Desktop Upgrades $250-400

[Mobedda]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: in the next few weeks

Budget Range: $250-400 w/ rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming/Researching

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to Upgrade: CPU/RAM/GPU/PSU (trying not to touch the Mobo if possible)

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Location: Myrtle Beach, SC

Parts Preferences: Not a real fanboy, except of quality

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Noise is not a factor, im mostly on a headset anyway. Nothing is OC'd atm and its a single GPU card Rig.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: System is a lil over 2 yrs old: Mostly play WoW/CoH/AoE, running them maxed out now with 25-45 fps (depending on location) just looking to get an idea of how much more i could upgrade what I have w/o yanking the Mobo.


Here is my current setup: (windows 7 64bit OS)

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core

RAM:
8GB G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

GPU:
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support

PSU:
CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC



Thank you guys in advance, your knowledge is priceless.

Happy New Year!

-Mobedda

 

[o1die]

You have a good power supply; it has some room for overclocking. For a cheap upgrade, just the video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130841 or this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

Skip upgrading the cpu and ram; you won't gain enough by changing them. Try overclocking if you havnen't done so yet. Increase the cpu fsb by 20-25% while setting the ram at 1333 in manual mode; let the board select the ram timings. New Intel cpu and board will cost $300-350, but might get you a real performance boost. Use microcenter if you live near one. They had the 2500k oem cpu for only $140 a few days ago, and usually discount the board with combo purchase.

 

[Mobedda]

Best answer selected by Mobedda.