Looking to upgrade but not sure what would give me the most bang for my buck.

[pyroguy7]

I'm looking to start doing some game and software development, so I wanted to beef my system up a little.

This is my current setup:
(PSU: CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-750TX)

(Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P )

(CPU:
- Phenom II X6 1055T)

(Video card:
Asus Radeon HD 7770 Graphic Card)

(RAM: 8GB total:
-Corsair CMX4GX3M1A1333C9 XMS3 4GB DDR3 RAM - PC10666, 1333MHz, 4096MB
-(I think it's a kingston 1333Mhz, need to check))

(Case: DiabloTek CPA-0280 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case - ATX, Micro ATX)

I don't know off hand what hard drives are in there but I know they're lower end 7200rpm hard drives.

I'm considering replacing the mobo so that I can have more and faster RAM, as well as have at least PCIe 2.0, but I'm not sure about what to get, or if it will be worth the money for the upgrade.

I'm also looking into getting one of those Seagate Hybrid drives, and was wondering if anyone else has some experience with them.

Thanks.

 

[enemy1g]

Depending on what your budget is, I would recommend moving up to a i7-4770k and a Z87 board. Grab 16GB of RAM, 2x8GB, and possibly upgrade your GPU to a GTX 770/780. You can keep your current PSU.

I've read that the SSHD (hybrid) drives aren't that great, so I would suggest sticking to using a SSD as a primary drive, and using a standard HDD for media storage. Or if budget permits it, buy a large SSD.

 

[pyroguy7]

Sorry, I should have mentioned a budget. I'm looking to spend maybe around $200 right now, if it's possible to see any noticeable difference right now.

 

[pyroguy7]

So, what it seems like to me is that updating my mobo won't net noticeable differences. The speed gains from PCIe 2.0 and faster RAM seem like nothing to brag about. I did decided to bite on a Kingston V300 120GB Solid State Drive ($70 on Tiger Direct right now), and I have a copy of Windows 8.1 ready to install on it. I'm hoping for a noticeable difference from that.