Built in early 2010, looking for upgrade ideas

[jcarrey4]

Good morning, all!

Man, I haven't been on here in years, but some of you helped me out 4 years ago when I built the system I've detailed below. I'm on here now trying to decide what to do next.

I think my best course of action would be to upgrade my SSD, however, my system does not support SATAIII, so I'd have to upgrade the whole motherboard/cpu

So, then, I was considering, since my GPU's fan makes a loud whirring sound (but still works, no overheating issues), I'd look around for a new card. I was looking to see if i might find a good deal on the r9 290x on CL or something.

Basically, I'm just looking to see what you guys think. I'd prefer not to totally rebuild right now, but rather wait a year...maybe even 2.

Thanks!

MSI 790GX-G65 BIOS 1.4
AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE 2.8 GHz (I had a viable 4th core, so I unlocked it and have been using it stably for 4 years)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2) 1600MHz (Mobo originally set to 1333 MHz, i fixed all that)
EVGA GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB (I then traded a guy on craigslist this card and some cash for the ASUS ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB)
Intel X-25M 80 GB SSD (G2), With firmware update for TRIM
OCZ700XSX (I have since replaced the PSU, which died in a power surge)
Coolermaster HAP 922 case
Coolermaster Hyper 212+ cooler
Arctic Alumina
TV tuner
Hitachi DVD-ROM
Philips DVD-RW
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

[Praise_Gaben]

Get the Cooler master 212 and overclock the cpu. R9 290 will be bottleneck, i would rather get a gtx 760 or r9 280x (which will probably also bottleneck depending on the game/settings).

 

[jcarrey4]

Praise-

I have the coolermaster 212+, and I should have specified, but I am overclocking it and the RAM.

I would much rather over-specify something like the GPU so I can grow into it; I'm hoping, like I said, to do a full upgrade in a year or 18 months, and have the GPU fit right in then. I'm just wondering if I should suck it up, tolerate the sound for now, and when I upgrade then, get whatever is a good card at the time, instead of maybe overspending now for something that will be outdated a few years after I build the thing.

That being said, I wouldn't mind going on an Intel-style tick/tock, and upgrading the MOBO/CPU/RAM next year, and then upgrading the GPU again in 3-4 years.

Which is why I'm asking.

 

[jcarrey4]

Oh, and there is the potential that someone will buy my GPU, which I've listed on CL, (flaws all noted), so then I'll have some more cash on hand to buy a 290x...again, hopefully on CL for less than $600!

OH! And I should also specify that I am in a different financial situation than I was before, so I'm hoping to go a little crazy on my next build.