To upgrade or not to upgrade?

[semlethe3rd]

Well it's that time of the year again when my birthday / Christmas are close by that I normally upgrade something with my computer. Last year I upgraded the power supply just to make sure I'm ready for future upgrades. I'm kind of stumped this year on what to get and would appreciate any ideas. The hardest part about having water cooled parts is with an upgrade to the CPU/GPU comes roughly another 100 dollars for the water block(but thats okay =P like overclocking to much). So i've already been looking into graphics cards since an upgrade to the CPU really means CPU,MB,and memory.. maybe its time though? My budget for my birthday is max $300 and for Chirstmas will be about the same.. so this could be like.. buy a CPU for my birthday.. and then the MB and memory for Chirstmas if thats going to lead to the biggest performance increase. So what do you guys think? The KEY thing to note here is I am a GAMER at heart, so FPS means everything not how fast i can compile/encrypt something. Hence why I was mostly looking at graphics cards because my feeling is that at 4ghz the Q6600 isn't really a bottleneck(maybe im wrong?). In considerations of what to buy ignore the added value for water cooling blocks, I can pay for that piece out of my own pocket =P. So at a price point of $300 what would be my best bang for my buck? or should I just wait till next year?

Current setup:

Q6600(Overclocked @ 4ghz) ~Water cooled
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA GTX 280(Overclocked to GTX 285 performance) ~Water cooled
G.skill 2x2GB DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB
ENERMAX REVOLUTION85+ ERV1020EWT
Modded Antec 900 Case

 

[Niklas_13]

I would just wait.

 

[semlethe3rd]

Haha but I haven't had a new part to play with for much to long =P

 

[Niklas_13]

Then pick up a SSD drive and save the rest for next year, the SSD will help with game load times but wont do much else for the game play.

 

[Twoboxer]

Wait for Sandy Bridge (1Q), and then decide what to do. If you think you're bummed now, think how bad you'll feel if you buy 30-60 days before the next latest and greatest comes out lol.

 

[aznshinobi]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

Great performance, OC's to 4.9ghz on Air says intel.

Plus Cayman will be available and that thing should be a head to head with 580. Plus the 6950 looks like an interesting prospect should it be like the 5850 was with the 5870.