Question Need help with upgrades

[Dreamsfar]

I mainly use my PC for gaming and media, I feel like my rig needs a new part or two, probably CPU or GPU.
My problem is I have a limited budget and don't know enough to know what parts would be a cheap upgrade.

Currently I have:
Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V LX
CPU Intel i5-2500k 3.3ghz
Ram 16gb of DDR 3 Corsair
Nvidia GTX 680 with 4gb of ddr 5 ram

My budget is roughly 400$ which I assume would only get me one, maybe two parts.
What would help more new CPU or GPU?

 

[Dreamsfar]

Now that I've looked real hard, I think understand why you recommend the first PSU and think if I have to, that part will be ordered from newegg.
If I have 3 ssd, and 2 hd and a soundblaster audigy fx will 520 really be enough?
I ordered all the parts but the PSU from amazon, after all the taxes it came out to 503$ which is over budget, but my current PSU should hopefully last at least another 6-12 months right?

Edited to add: If I stick with my current PSU for now can you recommend a good set of extra cables for it? I'm not so sure I have all the ones I might need.

 

[R_1]

Now that I've looked real hard, I think understand why you recommend the first PSU and think if I have to, that part will be ordered from newegg.
If I have 3 ssd, and 2 hd and a soundblaster audigy fx will 520 really be enough?
I ordered all the parts but the PSU from amazon, after all the taxes it came out to 503$ which is over budget, but my current PSU should hopefully last at least another 6-12 months right?

Edited to add: If I stick with my current PSU for now can you recommend a good set of extra cables for it? I'm not so sure I have all the ones I might need.

520 will be plenty, SSD's are girly eaters at a few watts each, the drives are hungrier at 10-15W, 100W at worst for the CPU (65-95W) , 250 at worst for the GPU,
pcpartpicker shows 354 watts power consumption and that is with everything working at full to reach that number, add to that the pittance of the drives and you have power some power to spare even at 520W.

the PSU you have should be fine for a while. the cables should be from corsair. I dont know if other cables will fit, proprietary penchants being what they are.

.

 

[hang-the-9]

The RGB is not that important, but I was looking at PSU that would be around 50$ on amazon, I was also thinking of this one:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/7k4gXL/raidmax-power-supply-rx700acb
Also the newer corsair txm costs 89$ before mail in rebate, which is kinda pricey.
If I keep using my cpu cooler (which I just realized I could download fancy monitoring software for) is this the proper bracket? I couldn't find it for sale anywhere else so I guess that would be the only option for that?

You don't need to change the power supply, especially if your plan is to get a much worse quality one.
For 1080 resolution at 144hz a new video card will help you more than anything. I would just buy a video card now (make sure you check for latest BIOS for your system) and see how things improve. If you don't like it, then you can look into upgrading other things.

If you don't have a solid state drive, get one of those also, at least a 250gb one if not a 500, and install Windows clean on that.

You have high quality parts in the system now, really the only thing is the slower CPU and Video card, and the CPU is not that horrible even for newer games if you are not out for maxed out settings. Since you have a $400 budget now and are likely to be able to save a bit more in the future, get an RX 590. That will set you back a bit over 200 https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Technology-Backplate-Special-11289-01-20G/dp/B07K12KNHG/ref=sr_1_5?qid=1558047073&refinements=p_36:19000-27000&rnid=386442011&s=pc&sr=1-5 https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-Graphics-Windforce-256-Bit-Gv-RX590GAMING-8GD/dp/B07PQJ2S5G/ref=sr_1_21?qid=1558047180&refinements=p_36:19000-27000,p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin:6147184011,p_n_feature_four_browse-bin:6066318011&rnid=2057431011&s=pc&sr=1-21 the extra $30 or $40 over a 580 would give you another year or two in gaming at better quality and frames and you will be a lot more likely to get to high refresh rates at 1080 with it.

 

[cryoburner]

Since you have a $400 budget now and are likely to be able to save a bit more in the future, get an RX 590. That will set you back a bit over 200

Actually, I would say to go with a GTX 1660 over that, as it can around 10% faster than an RX 590 on average, while drawing considerably less power...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=439&sort=price&page=1

I suspect AMD will be announcing even faster graphics cards within this price range soon, though those are probably still at least a couple months away from being released.