest (and probably smarter) choice would be going Intel, but then I might regret it if the quad or tri-core K10.5 does kick some ass (at least in a price/performance point of view).



For some reason I just can't settle on one or the other... so help me out here

 

[engiNURD]

wait as long as you can, and buy when you can't wait anymore. if by that time amd isnt the clear winner, go intel. though, if you're a fanboy, the cheaper price of the amd chips doesnt make it such a waste of money anymore.