Dell XPS 720 Upgrades?

[XMKSilver]

I recently took a 2-year old XPS 720 off my friend's hands and I'm looking to upgrade it.
The base specs are here http://www.pcworld.com/product/30130/dell_dell_xps_720.html?p=specs
(He had upgraded the HDD capacity to 500GB)

Here are the upgrades I was considering:
GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 RAM
I was considering upgrading to Windows 7 from the Vista Home Premium included on it.

Should I upgrade the motherboard as well? Opinions overall?

 

[sk1939]

Number one, you can't put an i5-2500k into that machine without changing the motherboard.

Number two, the included processor is still quite capable, especially if you overclock it.

Defiantly upgrade the RAM, and adding a 560Ti is not a bad idea, although I'm not sure how much gain it will net you over the GTX it already has.

 

[XMKSilver]

Thanks for the reply.
In terms of gaming, is the difference between an i5 and overclocked i2 major? I'd like to know if an upgraded CPU will affect in-game performance.

(If I were to upgrade to an i5, would http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130643 be a sufficient mobo?)

As for the GTX thing, the 560Ti is inexpensive enough for me to warrant buying it even if the gain of it is close to non-noticeable.

Can you give me an idea about Vista VS Windows 7 as well?
Thanks again n_n

 

[sk1939]

It all depends on the games you are playing. What are you looking at playing? Most modern games are more GPU heavy than CPU heavy however.

If you were to, then yes.

True.

Windows 7 is much "snappier" in performance, at least it feels that way. Plus it has some nice features like Libraries where you can group folders and list their contents inside of a "folder".

 

[XMKSilver]

The main games I was looking at are BF3, MMORPGS such as GW2 (Unreleased), Skyrim, Dark Souls.

 

[sk1939]

Battlefield 3 will be taxing, the 560Ti will probably only play it on high at 1280*720 or so. The higher you crank it, the more it will drop.

 

[XMKSilver]

Best answer selected by XMKSilver.