Suggested upgrade path

[JonnyW]

So just looking for a quick bit of advice here, for what you guys would do in my situation. My current rig is:
Q6600@3.2ghz (at 1.3v i think and with hyper212 evo, temps~30 idle 45-50 load)
EVGA GTX 570 SC
Gigabyte P41 (crap but it does the job)
4GB 1333mhz DDR3
WD black 300gb
Corsair TX650 PSU

Now ive decided that, as many ppl who enjoy building PC's do, i would give myself a little project when i next have some spare time. Since my case is really bad (cant even find a brand name) ive decided to get a new one. Price would be ~£60-70 and i would be looking for a mid tower with good airflow, and plenty of space. Just generally nice features like cpu cutout, space behind mobo tray, and tooless HD mounting ect. While i was at it i thought i may as well go one of two paths:

Invest in an SSD, since im sure the general loading improvements would be great
Do an overhaul of the cpu,mobo,ram

Bare in mind that currently i am perfectly satisfied with the performance of the PC, being able to run things such as far cry 3 at 1080p maxed out comfortably (45-50fps), only really struggling with things on max such as BF3. Yes i know that the GPU is almost certainly being bottlenecked but its still providing more than enough power for my needs.

So in my situation, what would you do?

Thanks in advance for any replies/suggestions.
JonnyW.

 

[FinneousPJ]

If you're still happy with the performance don't go changing out the core components yet.

A new case and SSD sound like a fun upgrade. Perhaps learn custom water cooling if you're interested.

 

[swifty_morgan]

how's about 1 of these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171667

 

[envy14tpe]

A 570 is a great GPU. I had a 560ti and it handled BF3 at High Settings. I loved that card, but I got the bug and upgraded to the 660ti. If I were you I'd stick with your GPU.

I think your in a tough spot. A SSD won't help with your game performance, rather it would give you extra snap.

Instead you might want to consider upgrading the mobo+CPU. According to a benchmark, the q6600 is decent but you can see it's far behind a 2500k, so you can imagine about the same or more for a 3570k.
http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=7986&pageid=8147


With that said, Haswell is coming out soon. You're best bet is to wait for the new Intel chips, then jump onto the Haswell platform. Also, at that time, get a 120/128gb SSD to boot your OS and programs.

Plus HDD prices are the best in a long time. You can get a 1TB HDD for $65.

 

[envy14tpe]

how's about 1 of these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171667

I didn't even think of that. Nice! For $45 its a fun thing to try. Although we know SSD Caches
have died away due to the new SSDs.

 

[JonnyW]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. Wow didnt realise that HDD prices had dropped down that much again. Was definitely going to wait for haswell before i got a new cpu regardless of what i wanted to upgrade first, and seeing those improvements it would be rather temping. Perhaps in the mean time i will have a have a look into getting both an SSD, maybe 128gb as has been suggested, and a larger HDD since i could use the space.

Also, does anybody have any good suggestions for a case with the rough specifications that i mentioned in the first post. Have been having a look myself but there are so many to choose from. Had a look at an NZXT Phantom 410, but im sure there are better choices for slightly cheaper.

 

[swifty_morgan]

I didn't even think of that. Nice! For $45 its a fun thing to try. Although we know SSD Caches
have died away due to the new SSDs.

the reason I suggested a cache drive is because the only real upgrade would be to replace the mobo/ram/proc. $50 is a cheap way to get a little improvement over wasting money on a tired old salt.

 

[envy14tpe]

Good call. You have a decent CPU and Haswell is gonna be a nice jump. Yes, HDD prices are so cheap it is tempting to buy more space. You listed a 350gb HDD, which is really low nowadays. As for SSD, I would wait to get a SSD when you buy Haswell, so you can install everything onto the SSD at one time. (The best way to install OS on SSD is fresh install)

NZXT makes great cases. The 410 is great! You can easily get cheaper cases for $50-70.