OKOK.....last year I was laid off. I had just finished my rig prior to me being let go. I found a job but the first year required me to be out of town the first year. Now that part is over I have not paid much attention to what all is out there. As I look around and see the new i7's. I'm wondering how long I will be able to get away with what I have.

Here is the rig:

Case: Gigabyte Aroura 3D(now called SUMO)

Enermax 650 watt PS

MB: Asus Strkier Extreme

Proc: e8500

RAM: Corsair XMS2 1066 Dominator(4gigs)

Video: Two Gigabyte 8800GTX 640 MB(running sli) and one 8500 designated for physx

HD: Two 36 Gig Raptors and one 150 gig raptor

Optical: one Sony and one Plextor

6 in one card reader

Windows Vista Home Premium is the OS.

Don't get me wrong.....I think she is lean and mean....but how much longer could I push this to get my money's worth?

The E8500 is still a particularly fast CPU.  Most games are still dual core optimized, and that's one of the faster duals out there.  Especially if you can push 3.5GHz+ on it by overclocking then you're CPU will be fine for some time.

I assume those GPUs are 8800GTS 640MB?  Those are probably nearly as fast as a single GTX 260 / Radeon 4870.  Thus you still have admirable performance.  While some games really love Quad cores (GTA IV) these are still very few and GPU is the most important for performance, so I'd say you could run with that system for at least another year.  Most games are console ports anyway.

Well, what resolution to you run at?  1920x1200 with Crysis, Far Cry 2, GTA IV, the new Stalker, etc will be pushing your SLI setup a bit far.  But anything below that and I see no need to upgrade for a while.  Even if that is your res, as long as you don't demand perfect settings in the highest games (those I mentioned) you'll be perfectly fine for a while.

Yeah you have a really nice system. I think you can hang on to it for a while. Then again its all about when you are no longer happy with the performance. My girlfriend runs a E4300 with 4GBs of ram and a 9600gt. She loves it. It was only about 6 or so months ago that I finally convinced her to upgrade the 7600gs that she had been running.

indeed like the others have said there is really no reason at the moment for you to upgrade your system. It is still fast and if you OC it you can make it last even longer with a bit of a performance increase....

Similar specs to what I'm currently running and I'm still satisfied with the performance I get in games. I run all my games @ 1920 x 1080, almost always max settings and can usually manage 30fps or more.

BTW: That's with no OC'ing.

thx guys....good to know I'm still good to go with my system.

Your PC is more than capable to play anything other than DX11 content, imo.

Well it's better than mine lol.

I actually do not have this system anymore. I traded it for a .280 Ruger rifle and a Remmington 870 Shotgun. I think I did pretty well!!!![;)]

^Hah, nice.

Aww, you traded that nice setup for guns? At least you won't have to upgrade your guns every 6-10 months..