Upgrading My Computer

[Deleted]

Hey guys, I need help deciding what to upgrade on my PC. I want to upgrade my CPU and motherboard, they're becoming very outdated but the rest of the pc is new-ish. I have a budget of £300, around 480 dollars IIRC. I was thinking of buying an Intel 520 series SSD to put Windows on, and some other software.
This is my computer:
500w Power Supply, by looking inside my case I cannot fully see the brand name but it's 'arctic' something.
8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600 mhz DDR3 RAM, two 4gb sticks.
Nvidia GeForce 550 TI (people say that this card isn't good enough for high end games, but I can run BF3 on ultra?)
500gb Barracuda Harddrive
Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.2ghz (Was gonna upgrade this to a Intel i5 3570k 3.4ghz)
Gigabyte S-series Motherboard (for some reason, it's box wont unveil the model's name -.-)
I have a good enough cooling system, and the processor comes with heatsink and fan anyway.
Sorry for the vague information, my friend put this together because I had little to no knowledge of computers. I only managed to salvage this info by looking into my case, and some off the top of my head.
Anyway, my question is, what components should (or could) I upgrade within my budget? Cheers for any help.

[prankstar]

i Would use this motherboard http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Motherb...omputers_img_y

this processor http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Genera...7147432&sr=8-1

and this ssd http://www.cclonline.com/product/813...Drive/HDD1450/

this will bring you slightly over your vudget but is will worth the extra £15

[Asurakai]

i5 3570k or any other i5 processor are some of the best options for a Gaming PC. As for the rest of it, the most important component for a gaming PC is the graphics card. the 550 Ti really isn't good enough for high end games, so idk what is going on with battlefield. Perhaps it isn't as demanding as most other high end or you are more tolerant to a small amount of lag, who the hell knows...

I am not sure how much of your budget you have left (assuming you are taking away from it buying the i5 and the SSD), but I would definitely look into getting a different graphics card some day if you plan on playing more high end games or take part in the more intense parts of MMO's. The 7770 is probably the least I would get if I were into more populated battlegrounds and Raids but if I wasn't on a very tight budget, I'd definitely get something better than that. Based on newegg prices, the next good option based on price-per-performance would be the 6850. The 560, 560 Ti, and the 6870 aren't really worth it (although they are still pretty good cards) saying how the 7850 is currently either the same price or slightly more for significantly more power.

If you are willing to spend over $200 on a GPU, the 7870 is a great option. The 660 Ti, 660, and 570 are alright, they are currently overpriced but not too badly. If you use a resolution higher than 1920x1200, I'd probably avoid the 660's due to them having a lower bus memory as well.

If you are willing to spend over $300, the 7950, 670, or 7970 are all great options for the price.

[Deleted]

i5 3570k or any other i5 processor are some of the best options for a Gaming PC. As for the rest of it, the most important component for a gaming PC is the graphics card. the 550 Ti really isn't good enough for high end games, so idk what is going on with battlefield. Perhaps it isn't as demanding as most other high end or you are more tolerant to a small amount of lag, who the hell knows...

I am not sure how much of your budget you have left (assuming you are taking away from it buying the i5 and the SSD), but I would definitely look into getting a different graphics card some day if you plan on playing more high end games or take part in the more intense parts of MMO's. The 7770 is probably the least I would get if I were into more populated battlegrounds and Raids but if I wasn't on a very tight budget, I'd definitely get something better than that. Based on newegg prices, the next good option based on price-per-performance would be the 6850. The 560, 560 Ti, and the 6870 aren't really worth it (although they are still pretty good cards) saying how the 7850 is currently either the same price or slightly more for significantly more power.

If you are willing to spend over $200 on a GPU, the 7870 is a great option. The 660 Ti, 660, and 570 are alright, they are currently overpriced but not too badly. If you use a resolution higher than 1920x1200, I'd probably avoid the 660's due to them having a lower bus memory as well.

If you are willing to spend over $300, the 7950, 670, or 7970 are all great options for the price.

Hey! Thanks for your help guys, really appreciate it.
Anyway, yea, I thought it was weird too. At first I thought it wasn't good enough, because it was really, well, blurry/laggy or whatever, but it turns out it was the 'blur' function on the Options menu. Rather pointless, it impairs your gameplay. Anyway, I'm focusing on the motherboard and processor at the moment. I'm just a student at the moment, so once I'm a bit more well-off I might upgrade that too. Is there a 'special' version of the 550? On the box it's got all this 'premium' and 'better cooling' and all that shit. That might be why it can handle games so easily.

[prankstar]

i think its probably more likely that your playing games that are not so GPU intensive. if you were playing the game metro 2033 and battlefield 3 then you would struggle.

i would go for the processor and motherboard linked in my first post

[Deleted]

i think its probably more likely that your playing games that are not so GPU intensive. if you were playing the game metro 2033 and battlefield 3 then you would struggle.

i would go for the processor and motherboard linked in my first post

I am playing battlefield 3 on ultra settings, that's what I stated in my first post...? Just because someone has said that a processor is 'not good enough' doesn't mean that it isn't. I've come to learn to take opinions on technology on the internet with a huge pinch of salt. Honestly? When people say 'it isnt good enough' they mean 'not good enough to run on quadrillion ultra settings'. Even then, they are wrong, because I stated that I could play BF3 on ultra settings. I could run any game available today with my graphics card.

[prankstar]

there is no way on earth you are playing BF3 on ultra with everything maxed out. and if you are you are playing at a low resolution with anti aliasing disabled. it only takes a minute on google to find hundreds if not thousands of threads with people who are using a 550ti who say it is not possible theres also plenty of videos on youtube with people who have your gpu and a intel i5 2500k and you can clearly see the lag and stuttering in the videos i think many of the regular posters in this section would agree as for metro 2033 my old 7850 has issues with that game so the 550ti has no chance