Worth it to upgrade?

[KoolDrew]

First of all, my current specs...

Intel C2D E8400 Wolfdale @ 3.0GHz
Cooler Master Hypere 212+ Aftermarket Cooler
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2-1066
MSI HD4890 (Overlcocked to 920/1070)
Seagate Barracuda 320GB HDD
Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD
SilverStone Fortress Series FT02B w/ side window
Corsair TX Series 750w PSU
ASUS DVD Burner
Dell U2311H 23" 1920x1080
Logitech G9x Mouse
Cheap Logitech Wireless keyboard
Cheap Logitech 2.1 speakers

...and I was thinking over the next 1-3 months upgrading to the following...

i3 3220 - $120
MSI H77MA-G43 - $85
G.Skill 2x4GB DDR3-1600 - $40
ZOTAC GTX 660 - $190
Intel 330 Series 240GB SSD - $190
Fractal Design Define R4 - $80
SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W - $80

Total w/o shipping and rebates - $785

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
A little bit of everything. Most day-to-day use will be web browsing, email, word/excel documents. It'll also be my gaming PC, but I don't game nearly as much as I used to. I'd still like to be able to play the latest games with good image quality at 1920x1080 though. Other uses would be a lot of TV/Movies/Music streamed using Roku + plex media server, so some transcoding will be done depending on the format.

Some web/photoshop work as well as I have a wordpress blog for my business, but that would be the extent of that.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$800 not including taxes+shipping

However, I think I'd prefer to upgrade in stages. More on that below.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Upstate NY.

Unfortunately no Microcenter or other similar locations nearby, everything will be purchased online.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Originally I was planning on just upgrading the CPU, RAM, Motherboard, video card and SSD. However, I'd like a new case as well. I love the FT-02 but it's just too much now. It's really way more case than I need and would like something a bit smaller. I don't need an extremely good air cooling case either as I've gotten away from overclocking over the years

While I'm at it, I figured a modular PSU would be nice as well. So in this case I'm pretty much looking at replacing the whole PC, which means I would need...

Case
Power Supply
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
SSD
Video card

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
If I stick with my plan on upgrading nearly everything I'll only be reusing...

Seagate 3TB Hard Drive
Mouse/Keyboard
Monitor
Speakers
Optical Drive
OS (Retail Windows 7 64bit Home Premium)

Somewhere along my upgrade path I'm going to upgrade the speakers and keyboard, but not just yet.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7)What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
23" 1920x1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I'm thinking of upgrading things in stages and selling the parts individually as I go. Since newegg is selling the Fractal Design R4 for $79.99 right now I may pick that up now, sell my FT02 and upgrade everything else over the course of the next 1-3 months. Following the case would likely be an SSD, then CPU/mobo/RAM, video card. etc.

Thoughts?

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I don't really need any special features. USB 3.0 would be nice and RAID capability would if I ever decide on adding an additional drive for a RAID-1 array, which wouldn't be a bad idea since I recently had to replace my 2TB storage drive.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, retail 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium

 

[Dangman]

I say keep your FT02 unless you can absolutely sell that case for more than the Define R4. Also, don't get Zotac due to their customer support and QC problems. At $190 right now, that Intel 330 isn't worth it since you can get the larger Crucial m4 256GB for $10 more.

In my opinion, don't upgrade in months long phases. Doesn't help you in the long run unless you know a ton about computer hardware and keep up-to-date on pricing. At most, do it over a month. So wait until you have all the cash and buy everything in one go or a month long period.

 

[KoolDrew]

What do you think about just upgrading to an SSD now and waiting until Haswell to upgrade the CPU/mobo/RAM/Video card?

 

[E4g1e]

What do you think about just upgrading to an SSD now and waiting until Haswell to upgrade the CPU/mobo/RAM/Video card?

I would not recommend doing this because you will still have to completely wipe out and reinstall the operating system and all of the programs when you switch the CPUs and motherboards. Besides, although the SSD will improve system response, your current system will still be limited by the SATA 3.0 Gbps interface (most new SSDs use SATA 6.0 Gbps).

 

[lawlz_xd]

I would not recommend doing this because you will still have to completely wipe out and reinstall the operating system and all of the programs when you switch the CPUs and motherboards. Besides, although the SSD will improve system response, your current system will still be limited by the SATA 3.0 Gbps interface (most new SSDs use SATA 6.0 Gbps).

Even at SATA II speeds (3.0GPS), he will still see a MASSIVE increase in performance from his outdated spindle drives. Wiping out/reinstalling isn't that big of a deal. SSD technology isn't going to dramatically change anytime soon.

I'd say an SSD purchase right now is a solid idea, but I agree that you should go with something like the Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 rather than one of Intel's newer SSDs because of the price brackets.