Doing some black friday upgrading

[blackhydra866]

current build:
hd1 - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
hd2 - Seagate Barracuda 7200 1.5 TB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32MB Cache
ram1 - WINTEC AMPX 2GB (2 x 1GB)
ram2 - OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB)
gfx card - SPARKLE GeForce 9400 GT (has been a temporary replacement)
cpu - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz
mobo - GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel
psu - Rosewill RP550-2 550W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply

Newegg.com | Black Friday Deals

looking to spend rougly ~300-400 on some upgrades. obviously the graphics card is at the top of the list, but i'm wondering if i get a nice new card will my old cpu be bottlenecking the card? anything else you guys can think of would be awesome.

 

[EoADark]

Here is a more up-to-date CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX635WFGIBOX
Because Intel's tend to be a bit more expensive, even during sales, this is a good CPU if you are up to switching.

Here is a compatible motherboard...I am not too familiar with AMD's as much as Intel so it may not be the best pick but your budget makes it. Newegg.com - ASUS M4A77D AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

Your current OCZ should work fine provided it is Dual Channel. If you can I wouldn't run 2 different brands of RAM together.

GFX: Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N978-TR GeForce 9800 GT Akimbo 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (This is a great card, even if you plan to do some gaming. I owned one and it was great. It is also cheap...90$ after rebate.

So it looks like that will fit within your budget, and you are getting a better overall system. As far as power I think that your PSU will handle it, unless you have like 2 monitors hooked up.
Hope I helped.

 

[iPROTechman]

Actually, His CPU (if he overclocks it) would be better than that quad core athlon.

 

[EoADark]

Yes, but his budget is small so I didn't pick an Intel processor.
If you would post what you will be doing then we can help you a bit more.

 

[blackhydra866]

Sorry, should have been a bit more clear with my first post.. was working today, on thanksgiving unfortunately

Anyway, i'm constantly playing games on this machine (TF2, starcraft 2, WoW) so thats what its meant for primarily. I run two monitors at 1920x1080 and 1440x900, so I dont think 512mb on that card is going to cut it.

i've attempted to overclock my cpu but i've never had a good result.. it overheats quite tremendously and i do have a third party fan on it. even slight clock increases make it fire up practically.. may just get a new fan but meh.

as far as the gfx card and cpu i may go with these

Newegg.com - HIS H577FK1GD Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760

i'm still a bit of a noob to pc parts but they look like they should be decent?

 

[Trotter]

Yes, they are decent... but you will need a new mobo for that CPU as it is a socket 1156 and uses DDR3.

 

[EoADark]

Sorry I couldn't be of too much help.
I always hate to see someone go ATi but that is your decision. The i5 will suite you well and you won't need to overclock. But you will need a new motherboard.
I suggest a P55 or H55. I tend to stay away from all motherboard makers except eVGA but that to is your choice.
Hope I helped a little more this time.

 

[Trotter]

ATI/AMD has come a long way, baby. I'm rocking the GTX 260 because it is an awesome Folder and came at an incredible price. Otherwise I would be running an ATI/AMD card as you can't beat the bang for your buck with them.

 

[blackhydra866]

Would it be more cost effective to just get this CPU instead as its still the same socket http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115207

or the other one i linked + a mobo?

 

[EoADark]

It would be less expensive yes, but I would go for the i5 as it is better. In the end it is your decision and up to you how much you want to spend.
In the long run you would be better of with the i5.

P.S. Yeah Trotter, I have the EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked too and I love it.