What to upgrade next, need some advice please.

[ryandinnage]

Hi all,

Im currently going through an upgrade route with my pc where im buying one upgrade a month to get my pc a bit more upto date, and add a bit of future proofing in there. Im playing alot of fps games Crysis, Farcry 2 etc along with a few rts games like dawn of war 2 etc, i really only use my pc for gaming.

I'll list what im currently running

WIN 7 64bit
Hiper 530w PSU (http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2954/6p4s.jpg) **Link to PSU Sticker with volts etc**
4gb 800mhz OCZ Gold Ram
120gb Hitachi Desktar Sata II HDD
Gigabyte MA770-UD3 Motherboard
AMD 7850 (Oc'ed to 3.1mhz)
ATI 4850 512mb
**I play on a 22 inch monitor 1680x1050**


Now im really unsure of what would be the next most benificial upgrade that would give me the biggest upgrade. Im torn between CPU, (Been looking at the AMD x3 720BE), A better graphics card (although i believe if anything im currently bottlenecked by my cpu ?) or two Hard drives to stick in a raid.

If you was in my position what would you go for and in what order ?

Also could anyone shed some light on my psu, is it any good ? or should i look at upgrading it and if so what would you recommend, i don't really know much about volts/rails etc or what i should be looking for in a psu.

My Win 7 Rating index is currently:

Processor: 6.5
Memory: 7.1
Graphics: 6.5
Gaming Graphics: 6.5
Primary Hard Disk: 5.8
Base Score 5.8

Thanks in advance to anyone that can push me in the right direction.
Ryan

 

[Raidur]

I would start with the Phenom II X3 720BE and see if that can hold you off until a few months down the road, if you're wanting to get a DX11 GPU (graphics card).

I'm not too into raid so you'll have to get another judgment on that, but I'd probably do it after upgrading the CPU (if you choose to hold off until DX11 for the GPU).

As for your PSU, the 12v rails look like they could use a little more beef but if it's holding off now I don't see any point in upgrading it until you upgrade your GPU. Some good brands for power supplies are Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Antec, and Thermaltake.

If you do decide to upgrade your GPU before the release of DX11, Toms just released a "Best Graphics Card For The Money: July '09" which would give you a good glance at your options for your price range.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2362.html

 

[JDV28]

I agree with raidur on the cpu. And no raid also. Its useless and causes more problems for you. Depending on how much money you have to spend, you could get either a SSD, or something like a Velociraptor, which is a 10K rpm hdd