To Build or Not To Build.

Well its around that time of the year again. Everyone is asking me what I want for xmas and frankly I have no idea.

So I thought maybe its time to upgrade one of my rigs. I currently have 2 comps that I am using.

Comp 1.
gateway p-6831 fx *Laptop*
8800gts 512mb gpu
t5450 cpu *could upgrade to x9000 for a huge increase*
250gb hdd 5400rpm *want to upgrade to 2 7200rpm hdd's, yes 2*
and the rest of the specs dont really matter.

The other comp is in my sig, but I sold the 8800gt out of it, so it's going to need a new card.

So my choices are as follows. Upgrade the laptop because I use it all the time. Put in a better video card into my current rig and use that. Or last but not least build a new rig altogether.

What do you guys think?

if you use the laptop all the time, well then upgrade that. if you'd plan on using the desktop - then upgrade that with the video card.

really it's up to you with what you plan on using, no sense in upgrading the others.

I would agree. If you use the laptop more it makes since to upgrade it. The T9500 makes more sense to me than the X9000 unless you find a deal on one. I am really liking these HD's and am thinking of picking one up myself. What is your memory situation?

Of course another option would be to try and upgrade to a 7800FX.

I used to use the desktop all the time, then sold the video card so I switched to my laptop. If I am going to go back to my desktop, I would need to grab a video card better than the 8800gt in the lappy.

I want to grab the x9000 instead of the t9500 because I can get them for under 400 bucks, and it will be the last laptop upgrade in a very long time.

I'm not really hurting for money so a budget isn't an issue, I just don't know what I want to do. I think building a whole new rig would be best, but I haven't been in the loop for quite awhile.

I saw that the new i7 stuff from intel is out. Currently what is the best processor overall, a quad core or dual core? I would love to get a higher end quad core. Something that will let me do all the multitasking that my little heart desires, but yet be quick enough in the single core aspect when it comes to games that don't utilize all 4 cores.

Let me know your guys opinions, thanks.

I know its really all up to me, buuuuut I don't know the power that's out there. If there is something that's much much quicker than the amd 5000+ and or a t5450 that I haven't seen yet, maybe I should try it?

edit: I forgot to say that there is 3bg of ddr2 ram in the lappy.