What should I upgrade? $500 limit!

[rswain823]

I have $500 burning a hole in my pocket to upgrade my pc. I have been searching for weeks on what would be best but I have yet to find what I need. Below are my system specs. PLEASE HELP!

os: windows 7 x64
cpu: i7-920 oc'd to 3.2ghz
gpu: 2ct. 285gtx oc in SLI
ram: 6GB 1333mhz oc'd to 1600mhz
case: antec 1200

What would give me the best bang for the buck... upgrading my CPU or GPU... or something else?

PLEASE HELP!

 

[rswain823]

Had to update! Sorry, I'm new on this forum

I have $500 burning a hole in my pocket to upgrade my pc. I have been searching for weeks on what would be best but I have yet to find what I need. Below are my system specs. PLEASE HELP!

os: windows 7 x64
cpu: i7-920 oc'd to 3.2ghz socket 1366
gpu: 2ct. 285gtx oc in SLI
ram: 6GB 1333mhz oc'd to 1600mhz DDR3
motherboard: asus rampage II ROG Series
psu: antec 1000W power supply
cd&dvd: blu-ray player/burner & dvd player/burner
hd: 2TB
sound: 5.1 surround sound logitech (no need to upgrade this!)
case: antec 1200

Everything is cooled perfectly and I have no problems with noise issues.

What would give me the best bang for the buck... upgrading my CPU or GPU... or something else?

PLEASE HELP!

 

[rswain823]

I also have a 24" acer monitor running @ 1900X1200

 

[wielander]

It really depends on what kind of performance improvement you want.

You aren't going to be able to buy any better CPU performance; the six core Intel processors start at over $800. With a decent aftermarket CPU cooler you could probably up the overclock, though.

Something Like this Cooler Master Hyper 212+
$30
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-B10-212P-G1-Universal-Heat-Pipe/dp/B002G1YPH0/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1284935077&sr=8-1

or even better, this Zaward Vapor 120
$45
http://www.amazon.com/ZAWARD-Vapor-Compact-Cooler-ZCJ013/dp/B003HC8H0S/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1284935190&sr=8-1
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=6365749&sku=A406-1200&srkey=zaward%20vapor%20120


If you want better gaming performance, you will need to upgrade the GPUs. I don't think it would be a very practical upgrade, but two GTX 470s or 480s in SLI would be better than what you have. If you sell the GTX 285s on ebay, you could make $300-350. You could get two GTX 470s for $580 or two GTX 480s for around $850.

GTX 470 vs. GTX 285 benchmarks & the cheapest GTX 470 on Newegg:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/166?vs=160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125320&cm_re=gtx_470-_-14-125-320-_-Product

GTX 480 vs. GTX 285 benchmarks & the cheapest GTX 480 on Newegg:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/166?vs=158
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125319&cm_re=gtx_480-_-14-125-319-_-Product


Adding an SSD would be the most noticeable change (Snappier start-ups, shutdowns, loading, and file transfers). For $550 the Crucial C300 256GB is unmatched in performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148349&cm_re=c300_256gb-_-20-148-349-_-Product

The 128GB version has slower write speeds but is still your best bet for $271.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348&cm_re=c300_128gb-_-20-148-348-_-Product

For just a small boot drive the 60GB Sandforce drives offer the best performance starting at $127.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227542&cm_re=60gb_ssd-_-20-227-542-_-Product

 

[swifty_morgan]

Spend the money on a psychiatrist, you're nuts.

 

[guanyu210379]

The best upgrade I can think of is to get a SSD for your main partition.
C300 or G.Skill Phoenix pro or OCZ Vertex 2 should do the trick.

Beside SSD, no siginificant upgrade can be done under USD500, because your rig is almost a most-up-to-date system.

 

[rswain823]

Best answer selected by rswain823.

 

[rswain823]

Spend the money on a psychiatrist, you're nuts.

Isn't the point of forums to ask questions? I think you're on the wrong forum, maybe you should be on the doctormd.com forum

 

[cirslevin]

get a eyefinity or 3D surrounding setup, may require you to sell your current GPU, invest newer GTX4xx (two cards needed) or Radeon HD 5xxx (single card solution) and two more monitors.

I just got my eyefinity setup, its really phenomenal.

Oh, EDIT: maybe two GTX 2xx does this too, I am not sure now.