Best Upgrade Option

[JordoR]

Basically I am looking to upgrade my computer a bit for the upcoming release of BF3, Skyrim, and D3: beta. I'm looking to get the best bang for the buck here while still leaving myself open for future upgrades.

Just to mention, I don't have a budget set by any means... but obviously trying to get the best bang for my buck without upgrading and building an entirely new PC.

My Current Build:

- Intel I5 750 (w/ slight overclock)
- Asus P7P55d Mobo
- 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR3 Memory
- XFX Radeon 5770
- 60 GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD
- (2) 2TB WD Black (Raid 1)
- (1) 1TB WD Black (For backup)
- 700W OCZ ModXStream PSU Modular (I know, not a great PSU)
- Antec Three Hundred Mini Tower

Options

- What I see being an easy fix (and maybe the best one to do right now) is to upgrade my video card to something along the lines of a 6970, 6950, GTX 570 or 580... and double my ram to get up to 8GB. I could increase the OC on my CPU a bit since my temps are very low (forgot to mention I have an aftermarket heatsink). Even though my PSU isn't the best, it can still put out about 550W, which I believe should be enough to power what I have.

- Or Option 2 - I could double my memory, and for the time being instead of buying a new video card, purchase a new 5770 for about $100 and Xfire them.

Basically I'm just looking for any ideas on what would be the best way to go. I've also been thinking of upping my CPU to a new 2500K but I want to hold off on that for the time being. If I could get away with just the Video card and some additional memory I would be OK with that. I'd like this upgrade to also tie into my next new build which is probably happening mid next year... so if I buy a decent video card now (for a bit bigger cost) I would be ok with that if it can be used in a future build.

Thanks in advance!

 

[wintermint]

I would go with option 2 because AMD and nVidia are both preparing to release new graphic cards either this year or 2012. I would just crossfire the 5770 and the memory is fine. More doesn't hurt but you won't really need it. Your i5 750 won't be bottlenecking anything. What's your motherboard? I prefer x8/x8 when crossfiring but x16/x4 isn't far off. You will handle those games just fine haha.

 

[Proximon]

It's not a bad PSU. Not great, no, but acceptable.

I don't think you have a true crossfire board, so yes a GPU upgrade would be the best upgrade. Any of those mentioned are good upgrades. GTX 580 is probably not good in the dollar-per-frame category.

I did just read about a new 6870X2.....
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/powercolor-radeon-hd6870x2.html

That might be a nice option. There's one on newegg that's about the same price as a GTX 580.

You won't see a big gain from a RAM upgrade. If you were going to do that, probably best to buy a new set of 1.5V 1600Mhz or better, 2x4GB... more useful going forward.

You understand that your board won't support a 2500K, right?

 

[JordoR]

Thanks for the responses.

First of all YES, I absolutely understand my current board doesn't support the new SB chipset. That is one of the main reasons for holding off. Because then I would have to pay for a new CPU and motherboard.

The other problem is my case isn't large enough for crossfire as well. So I'd almost have to look at upgrading my case if I went to any card such as the 570 or greater. However, I've been looking at this for awhile now and might purchase something along the lines of a HAF-X which I could use for future upgrade to come. If not the HAF-X then an equivalent case.

You're bang on with the ram. a good kit of 2x4gb is only about $60 bucks which is on par with what another set of my 4GB would cost anyway. I know it won't be a huge performance increase, but it will be good because I do a lot of CAD work with this PC.

What I'm leaning towards after doing some thinking and talking to a few more people:

- Upgrading my RAM
- Upgrading my CASE
- Purchasing a new Video card (leaning towards a 570 as the 580 only offers roughly a ~20% performance increase)

However this puts the budget at probably about ~500-600. A bit more than what I was looking for, but might be necessary. Obviously upgrading to another 5770 is more attractive, but I don't like investing too much in old tech.