Wondering what I should upgrade next

teapole

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Nov 23, 2011
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Hello! I am a budget gamer looking for my next piece to upgrade! I have recently upgraded my processor, graphics card, and power supply, hitting all the big areas. I can run most games with very nice visuals. I guess my real question is, I have about $100.00 to spend, and I'm wondering what I should do next, if anything.

Here are some of my current pieces

Hard drive and CD drive - TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223Q ATA Device [Optical drive]

WDC WD5000AAKS-75A7B2 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WCASY3618912, rev 01.03B01, SMART Status: Healthy

Processor: 3.00 gigahertz AMD Phenom II X4 945
512 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Display: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti [Display adapter]
STD HDMI TV [Monitor] (19.1"vis, s/n 16843009, March 2009)

Motherboard/BIOS
Board: ASRock N68PV-GS
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.30 01/08/2009

Another thought is sound, I really enjoy having good surround sound, and sound quality, should I go for headphones, or actual speakers?
Right now I'm using a REGENT home theater system, which is good, but not very up-to-date.

I use a generic DELL keyboard, probably a little outdated, that could use an upgrade, but I wouldn't want to spend too much on that.


For Performance, I was wondering if having a better hard drive would speed up load times, and gaming load times. I am not sure what effects what in that area. I was thinking that maybe the hard drive would be my next significant upgrade, because my windows experience scores it around 5.5, which is the lowest score I have.

Thank you for your suggestions, I know this may be a little out of category on the forums, but I appreciate any help I can get! Thanks again!
 

Block Bud

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Jan 12, 2012
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RAM is essential for gaming. Your processer is very good and should handle pretty much anything well. Graphics cards make a big difference to gaming. I put a gaming graphics card in my pc and upgrade my fps on minecraft from 50 to 180.
You could get this or hunt around for some gaming RAM with higher speeds
http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=8A6BBB8DA5CA7304

If your Mobo SLI's then you could do that. Your motherboard has fine tuning OC options. A free and easy way to increase speed.

Your hard drive is not that essential. Just regularly disk defragment on windows. The only thing you could do after that is get an SSD.

If you really want to push it then it may be time to get a new MOBO. it would be a pricey venture but you could sell your current one to make up some of the total cost.

If you are going to do that then make sure you pick a MOBO which is future proof. Definatly an AM3+ Socket so that you could invest in an FX. AMD dont seem to be changing sockets anytime soon with this brand new.
This website will give you some choice. You will want it to have DDR3. as to ensure more Future proofing.

This is a very good motherboard exactly on your price.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/amdam3plusallchipsetmotherboards/90-mibfl0-g0eay00z.html

That would ensure much upgradeability such as Quad SLI and FX compatablity.

Hope i helped
Bud