Upgrade options

Hey guys.

I'm considering an upgrade to my PC and was just wondering what you think I should go for.

My current system specs:

CPU: Phenom 9600 @ 2.3 GHz
Mobo: GA-MA790FX-DQ6
GFX Card: Radeon HD3870 X2
Memory: GEIL 2x1GB @ 800MHz
Sound Card: Creative X-FI Xtreme Audio
Monitor: LG 19" @ 1280x1024
Cooling: 2 front 80mm fans, 2 rear 80mm fans, stock cooling on GFX Card and CPU.
O/S: Dual booting XP Pro (32-bit) for general applications and Vista Ultimate (64-bit) for DX10 games.

I use my PC for gaming mainly (demanding games, like Crysis and Age of Conan), but also general applications (Office, watching movies, web-browsing etc.)

The four options I'm considering are:

-Upgrade my CPU to a Phenom 9950, for the extra speed, the more reliable B3 stepping, overclocking headroom and so on.

-Upgrade my RAM to 4GB of 1066 speed, to run games on Vista better.

-Get a water cooled case, for reduced noise and better overclocking.

-Get a larger monitor, possibly a 28" with 1920x1200 resolution.

In terms of price it goes £60 < Memory < CPU < Water-Cooling < Monitor < £300.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

You won't get a very good set of 4gb RAM for £60, especially as you're running those high demanding games, look on the Overclockers.co.uk website for their kits, and get an idea from there.
I'd also consider changing the stock cooler on the cpu and possibly the gpu.

 

Overclockers is always my first stop.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...al Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK)