Upgrade/Bottleneck Question

Wiiings12

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I have just recently built a new gaming rig, only to realize I have a boatload of tax returns coming my way and I would like to put some of that cash towards my rig. It plays all the games I currently have on pretty high settings, not quite maxed out but perdy close. Anyways, I was curious as to what you guys think I should upgrade. More ram, maybe jump up to an i7 or overclock a k series i5? two 460's in SLI? Not quite sure what is lagging behind the rest.. The rig is as follows

Intel i5 2300 2.8ghz (3.1 turbo boost)
8 GB ddr3 1800mhz
GTX 460 675mhz
Gigabyte z68 motherboard

Also.. I have been playing battlefield 3 quite a bit lately and have been having severe screen tearing issues, sometimes making the game unplayable. I have ran stability tests and done work with EVGA's artifact scanner and nothing comes up. Not having any issues in other games just BF3.

Any help would be well appreciated. Thanks everyone.
 
Solution
A 2500k couldn't hurt as you will get a lot of performance gains in just about everything you do on your computer by OC'ing to 4GHz +. Just keep in mind you will also need to get a decent heatsink (in the neighborhood of about $40+).

8GB of RAM is plenty for gaming. The upgrade that will make the biggest impact in games is graphics cards. You can either pick up a second gtx 460 or you can move up to a newer model. Both NVidia and AMD have some great deals right now. At $180-220 you can get a GTX 560 ti or an HD 6950 1GB. A pair of these cards is very fast. You could also bump up to a GTX 570 or an HD 6970 for a little more than $300. Again this setup can be doubled up, too.

Last comment- what PSU are you using? Any of these...

beltzy

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A 2500k couldn't hurt as you will get a lot of performance gains in just about everything you do on your computer by OC'ing to 4GHz +. Just keep in mind you will also need to get a decent heatsink (in the neighborhood of about $40+).

8GB of RAM is plenty for gaming. The upgrade that will make the biggest impact in games is graphics cards. You can either pick up a second gtx 460 or you can move up to a newer model. Both NVidia and AMD have some great deals right now. At $180-220 you can get a GTX 560 ti or an HD 6950 1GB. A pair of these cards is very fast. You could also bump up to a GTX 570 or an HD 6970 for a little more than $300. Again this setup can be doubled up, too.

Last comment- what PSU are you using? Any of these dual card setups will require 4 6-pin pci-e connectors and about 750w (to be on the safe side). Cheers.
 
Solution

Wiiings12

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I see.. the 2500k does sound pretty good.. I am leaning slightly towards just picking up another 460 for the simple fact that I wouldn't be wasting anything. That is of course if my PSU can handle it. Trying to avoid buying something and having to sell whatever it replaces. As far as performance gains (gaming) would you suggest picking up the 2500k or just running a pair of 460's in SLI? Or do you think money would be better spent on a new video card entirely?

The PSU I am running on is a 650w Antec Earthwatts
 

Wiiings12

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Would my PSU be able to handle another 460? the i5 I have now overclocks pretty well from what I have seen. People have been able to get it up to 3.6ghz. So an aftermarket cooler is a great plan. Also, my motherboard comes featured with some type of hard drive/solid state combination that improves performance somehow? Something about using the SSD as a cache for the HDD I think.. Anyone have any experience with this?