Upgrading Gaming PC for Guild Wars 2 ($500)

[lhaygood1983]

I need some advice regarding upgrading my PC. Here is my current setup:

AMD Phenom x4 965 @ stock clocks, air-cooled with a 212+

Corsair SATA III SSD

8gb 10666 G-Skill RAM

MSI Twin Frozr II GTX 560ti 2gb GPU

Gigabyte 990fxa-UD3 PCB

Coolermaster HAF 922

I know my CPU is under-powered, but I only have in the realm of $500 for upgrades. I'm going to be playing a LOT of Guild Wars 2 in the upcoming months, as well as a few single player games. 

I'm wondering what the best set of upgrades is. 

If I get an i5 or i7, I'll need a new motherboard, and intel boards are still fairly pricy. That would probably keep me from getting a new GPU. 

On the other hand, it looks like I could get a FX-4170 and a nice 7950 for under $500. Or would it make more sense to wait for a Piledriver chip?

And as for the GPU, I know that the 7950s are coming down in price to match the 660ti, meaning performance wise I'm not looking at a big upgrade on the GPU unless I spend $100 to $150 more for a 670. I like the 670s, but right now AMD cards are out-performing nvidia in GW2. I do prefer nvidia, however. 

But if I get a 670, that will also tap out my budget. 

So is it better to stay with inferior architectures (FX-4170/7950) or piecemeal upgrade my GPU and CPU/MB? Are there likely price drops coming for Intel processors?

What is going to be the best bang for my $500 bucks?

 

[lhaygood1983]

Forgot to add I have a Corsair 650w silver PSU.

 

[niceas]

Check the following pieces out:

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=70541&vpn=BX80637I53570K&manufacture=Others&promoid=1088

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=70902&vpn=Z77%20Extreme4&manufacture=ASRock

I don't know whether your current CPU is bottlenecking your system, but if you wanted to look at an i5, I think that would be a reasonably solid way to do so, and still leave you enough cash for 16gb RAM if you went for that kind of an upgrade

 

[jerreddredd]

I would NOT consider the FX 4170 and real upgrade over a x4 965BE.

My advice is to get a GTX 660Ti and Overclock your 965BE. The 660ti should max out GW2 at 1080p.

wait for a Piledriver chip, it may actually be a viable upgrade for gaming.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Wait for GW2 benchmarks

 

[kcsmacker]

You are from Houston so you have a micro center. Put a 3570k and the asrock extreme 4 in the shopping cart and it will come to 300 bucks. Sell off the old CPU and Motherboard for about 100 -150 and you will be back up to 300-350 bucks to spend. That can get you another 560ti and a new psu to run it or you can look at it this way. Many of the gtx 670s are 400 bucks, however they are offering borderlands 2 free with it. If you planned on buy that its basically like buying a 670 for 360. I know this is at the top of your budget but just throwing out ideas.

I dont see a 660ti as a major upgrade to the 560ti. So I would A get a 670, B. get another 560ti ( it may run fine on a 650watt PSU but 560ti takes a bit of power and would do better on 750 or more) C. if you really want ATI then you could get a 7950 for around 330 now with the price cuts and try to overclock it to the level of a 670.

Good luck and maybe I will see you in game. I just ordered my 2nd 670 which is arriving tomorrow so I can have epic frames for GW2. (I want 60fps 24/7 even when recording ^_^)