What to upgrade?

[Chryses]

Hey all,

I've got a gaming rig that I've been upgrading through the years, but right now I've hit the point where I really need to leave the LGA775 era... Right now I've got this system:

Q9450 (quad core, 2.66Ghz)
4GB DDR2-800Mhz
XFX GTX280 (PCI-E 2.0 possible, on PCI-E 1.1 motherboard)
OCZ Vertex2 120GB
1680x1050 60Hz

I've been playing Diablo 3, and I really hate how it drops to 10-15 fps (all settings to max, but also unacceptable fps with everything on low) when I'm playing in coop and there's a lot of things going on. Also, I've been playing Guild Wars 2, and have to turn off all nice effects. When playing WvWvW (which is an extreme case, I know) my fps plummets and the game comes to a screeching halt with 5-8 fps, no matter what I do to settings! This is @ 1680x1050, and I would like to buy a 19020x1200 display, so it'll only get worse...

I've got a feeling there's something that's really bottlenecking my system, but I don't know what it is. I could add 2 or 4GB of RAM, but I got the feeling that the GTX280 is really being suppressed by badly written drivers (drivers get optimized for DX10-capable GPUs).

Anyone else got this feeling, or has got a tip what to do?

 

[Sunius]

I'd upgrade the CPU/RAM/MOBO. Your Graphics card is powerful enough imo.

 

[Chryses]

So, obviously this would mean a Sandy/Ivy bridge motherboard... Any recommendations or words I should look for?

Currently I'm looking at:

MOBO
LGA1155, ATX, Z77, 4 RAM slots
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (€130)

RAM
4 x DDR3-1600MHz
Corsair 16 GB DDR3-1600 Quad-Kit (€100)

CPU
LGA1155, i5
Intel Core i5-3570 (€200)

Would this be a good choice, or would you say 16GB of RAM is overkill?
I always bought Asus motherboards because I've got a feeling it's a premium brand. Do you trust ASRock?
Last but not least: it's mainly a gaming rig, but I like designing stuff in After Effects, Photoshop and Solidworks. Would you say I'd better go for an i7?

 

[Sunius]

I'd say 16 GB of RAM is indeed an overkill. I'd say get 8 GB.

That motherboard you've chosen is decent one. I own an Asrock board myself, it has not disappointed me yet.

I'd also get i5-3570K as opposed to non-K version - it will add to its longevity - probably it will last you a year longer or so. It shouldn't be much more expensive.

As for i7 - I'd say it's totally unnecessary. Better get an aftermarket CPU cooler and overclock the i5 - it will be way faster than non-K i7.