Hey guys,
since my grandpa's Parkinson got worse and he decided to sell his car and give the money to his oldest grandson (guess who, woot) I was thinking about upgrading my computer. I find myself turning more and more to the PC versions of the new games (well, at least the ones that are actually port, not almost direct console ports like ME2).
Right now I have a Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (I don't remember the socket, it was either 939 or AM2, I recall that it was the fastest CPU for that socket at the time of purchase), 4 gigs of DDR2 RAM (667) and a Radeon 4870HD 512MB.
It's not bad, I managed to run SC2 on very high, Mafia 2 demo runs with almost everything turned on, DA:O ran well too. There's two issues though.
The GPU lacks a HDMI port. I was thinking of getting a wireless PC pad, connecting the sound card with the home theater system and plugging the HDMI directly to my TV. That way I could play my games comfortably from the couch, with all the PC bells and whistles, big screen and a 5.1 sound. Plus, I wouldn't have to use the sloppy streaming for my HD movies and instead I could just display them directly on the TV.
The other issue is that the rig has some really ancient components. That's because it was bought over four years ago and later on upgraded a bit. I had a Athlon 4200+ and the 1900XT Radeon. That means the MoBo is old, with old socket that's already using it's fastest CPU possible. RAMs are nothing special either, being 667. I also replaced a PSU because my previous Tagan simply exploded in front of my eyes (sic). Also a Sound Blaster Audigy 4, lol.
So, to cut the crap short. I was thinking of replacing a MoBo to something i7 ready and getting these:
http://www.gainward.com/main/vgapro.php?id=394
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=41316
and replacing RAMs possibly to 6 or 8 gigs DDR3 1333 or higher.
So my question is: IS IT WORTH IT? These four components themselves will cost around 1000$ so that's a lot but I am willing to go for it IF it's worth the price. What do you guys think? I was also thinking about upgrading the GPU alone for the HDMI and stuff but that would leave me with the dumb bottleneck MoBo and CPU.
I'd be super grateful for any advice you can give, thanks!

I'm not sure it's worth it right now. Your rig should still run things quite nicely, and I doubt your mobo is a serious bottleneck at this time. Maybe just go with the video card upgrade if you're really focused on HDMI. Otherwise I'd wait until you find you're running into a situation where you just can't play the games you want the way you want to.

First, sorry about your grandpa. That sucks :(
Second I'd wait awhile. Maybe do the GPU now (for the HDMI) and wait a year or till you actually notice a real slow down of your system.
After all prices on Ram and a new Mobo and everything will go down in price, leaving you with even better options in the future. If you pc is able to handle some good/great settings on your games now then id personally wait.

Sucks about your Grandfather. Like many people, I lost mine before I was old/mature enough to be able to really appreciate them.
I think there is an update to both ATI and NVidia cards due real soon now so I'd hold off until then on the video card which is really the only thing you need to upgrade for sure since you are ok with your current set of games.
For the most part, I'd only recommend upgrading when either too many item break to bother replacing or you are hitting the graphic limits on a game(s) that you really like.
Basically, ask yourself, what exactly you would get out of more better hardware right now. Then compare that answer to what you'd get out of a gogzillion GOG games, years of your favorite MMO or whatever for the same cost as the hardware.
That being said, In general you should put your money into the things that you use a lot. So, if you do spend a lot of time on your computer, you should be putting money into it.
In the end, only you can determine if the money to you is worth the benefits to you since both value of money and value of the benefits are unique to each individual.

Sorry to hear that about your grandpa also. If your running games on high settings already though I'd hold off, like others have said you can get better stuff in the future if you have no real need to upgrade now.
You can however spend like 5 euros or something on a dvi to hdmi converter cable and then run your computer off your tv like you want without having to buy a brand new GPU now.

Oh, don't worry about the grandpa guys. He's still alive and kicking. I keep telling him that there's a ton of worse diseases he could've contracted and he agrees :P.
Anyway, thanks for the answers. It's just that I'm being tempted by this new stuff, especially that, for example, Aion was not running that smoothly. Plus, I've been having a lot of issues with some games, like Dawn of War 2 that is completely unplayable due to the fact that it randomly shuts down my computer every 15-30 minutes.
Then there's Crysis 2 on the horizon, TERA and Mafia 2. I just don't know. The temptation is strong :P.

I'd wait a while. There's nothing out there really worth upgrading to at the moment. The processor is obviously not the best, but that's the only real weak spot.
If your system is shutting down when playing demanding games then that could be because of overheating. Your system may be protecting itself. In which case, looking at the possibility of adding another fan inside your case might help solve that problem.

Yeah, I know. The problem is that I cannot trace the source of the overheating. It's not the CPU and it's not the GPU since I checked the temperatures multiple times and it was always within the limits.
Then there was this odd issue of, what was that thingy called, AMD Boost? AMD Overdrive? Something like that. You know, that app that shuts every redundant process in the system while you are playing. I used it for Aion and while the app was engaged it ran like a charm. Silky smooth framerate. Then, after 10 to 20 minutes WHAM! BSOD with ATI driver failure. And it happened every single time. :(

What brand and wattage PSU do you have in there?

I don't quite remember. It's either a Tagan or OCZ. 700W.
Also, as a small offtopic. I was wondering how to achieve a 5.1 sound when connecting a sound card to the home theater. Since, I bet, PC games do not use Dolby Digital nor DTS the sound will be passed in what, PCM?

So it's definitely up to the job then. I didn't think it would be that but it's best to be sure.
Usually your sound card software will add a control panel entry that will let you sort that out, including number of speakers, placement and output. DTS isn't unlikely. My Xonar is DTS.

I was thinking about a new Sound Card as well. Would you recommend your Xonar?

It's a good card. I'm very happy with it. Drivers are so very much better than Creative's too. More games seem to support EAX now than did with my old Creative card. Which is odd, but welcome.

Radeon HD6xxx are due out in octoberish (give or take a month) Nvidia was 6 months late with fermi so don't expect a major refresh till 28nm hits middle of next year.
Other reasons to wait include new Processors from Intel and AMD are due out around Q1 of next year.

I don't mean to be a downer (and I bet your grandpa is well aware already), but late stage Parkinson's is devastating. It sounds as if you're very close with him and that he loves you a lot. Please spend as much quality time with him as you can, you won't regret it later on. I'm sorry for your news (and for being a jerk).