Christmas money; Looking to increase performance!

I came into about from Christmas, from the other half since she had no idea what to get me. She doesn't know much about computer other than they turn on and have Google ;).

Anyway, I am looking at upgrading a few things, and am not sure what to look into purchasing in order to improve performance. So if you had about $500 to throw around, what would you get?

Current System:

AMD 965 BE w/ Noctua UD-12
8GB RAM
5850 ATI Radeon GPU
Velociraptor 300GB
OCZ 60GB SSD

I am thinking about getting a new video card, but there really isn't anything 'wrong' with the one I have. But I am mainly looking to increase my performance.

I have a question. I have the same cpu as you...

What is noctua ud-12? some kind of cooler? Or some third party oc software?

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/noctua_nhu12p/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vociferate

I came into about from Christmas, from the other half since she had no idea what to get me. She doesn't know much about computer other than they turn on and have Google ;).

Anyway, I am looking at upgrading a few things, and am not sure what to look into purchasing in order to improve performance. So if you had about $500 to throw around, what would you get?

Current System:

AMD 965 BE w/ Noctua UD-12
8GB RAM
5850 ATI Radeon GPU
Velociraptor 300GB
OCZ 60GB SSD

I am thinking about getting a new video card, but there really isn't anything 'wrong' with the one I have. But I am mainly looking to increase my performance.

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Sounds pretty sweet for 5 boxing. A better video card would let you add higher graphic setting but getting performance might mean a CPU upgrade

I am thinking about switching to Intel. I have a mate of mine who is selling his old system, which is amazing.

It's an Intel 965 w/ Mobo & RAM. And on old GPU.


Between his system and mine, I'll move some parts around and look into getting set up for 10- boxing once I get a full set of 85's.