Possible upgrades?

[noteworthynerd]

Hey MMO-Champions, I have come here to ask for advice before, and was given some great tips, so I decided to come here again... I'm looking to upgrade my PC a little bit, but I can't decide what most needs upgrading. I'm willing to spend $200-300 and I was hoping you guys might be able to help me out.

Some things I should point out first:
- I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to computers, it isn't until I start getting down into the extreme specifics that I get confused.
- This system is not currently over-clocked, it is a foray I keep meaning to get into, but I haven't mustered up the courage to do so.

Here is my current build:

Case-
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Model #: VL200K1W2Z
Name: Element V Black Edition Full Tower Case
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=6338801

RAM-
Manufacturer: Corsair
Speed: PC12800 (1600MHz)
Size: 6GB
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=4531826 and http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=4364415

CPU-
Manufacturer: Intel
Model #: Bloomfield Core i7 950
Speed: 3.06GHz
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=4777384

PSU-
Manufacturer: Thermaltake
Wattage: 800W
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=6295108

GPU-
Manufacturer: EVGA
Model #: GeForce GTX 465
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=6291887

Mobo-
Manufacturer: ASUS
Model #: P6X58D-E
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...060&CatId=4070

HDD-
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Model #: WD5000AAKS
Type: SATA
Size: 500GB
Link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=2795126

Operating System-
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate
Bit: 64

Monitor-
Manufacturer: Acer
Model #: H233H
Size: 23"
Resolution: 1920x1080
Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009162

Sound Card- (on board)

Network Card- (on board)

[Nellah]

Not a whole lot to fit in there for $300. Maybe a GeForce GTX 560 and a 4GiB dual channel memory kit (which is enough for quad-core chips... someone will have to chime in as to whether the i7-9xx series supports dual channel as well as tri). The memory is the main upgrade, 2GiB just isn't a whole lot these days.

[noteworthynerd]

Not a whole lot to fit in there for $300. Maybe a GeForce GTX 560 and a 4GiB dual channel memory kit (which is enough for quad-core chips... someone will have to chime in as to whether the i7-9xx series supports dual channel as well as tri). The memory is the main upgrade, 2GiB just isn't a whole lot these days.

Well, I technically have 8GB of RAM in the system, I just separated them in my lay out. It originally only had 6GB of the Crucial, but something fried two of the sticks (I think it was incorrectly wired wall outlet, it was at a friend's house at the time, plugged into a wall outlet that they wired themselves...). I bought the Corsair after that happened, and just kept the working stick of Crucial in there in the 4th slot. Sorry for the confusion, I went ahead and combined them in my OP.

What would I have to spend to get worthwhile upgrades?

[Nellah]

Okay, I just saw the 2GiB and glossed over the rest. Really the only upgrade you can do for your price range is the video card. The rest of your system isn't exactly slow, but the GTX465 is actually worse than even the GTX 460 in most cases.

For $300 you can get a GTX560 Ti, or I think a Radeon HD 6870/6950, both decent but not altogether thrilling upgrades. Might be better off saving for a complete system. Are you seeing slowdowns in games?

[noteworthynerd]

Might be better off saving for a complete system. Are you seeing slowdowns in games?

I just built this system about 6 months ago, so I'm not going to be building a new one for quite some time (1-1.5 years, at least).

I'm not seeing any DRAMATIC slow downs, just little things that bug me... For example, I haven't been playing much WoW, but I do play an awful lot of Heroes of Newerth (HoN). It used to be that, when games would start, I'd load faster than all my friends by a fairly large margin, but lately I've been just narrowly edging them out or actually loading slower than them, even though I haven't changed anything. I play at their house, so we're all on the same Internet connection and going through the same networking devices, so I'm not sure what's changed.

[Nellah]

I just built this system about 6 months ago, so I'm not going to be building a new one for quite some time (1-1.5 years, at least).

I'm not seeing any DRAMATIC slow downs, just little things that bug me... For example, I haven't been playing much WoW, but I do play an awful lot of Heroes of Newerth (HoN). It used to be that I'd load faster than all my friends by a fairly large margin, but lately I've been just narrowly edging them out or actually loading slower than them, even though I haven't changed anything. I play at their house, so we're all on the same Internet connection and going through the same networking devices, so I'm not sure what's changed.

The hard drive is middling speed-wise. WD's Caviar Blue is their mainstream hard drive line.

You could actually get a major performance boost out of getting something like a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TiB drive... or even better, a 128GiB SATA-6.0Gibps SSD and the aforementioned Samsung drive. Probably set you back a bit over $300, but you'll get freaking amazing load times and boot times. Store Windows and commonly used programs on the SSD, data and programs you rarely use / don't need the speed for on the HDD.

Could also just try running your drive through a manual defrag to pep things up a bit.

[nwo]

Everything in your system is pretty decent. I don't really see much there that really needs to be upgraded. Are you looking to boost your performance in anything specific? Example: load times, better fps in games, etc...

[noteworthynerd]

You could actually get a major performance boost out of getting something like a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TiB drive... or even better, a 128GiB SATA-6.0Gibps SSD and the aforementioned Samsung drive. Probably set you back a bit over $300, but you'll get freaking amazing load times and boot times. Store Windows and commonly used programs on the SSD, data and programs you rarely use / don't need the speed for on the HDD.

Could also just try running your drive through a manual defrag to pep things up a bit.

It hasn't been defragged in a while (if at all... /fail on my part) so that could very well help to speed things back up.

As for the SSD, I've been toying around with the idea, basically just waiting to see if prices will fall. If I buy an SSD, can I get away with keeping my current HDD? I'm not exactly strapped for cash, but at the same time, I may start renting a house soon, so any money I can keep stashed away would be good.

Are you looking to boost your performance in anything specific? Example: load times, better fps in games, etc...

The big thing is load times. Like I mentioned in my previous post, what made me really start noticing that something was up was my slower load times in HoN. It isn't that big of a deal, I usually finish 3-4/10, but it's also about bragging rights, you know? =P

Last benchmark I did I was pushing 200 FPS in Stormwind on Ultra, so FPS isn't really an issue, but then again, that was a couple weeks ago.

[Nellah]

Yeah, you can use your existing HDD no problem. The SSD should still be your main drive.