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*possible* upgrade.

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I have 170 burning a hole in my bank account, and I am considering an upgrade. I don't really need to upgrade anything, but I thought I'd ask for some opinions. I have

GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3. // OCZ Fatal1ty 550W // AthlonII X3 440 3.0GHz. // POWERCOLOR Radeon HD5770. // Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 1600. // SAMSUNG Spinpoint-F3 500GB 7200RPM // Win7 Home64. // Asus VH236H at 1920 x 1080.

I am able to run most games at nearly maxed out settings, but some games force me to lower them just a bit.

So I can get another 4gb of Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 1600 for 71.99 with free shipping from newegg, pretty amazing deal. I don't need 8gb now, but within 2 years, I'm sure there will be several games recommending more than 4gb.

Or I can get the Phenom 955. I was reading about the differences between my processer, the AthlonII X3 440 3.0, and the phenom 955, and referring to the Gaming CPU Heirarchy Chart, and the author mentions "I don’t recommend upgrading your CPU unless the potential replacement is at least three tiers higher"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpu-overclocki...

Is a tier considered a grey or white grouping of processors in this chart? Or is a tier just one single line?
Would the Athlon II X3 445, 440, 435 be in the same tier as the Phenom II X6 1055T according to this chart?

I don't want to buy a SSD right now cause I could only afford a 64gb... ewww. I'd like to have my OS, my programs and at least 2 games on the SSD when I get one.

Alternatively, I could save for another 6 mo or so, and then upgrade my gpu.

What do you guys think?

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I would look at the Phenom II series and not go with SSD's just yet. The 955 is a power house which is good and should run games just fine. But the L3 cache really does make a large difference. Sooooooo. Oh also don't get the X6 unless you have programs that can actually make use of the six core, because if you running a game like GMod for example its going to run as fast as my old Phenom X2 because GMod only uses 1 thread. But for synthetic tests the Phenom II X6 would be miles a head of the Athlon X3. So go with the X4 your 5770 will thank you (I was bottle necking it with too little RAM 3gbs and a kinda slow Phenom II 550)
Homebuilt system Authority

The 5770 is not going to be "bottlenecked" by any multi-core chip. I surely wouldn't buy a new CPU, big changes are happening from both the AMD and Intel camps, which could/should affect pricing. If you feel the need to upgrade, get a new GPU. It will be the most noticeable change you can purchase.
Homebuilt system Expert

Save up money for the new SSDs the new intels and ocz vertex 3 pros look preety nice and they will noticeably improve boot times as well as loading times a 120gb ssd should be fine for your requirements

After that get a 6870 once they're liquidated for the new series
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Thanks for the suggestions! It's always fun to browse newegg : )

Any idea on what the vertex 3 pro price range will be? I couldn't find any rumors with a quick search.

What about Ram? Are prices going to continue to go down?
I can get another 4gb of Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 1600 for 71.99 with free shipping. Would this be a wise future proofing?
Homebuilt system Expert

I don't think the RAM prices are coming down anymore, but still don't buy extra RAM because 4gb is enough for gaming and most little bits of rendering.

As for vertex 3 pros I haven't heard about prices but I would guess they would be about the same as the vertex 2s maybe a bit more initially
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