hello--- First Post and First Build!!

Ok this is my first post on OCF and I have some questions about the rig I recently built. It was my first buid and i felt pretty confident... this is what i made out with...

Case - Antec 900
Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4Ghz 125W Quad-Core
MoBo - Asus M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI
RAM - G.Skill Ripsjaws 2x2GB DDR3 1600
Graphics - XFX Raedon 5770 1GB 128bit GDDR5
PSU - Apevia 700W
Memory - Western Digital 320GB Caviar Blue 7200rpm
Cooling - Corsair H50 Water Cooler
OS - Windows 7 Home

Thats my system... Everything is stock except for the graphics card which runs at GPU 930mhz MEM 1330mhz with a 40C idle temp. The cpu was oc to 4.0 ghz but took it back to stock.

My main question is what is my weakest link i want to upgread my system for gaming i have sold my x360 and would like to get into computer gaming much more. I am thinking the new XFX 6970 or 6870 and the Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edt.... or possibly crossfire 2 5770?? Am I better off getting more ram possibly 8gb and a better hdd possibly a 10k VRaptor or a ssd?
im just looking for some ideas.... also in the mean time I would like to go back to at least 4.0ghz if anyone has any ideas on bios settings for a stable 4.0+ ghz setup

Thanks---Anthony

to OCForums!

The weakest link in your system as far as gaming goes is the GPU. You have a quad and 4GB of RAM, so you're good there. A faster HDD for the games will help a little, but that's just for loading times, not frames.

What resolution do you game at? I'm assuming you want the highest possible in-game settings.

Going to 8GB of RAM isn't going to improve gaming performance and a faster HDD certainly won't get you more FPS - although almost anything would decrease load times from that WD Blue drive. Not saying the Blue is a bad drive, but its certainly not "enthusiast" by any means. Upgrading your CPU is entirely up to you, but I don't think that upgrading to an 1100T is really going to be worth it to you from a 965. You can easily overclock that to get nearly 1100T performance - especially in games since they usually don't use more than 2 threads anyway. I'm usually not one to recommend Crossfire/SLI setups, but the 5770s do tend to scale very well in CF. What resolution do you game at? What games are you playing/trying to play?

As for the overclock, you should probably post in the AMD CPU section along with some CPU-Z screenshots and details for more help there...

I'm with the rest of the guys here.. GPU will be your low point.. that's where you will pick up most of your FPS from depending on what game you are trying to play. I use a 5770 and if I could have afforded a 5850 even it would have been a huge improvement. That being said, the 5770 is by no means a bad card, especially if you can flash the ASUS bios on to it and unlock higher voltage/clock controls.

Thanks for the help...
Normally the only game I run in windowed mode is Crysis at 1600x900 with settings at enthusiast with ~30-35 fps. other games like Civ V, Dirt 2 I run at 1920x1080 with high. I also am going to get METRO 2033 and Call of Duty Black Ops.
Is the 6950 overkill for what Im doing... or will the 6870 be sufficient going from a 5770.

As for the overclocking I will head over the the AMD OC thread.