What mobo are you running? As long as your not running a stock cooler you should at least be able to overclock your q9450 to 3Ghz, what cooler do you have for your cpu? If its only $100 id step up then, didnt realize it would be that small of a difference, how long do you have left on your step up, if its more like 60 days or so id wait to see what nvidia comes out with next, if not id step up the the GTX 280's to future proof your rig.