System upgrade bottleneck NEED HELP!

[bigdates]

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and I've been planning to upgrade my rig over the next couple months (maybe pick something up on black friday, cyber monday, or boxing day) and I'd like to know where I should start to improve my PC.

My current build:
8GB DDR3 ram @ 1600 (Cant remember the brand off the top of my head)
Corsair 850W power supply
Some old AM3 motherboard with SATA 1
AMD Phenom II X955 BE @ 3.2 GHz
Nvidia GTX 560
128 GB Crucial M4 SSD (Yes I know I only have SATA 1 so my SSD runs far slower than it could)
Some old shitty 500GB HDD @ 5600 RPM

I mostly game on my machine, but I do occassionally do programming, but I dont use (many if any) heavily threaded applications.
Okay Basically my question for all of you friendly people here is:
If I was planning to upgrade my machine (It's between a new CPU & MOBO, or a new GPU)
What is my current bottleneck? (AKA. which part should I upgrade first AKA NOW)

I was thinking that it would probably be better to pick up a new MOBO with sata 3, and getting a Haswell chip too, and I was looking at:
I5 4670K
and picking up an aftermarket cooler, and OCing it to around 4.2 GHZ, but in the end it would cost ~$120 more than just picking up this:
I5 4570
Which fits into my budget far better, and I'd have more budget towards a GPU.

Or If i was planning to get a R9 290 (Non X) card (AFTER third party cards become availiable as MANY retail cards are unstable ATM from what I hear) and then picking up a cooler for this thing OR a 4 year warranty (so it lasts longer than 3 months, as from what I hear again, they run really hot, and have a high chance of burning out fast)

So to state the actual questions that i'd like answers to:
1) Whats bottlenecking my machine more currently, the Phenom II 955, or the GTX 560? (I was thinking since I've had my processor so long, i may just try and OC it to ~4.0 with the stock fan until it dies, as my case has 5 fans that already keep an extremely cold airflow in the computer) and if I do this, will getting an R9 290 run new games decently with my OC'd 955?

2) If I really need to get a new CPU/MOBO asap, should I go with the 4570 so I can purchase an R9 290 earlier (will this CPU bottleneck the card hard though I wonder??), or should I just go with the 4670K, get a fan, OC it, and wait a while longer for a GPU (Although I'd rather not go down this route, I know that my 560 is in need of an upgrade as well.)

3) ANY alternate help/solution/build is greatly appreciated. That being said, Ive already decided I'm going to shy away from an AMD chip unless a very convincing argument is given.

Thanks a lot guys !

 

[smorizio]

if your close to a micro center the i7 4770k on sale for 199.00 you cant beat that price right now for an i7 cpu.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i74770k
right now your cpu is holding back your video card. if your going to go high end amd gpu i would wait as nvidia 800 should be out in jan.
right now asus just came out with there mars 760 card two 760 cpu on one card.
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/MARS7604GD5/

 

[JOOK-D]

I believe you'll bottleneck either way slightly. The CPU upgrade first would have a far lesser (basically non-existent tbh) bottleneck. That said, people do run high end GPUs on Phenom chips and are absolutely fine (they tend to OC though).

I'd OC first, but not on stock cooling if you can avoid it. Get something like a Hyper 212 EVO, cheap and effective, if you can.

You could give us a budget and we'll see what we can recommend based on it.

Personally, I think you'll see more practical performance out of getting the new CPU/Mobo first (due to the slow SATA etc) but more gaming performance out of a new GPU. Honestly, neither are very outdated. The 4570 or 4670k would be great, it just depends on how much you want to spend - if you get the 4570 you can get a board without overclocking support which would be cheaper, or if you went with the 4670k it would be more expensive but with an edge on performance.

AMD isn't a bad choice, especially on a budget. Got one myself and haven't been disappointed, same with other users on this thread. If you were to go AMD you could go with the FX 6300/8320, best bang for buck and you could afford the R9 290 earlier.

 

[bigdates]

I believe you'll bottleneck either way slightly. The CPU upgrade first would have a far lesser (basically non-existent tbh) bottleneck. That said, people do run high end GPUs on Phenom chips and are absolutely fine (they tend to OC though).

I'd OC first, but not on stock cooling if you can avoid it. Get something like a Hyper 212 EVO, cheap and effective, if you can.

You could give us a budget and we'll see what we can recommend based on it.

Personally, I think you'll see more practical performance out of getting the new CPU/Mobo first (due to the slow SATA etc) but more gaming performance out of a new GPU. Honestly, neither are very outdated. The 4570 or 4670k would be great, it just depends on how much you want to spend - if you get the 4570 you can get a board without overclocking support which would be cheaper, or if you went with the 4670k it would be more expensive but with an edge on performance.

AMD isn't a bad choice, especially on a budget. Got one myself and haven't been disappointed, same with other users on this thread. If you were to go AMD you could go with the FX 6300/8320, best bang for buck and you could afford the R9 290 earlier.

If I were going to get a fan to attempt an OC on my current processor first, how would the Hyper 212 fare on cooling a 4670K down the line? Do you think it would be able to acheive 4.4 ghz, or would I be better off spending the extra $15-$25 getting an all in one liquid cooler, to maximize the OC i'd get out of a future chip? I had either of these in mind in that case:
Thermaltake WATER2.0 Performer Closed-Loop All In One Liquid CPU Cooler Dual 120mm PWM Fans
Or:
Cooler Master Seidon 120V

I'd be willing to pay the extra 20 bucks now for a water cooler if getting a 4670K and OCing it like crazy (Plus it would probably help me OC my phenom higher right?) would be a wiser decision down the road, which it is starting to seem like to me.

 

[JOOK-D]

Haven't had any experience with AiO coolers, although I've seen they do get better temps than air cooling. Then again, if they fail it's a much more costly situation.

I'd say it's up to you. You'd get to at least 4.5GHz on the 4670k on the 212 EVO. Maybe a little higher on AiO.

 

[bigdates]

Alright. In that case, I'll just go for a 212 EVO, I wasn't planning on OCING a 4670k past 4.4 if I got one.
Thanks for your help!
One last question though, do you think an r9 290 (non X) will be worth it (a 3'rd party one) I know the reference cards have been getting ridiculous benchmark results for the price, but I'm worried that the card will burn out fast though, as it runs very warm even stock. Should I just go for a 780 instead?

 

[bigdates]

Alright. In that case, I'll just go for a 212 EVO, I wasn't planning on OCING a 4670k past 4.4 if I got one.
Thanks for your help!
One last question though, do you think an r9 290 (non X) will be worth it (a 3'rd party one) I know the reference cards have been getting ridiculous benchmark results for the price, but I'm worried that the card will burn out fast though, as it runs very warm even stock. Should I just go for a 780 instead?

 

[JOOK-D]

Personally I'd go with a 290 because I'm obsessed with price/performance (Got my FX 8320 for the price of an i3 4130, for example).

Definitely get a 3rd party one, and I understand the concern with temps but they've stated that it's designed to operate at those temps. Even so, it's not often that a GPU burns out at least from personal experience. If you want it to be colder then you could ofc get a 780, just not what I would pick. I think the 290 performs slightly better. As with most things in high end desktop tech, you'll usually end up upgrading before they die. Anyway. up to you.

 

[bigdates]

Alright. I'm still not 100% sure on what Im getting yet, I'm more waiting for black friday/Cyber monday to swing around and see what I can get. If I can find an 8350 + a mobo for like $80 off, I'll take that in a heartbeat if theres nothing good for sales on the Intel side. Thank you for helping me take a step in the right direction for deciding though!

 

[JOOK-D]

No problem, anytime. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.