Looking to Upgrade my AVA Desktop (suggestions wanted)

Hello... I've had my gaming PC for 2 years now and it's been fantastic (thanks again AVA!).
I'm interested to see what can be improved in the system though.
 
Any ideas are welcome, I'd prefer to avoid breaking the bank... How about a 500$ budget to start with.
 
Here are my current specs...
-INTEL, Core™ i7-3770K Quad-Core 3.5 - 3.9GHz TB, HD Graphics 4000, LGA1155, 8MB L3 Cache
-COOLER MASTER, Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
-INNOVATION COOLING, Diamond 7 Carat Thermal Compound
-SERVICE, Mild Overclocking, 10-20% Performance Increase
-ASUS, P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt, LGA1155, Intel® Z77, DDR3-2400 (O.C.) 32GB /4, PCIe x16 SLI CF /2+1*, SATA 6Gb/s
RAID 5 /4, 3Gb/s /4, TB + HDMI + DVI + VGA, USB 3.0 /6, HDA, Wi-Fi, GbLAN /2, ATX
-CORSAIR, 16GB (2 x 8GB) Vengeance™ PC3-17000 DDR3 2133MHz CL10 (10-11-11-31) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM
-EVGA, GeForce® GTX 680 Superclocked Signature 1084MHz, 2GB GDDR5 6208MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, 2x DVI + HDMI + DP
-CRUCIAL, 256GB M4 SSD, MLC Marvell 88SS9174, 500/260 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s
-SEAGATE, 1TB Barracuda®, SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB cache     
-RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
-ASUS, DRW-24B1ST Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner
-CORSAIR, Vengeance® C70 Gunmetal Black Mid-Tower Computer Case
-CUSTOM WIRING
-SEASONIC, X-850 850W Power Supply w/ Modular Cables, 80 PLUS® Gold
-MICROSOFT, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition
-ASUS, VE248H Black WideScreen LCD Monitor, 24" TFT Full HD LED, 1920x1080

Hello again, and thank you for the quick reply!
 
That's exactly what I was hoping to hear.
I did my best (with the help of this very forum) to 'future proof' my PC, thinking the only thing i would need to upgrade would be my video card.
As for the SSD, I've actually found that I don't use it much for games... Mainly as my boot drive and a few choice programs that I know will be on my system for the long haul (Photoshop etc). That being said, I've come hear to improve my gaming experience.
 
I would like to stick with EVGA Nvidia cards (unless you feel there's a better brand/ manufacturer to go with?)... Other than that I'm a little lost when it comes to which card series is the best value? The 80 series is fantastic I hear and the main reason I went with a 680. Then I read a news post on here today about the new 980's and how there 3 times as powerful as a 680?! Kinda blew my mind since this card still hasn't disappointed me, haha.
 
What would you recommend?
Would I need to upgrade to a liquid cooling system?
How about my power supply?
 
And lastly, and least importantly... Do you have any Nvidia cards that ship with MGSV? :)
 
Thanks again!

The EVGA 980 Ti SC+ is exactly what I have my eyes on... Pricey card, but from what I've read it's well worth it. I may have to wait a bit and save up like you mentioned.

But that could give me time to deal with a couple more concerns...

With a card that powerful would the rest of my system (any part at all) create a 'bottleneck' in performance?

And this a loaded question... How hard would it be for me to install the card myself?
I've never done it before. I do maintain my tower myself (internal dusting etc) but when it comes to installing hardware I have no experience.
I'm not against the idea of sending my tower back to AVA (maybe you all can run some maintaince for me and see how she's running, haha) but no one wants to be away from there PC for too long.
And would my warranty cover any installation costs?

Thanks again.