What to upgrade? need advice

[derrickm420]

Ok so here's my current specs and what I'd like to upgrade to:

AMD Athlon II x2 240 ------------------> AMD Phenom II x6 1055t
G-Skill 4GB DDR3 1066
XFX HD5750 1GB GDDR5 128 Bit -----> HD 5750 Crossfired @ 8x/8x OR Gigabyte GTX460 768MB GDDR5 192 Bit
Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H Motherboard
240GB 7200rpm SATA HD -------------> WD VelociRaptor 300GB 10000rpm SATA HD
Raidmax 530w PSU
42" LCD 1080p Insignia TV
Insignia 7.1 DDPL/DTS Surround Sound
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Just wondering what you guys think would be my best upgrade option. I mostly use this comp to game and surf the web. Windows rates my comp at 5.6 because of the hard drive, the other scores are 7.0 and up. So out of the CPU, video card and hard drive, what would you guys choose and why? If I run the 5750 in crossfire I think i'll need to buy a new power supply. Oh yea, I don't want to spend more than $200 after shipping, tax and what not. Thanks for your help and advice in advance.

 

[mdd1963]

Due to a small amount of OS overhead involved with servicing 6 cores, the X6 gets slightly less gaming performance than the X4 variants at the same clock speed. Save your money and get the X4 for less money, better gaming performance.

YOu will have to review the crossfire benchmarks to see if it makes sense to buy a 2nd card vs buying a new one (like a 6950). (Frequently newer cards have almost the same performance as 2 cards from 18-24 months ago)

 

[boiler1990]

^+1

I would also recommend the Phenom II X4 955, which is the same chip as the 965 and 975 variants. It's easily overclockable to the speeds of the other chips, and is a great budget CPU.

I wouldn't recommend the 768MB versions of the GTX 460. If you go with a 460, you HAVE to get the 1GB models, as the games are very limited by the lack of video memory.