Time to upgrade my PC, But don't know where to start

[Dangerousret]

I understand all of the hardware aspects of upgrading, but just confused about the compatibility between all of the components. When I look at my motherboard it says the socket is LGA1366, so i'm pretty much stuck with the processor I have now due to it being discontinued? What about upgrading graphics cards though? I'm running ATI Radion HD 5770 x2. If I get a new graphics card, will it be compatable with the PCIE I have on there now? (2 * PCI Express x16 (2.0)
2 * PCI Express x1) and still make it a worthwhile upgrade? Also My RAM is currently 3x2GB 666MHZ would it be better to get one more stick of that same? or to get 2x4GB 1600MHZ RAM sticks?
Also when will I know when it it time to finally upgrade my motherboard? I'm not really looking right now to make a new system, but to just tweak a few areas to improve my systems performance.

 

[iblowuup]

Could you give your motherboard model number and your CPU model number?

 

[AGx-07_162]

CPU
With regards to the CPU, specify the CPU you currently have. There may be upgrades you can get depending on what CPU you currently have, though obviously you couldn't use anything that socket doesn't support.

Graphics Card
With regards to the graphics card, you'll be able to to use PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 cards in those slots without any noticeable difference in performance over having PCIe 3.0 slots.

The problem you might have would be a powerful GPU bottlenecking the CPU. You should specify your CPU and motherboard if you want recommendations on specific cards. Otherwise, generally speaking, the above applies.

RAM
Give specifics on the motherboard for best recommendations. I'd personally go with the 2x4 GB set as it leaves [possible, assuming the mobo supports] room for additional upgrades. You also want to make sure your CPU and motherboard supports what you try to buy.

Motherboard
You're CPU is limited by the motherboard. Your GPU might be limited by the CPU. When you get to a point where buying a new GPU, CPU, or RAM would be pointless because there would be no noticeable improvements, then its probably time to get a new motherboard.

 

[Dangerousret]

My MOBO is Alienware 04vwf2 version A02
CPU is intel i7 CPU 930@280GHz

 

[iblowuup]

As far as upgrading your CPU goes I'm not sure if that would be worth it as you already have one of the best CPUs for that motherboard. You could potentially upgrade to an i7 940-980 but that wouldn't be very cost effective. I would recommend trying to overclock your i7 930 if your motherboard allows it.

Your graphics cards are rather weak but you do have 2. However a lot of games don't like crossfire a whole lot and in general it's good to just have 1 GPU rather than 2 that are equivalent to the 1. I would recommend getting a HD 7850, 7870 or 7950 but not anything too much more powerful as your CPU may start to bottleneck unless you overclock it.

As for RAM, you could upgrade to some 800mhz RAM but I think you should be fine with the 666mhz as RAM speed isn't very important for gaming. In addition the old DDR2 memory may have lower frequencies but it has lower timings which sort of balances things a bit and makes 800mhz DDR2 perform similarly to 1333mhz DDR3.

I think where you will see the biggest boost in performance is getting a mid-high end HD 7000 series or GTX 600/700 series graphics card. Your CPU could stand to be overclocked as well but it should be ok for now. As for the RAM, I would leave it unless you notice abnormally poor performance that can't be traced to the CPU or GPU.