Thorned Between Cpus... Upgrades...

So basically I have budget to upgrade again BUT if its only absolutely necessary. I'm looking at i7 920 but I have to get new mobo and ram again. Then I started looking at Q9550 and Q9650..... which is which? check rig below, what do you think is best upgrade for me? Suggestions are awesome and highly appreciated

I doubt you will notice a difference between the Q9550 and Q6700 at the same speed, but the Q9550 can get to 4ghz most of the time. But if you go down that route it core i5 will be taking over mainstream soon, and offer more performance than the Q9550, but you still need a new mobo/ram etc, but will be cheaper than core i7. But personally, I would go core i7 if you plan to go SLi in future, if not go Core i5. The 8x pci-e slots in CF/SLI might hinder newer cards such as the DX11 ones, and core i7 seems to have better gains in sli over single card than the Core 2 quads.

Thank you. I don't think I will be doing sli soon as the only game I play is wow and using a single card seems to have suffice my adobe photoshop needs. I probably will wait for i5 and go ssd. I simply wanted to build a new pc for upstairs room or do more upgrade to this current rig I have. Hopefully i5 won't take that long

ya i think your fine with what you have for now. i remember when i went from my qx6700 to my qx9650 and both of them clocked at the same speed the qx9650 crushed the qx6700 in becnchmarks but real world i didnt notice much.

i wouldnt invest any money in 775 now though. I-7 and I-5 have different sockets and different offerings but i think I-7 is still going to be the best.

+1 to way I5

i5 is looking to be the way to go. Somewhere around 90% the performance of i7 with 775 prices.