What to upgrade?

[tolk]

My current configuration is:

CPU: E8400 Core 2 Duo
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4
Memory: 4GB DDR2 Corsair XMS2
GPU: Gigabyte 9800GTX
HDD: 500GB 7200rpm Seagate

I use it for a combination of things - watching videos, gaming (BFBC2, SC2 and a few older ones at the moment), dev work, occasional multimedia editing (Photoshop and Premier).

I was wondering which component(s) are likely to be bottlenecking this system? What would be best to upgrade, whilst keeping the upgrade cost down (i.e. I'd rather avoid replacing the entire cpu, mobo, ram combo unless doing so is the only way I'll get a significant performance increase).

Main reason for the upgrade; games coming out in near future that might be a bit too demanding for this build to play comfortably.

 

[weezys_advocate]

Buy a gtx 460 would be a good cheapish option to keep you gaming for a bit longer. anything more powerfull your cpu will become a bottleneck. should let you play all games (obviously not on highest settings). overclocking your CPU will also help

 

[tolk]

Would an SSD make much difference for gaming performance, or only for load times? Ask as I've seen some good ones on offer for a low price locally (£80 ish for 120 GB).

 

[dalmvern]

An SDD will make no difference on game performance. It would make the games load faster. Also, most people dont put their games on their SSD, only the OS.