Upgrade Gaming PC

[lessthanflawles]

I built this system on a budget a little while back:

phenom II x4 840 @ 3.7 GHz (no L3 =[)
2x2gb 1600 g skill ram
power cooler 1gig radeon 5770 @ 950 MHz
500 gig hdd at 7200 rpm
600w xigmatek psu

I mostly game, but do a lot of internet browsing at the same time.

I'm trying to decide where I should upgrade next, my budget is around $250 (or less).

I would assume a better graphics card would best suit me, but I was also looking at SSDs, but I'll probably wait until prices come down a little bit more.

Would I see a noticeable difference in getting 8 gigs of ram, or a better cpu?

..I guess I could also get a better heatsink and OC my cpu a little bit more =] but only if you guys think it will help.

 

[r0aringdrag0n]

Hi! First, what kind of gaming do you do, since you said "but do a lot of internet browsing at the same time" I assume it isn't CoD or Battlefield (tell me if I am wrong). Now:
1: SSD's are a waste of that $250, I would prioritize your upgrade like this:
Most Important: Graphics card
Second: CPU
3rd: RAM
4th: SSD

Why graphics card? Right now most games don't use more than 2 cores, so you have a decent (even if it isn't the best) CPU. The graphics card is the most important to get to have a high res gaming experience.

Why isn't RAM up in the top 2? 8GB of RAM is overkill now, in fact, my computer doesn't use more than 2GB (I have 4GB). So you can wait to get RAM

Why is the SSD last? The SSD really doesn't help much...unless you like fast boot times and such, but then you have to reinstall the OS on that drive and tell your comp to boot from that.

 

[lessthanflawles]

Thanks, that's about what I was thinking, other than that SSD sounds pretty sweet for load times.
Right now I'm pretty much only playing WoW, which I can max out on my little monitor, but I would like to be able to run higher end games eventually.

Do you think my processor would bottleneck a radeon 6950?

 

[r0aringdrag0n]

I dont think any 4 core CPU will bottle neck the 6950

 

[lessthanflawles]

Best answer selected by lessthanflawles.