What is the best build for gaming?

[crosbycail]

Currently this is my build:
CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: EVGA GTX 970 FTW+
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x4gb
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
PSU: Corsair CX600
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0
Case: NZXTGuardian 921 RB ATX Mid Tower
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
HDD: WD Blue 1tb

What would be the best thing to upgrade next to get the best gaming performance and experience? btw this is my first build, thanks

 

[Phil923]

I would say that the thing that would need to be upgraded next is the CPU and motherboard. The 6300 is falling behind and has been shown to be a bottleneck in a lot of modern systems which requires overclocking to remedy. If you are going purely for gaming, Haswell i5s are the best as of now, (e.g. 4690k if overclocking, and whichever locked i5 is cheapest)

Another thing that wouldn't change game performance, but could make your system in general be snappier and improve loading times for games put on it, would be an SSD, but as I stated before, it won't actually improve FPS.

And if you ever want to SLI another 970, the 600W power supply won't be enough so when the time comes you may want to change that out. I would also recommend a PSU that isn't the CX series from Corsair, those are very average units. EVGA B2/G2/GS, XFX, and Seasonic are some good choices out there, but I would say that upgrading this part is for much later in the future.

 

[crosbycail]

I would say that the thing that would need to be upgraded next is the CPU and motherboard. The 6300 is falling behind and has been shown to be a bottleneck in a lot of modern systems which requires overclocking to remedy. If you are going purely for gaming, Haswell i5s are the best as of now, (e.g. 4690k if overclocking, and whichever locked i5 is cheapest)

Another thing that wouldn't change game performance, but could make your system in general be snappier and improve loading times for games put on it, would be an SSD, but as I stated before, it won't actually improve FPS.

And if you ever want to SLI another 970, the 600W power supply won't be enough so when the time comes you may want to change that out. I would also recommend a PSU that isn't the CX series from Corsair, those are very average units. EVGA B2/G2/GS, XFX, and Seasonic are some good choices out there, but I would say that upgrading this part is for much later in the future.

So should I upgrade my CPU and motherboard first?

 

[Phil923]

Yes, that would be my suggestion.

The 4690k and the ASUS Z97-A are a good combination. If you want a specific color scheme, the ASRock Z97 Extreme4 is good for blue, and the ASRock Fatality Z97X Killer for red.