From Q9400 to 3570K

[Kranky]

My current three year old build is as follows:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX
Q9400 @ 3.30 GHz
8gb ram (two kits of mixed but closely matched ram (4x2gb))
Crucial M4 128gb SSD
eVGA GT 460 1gb vid card
Antec 500w Earthwatts PSU
(other components)

I'm considering this:

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H
i5 3570k processor
8gb Corsair ram
(same case, psu, vid card from previous)

What kind of boost in raw speed and responsiveness should I expect? Worth an upgrade from the P45 chipset. I game (fps, WoW) and edit photos (lightroom). No video editing for the most part as of yet. For those that have made this kind of upgrade what are your thoughts? Would you do it again?

Thanks,

Brent

[Acebmxer]

I noticed a huge jump going from my old q9650 to i7-920 (x58 chipset). I also noticed a little difference going to z77x with the 3770k. The new cpu and chipset is more fun to play around with and easier to overclock.

The biggest improvement would have to be getting a ssd. That hdd biggest bottle neck in the whole system. ssd's are cheap now, I was glancing at the OCZ vertex 4 and its little less then 1$ per GB. Other wise I would recommend getting the Corsair force GT.

[Kranky]

I noticed a huge jump going from my old q9650 to i7-920 (x58 chipset). I also noticed a little difference going to z77x with the 3770k. The new cpu and chipset is more fun to play around with and easier to overclock.

The biggest improvement would have to be getting a ssd. That hdd biggest bottle neck in the whole system. ssd's are cheap now, I was glancing at the OCZ vertex 4 and its little less then 1$ per GB. Other wise I would recommend getting the Corsair force GT.

Yeah, the SSD I have in the Crucial M4, but even with a SATA 3 (6Gb/s) add-on card I think it's still behind held back by not having it natively in the chipset.

[wazza300]

you will,the intel sata3 ports are the fastest/reliable,even better now that raid 0 and trim is supported,plus you can take advantage of lucid virtu mvp which will give you a big boost in performance by combining the 8800gts with the built in igpu in games

[Kranky]

you will,the intel sata3 ports are the fastest/reliable,even better now that raid 0 and trim is supported,plus you can take advantage of lucid virtu mvp which will give you a big boost in performance by combining the 8800gts with the built in igpu in games

Finally updated my sig a bit. I have an 460, but the Virtu MVP should still help. Wonder if you put the LCD into the MB DVI or the 460.

[wazza300]

yes it will still help,it works with any graphic card,kinda like a mini sli/xfire,idk but the motherboard manual will tell you if you use the onboard port or the graphic card,keep your m4 aswell,it will run at full speeds on the ud5h

[Acebmxer]

Finally updated my sig a bit. I have an 460, but the Virtu MVP should still help. Wonder if you put the LCD into the MB DVI or the 460.

To use the Virtu MVP you need to have your monitor connected to the GPU, but the IGPU must be enabled.