Considering upgrades, looking for advice..

[runz]

Current System Information
Intel Q6600 (Factory Clocked) (AC Freezer)
EVGA 780i SLi Mobo
4gb OCZ Gold Gamer (DDR2 800)
BFG GTX 260 (Stock clock)
XFX 7950GTX(Stock clock)
1x Raptor 150GB
1 Western Digital 500GB
Antec 1200 Case
Antec 850W PSU (TPQ-850)

System use
I use it for mainly World of Warcraft and League of Legends. I dont play a massive amount but want it to perform correctly.
Currently my main LCD runs off the 260, with two additional monitors running off the 7950GTX.
On a regular basis I like to watch netflix while I play and if netflix is in HD I get massive framerate loss and stuttering.

Known issues
The nvidia driver crashes every month or so and I believe it is due to the 7950 failing or not liking being on the same driver as the 260, I could be wrong though. As well I am currently on Windows 7 32-bit, but will be remedying this shortly.


My Upgrade Idea
I am looking at getting 2x OCZ Agility 90gb drives and a GTX 470 (EVGA).

Theory behind my idea
I want to improve the load times and the raided SSDs should fix that, as well the 470 should be more than enough card if I do want to pick up some of the high end games out at the moment. I will reload the OS to 64-bit with the new drives and remove the old cards.


Questions
1. Given that information is this the upgrade path you guys would choose?

2. Would still having a second card in the system to run the two extra monitors drop the performance enough that I should just stick to the 470 and eliminate a monitor?

3. Is there truly a need for i7 or DDR3 on MMOs? (Over my Q6600)

4. Anything else I should truly consider?


Final Statement.
I work for an enterprise level IT company and get a nice perk of putting all this on an employee financing thing. I am going to set that so that if I do get these products the loan will be empty in 10-11 months. This way I can plan on upgrading next year or the year after. Due to this I am looking for parts that will move over easily to a new rig. I could rebuild an all new system right now, but I dont feel the performance difference would be worth the cost atm.

 

[batuchka]

I want to improve the load times and the raided SSDs should fix that

1. Just the 2 X SSDs in RAID even on SATA 3GB/s interface will saturate the SATA 3GB/s ports on your current mobo so i wouldn't recommend it - in fact just hit one 60GB Sandforce based SSD and be extremely picky about what goes in it (besides OS)

2 + 3 I would really just hit an after market cooler and clock the best i could with that Q6660

4. October 19th: HD 6000 series out so we could see changes in pricing schemes of current GPUs so if you could wait do so

 

[runz]

I can definitely wait for October 19th. I just need this completed by the release of the expansion.

Sandforce is just a controller right? Is there a particular one that is better? Is there a reason to not go over 60gb?

I would like to have the room if I could, but understand if its a big performance loss.

I currently have an Arctic cooler Freezer on it, it does well with temps and my case flows a ton of air.

 

[batuchka]

Yep controller - the reason is: the GB/$$ is getting better for SSDs but w.r.t mainstream mechanical it's still a tad painful pill to swallow hehe Hence being very selective and using it as exclusively boot/os and selective apps/software

 

[runz]

How much of an affect does having the 7950 in for the other monitors have? I cant find if this board flips to 8x 8x or 16x 8x. if its 8-8 is it a pretty decent hit?

 

[runz]

on my controller am I really going to see a big gain over my raptor with a sandforce SSD? I see so many people having issues with BSOD and lockups from sleep and really dont want to deal with that if its a minimal gain.

 

[coldsleep]

I haven't heard about BSOD/sleep issues, but maybe I'm not reading the right sites.

As far as VR vs. SSD, there's no competition for boot & loading times. You're not going to see a difference once the application is loaded, however. See the conclusion of anandtech.com's review of the new velociraptors for some more thoughts on SSD vs. VR value.

 

[runz]

It seems like its hit or miss on the Corsair, maybe I will try an Gskill. I am still searching for wether having the second card in there is hurting performance or not ATM.