I just upgraded from a q6600 to a i7 2600. Here was what it cost me:
For one I got a Gigabyte B75m D3H motherboard, it's decent and pretty cheap out there.
Then I found the cpu second hand. CPUs are pretty robust so buying one second hand is never a bad idea, if you know what you are doing.
And the memory and cpu cooler I bought new.
I sold my q6600, the old motherboard and memory that came with it. In total I got about R1000 for that. The i7 cost me R1700. And the memory and cpu cooler another R600.
Kept my old GPU, harddrives and case. In the end the total cost for the upgrade was: R2300. Here's my current specs:
i7 2600
8GB DDR3 1600 Patriot G2
Gigabyte B75m D3H
2 x 500GB and 1 x 250GB SSD
600W CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold
Nvidia GTX285
Maybe next would be to upgrade my GPU, again I'll be buying it second hand. I earn a small salary so buying new hardware is never an option. Still I'm extremely happy with my upgrade so far. And for that price I don't think anything could come close to it.
