Upgrade help please!

[Sock Troll]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, mostly Planetside 2 and BF 3, a bit of Skyrim here and there.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$450, maybe $500 if I promise to buy her a shiny at the next ren fair.

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

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
CPU, ram, mobo, possibly a cpu cooler if it fits the budget.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Antec Earthwatts 80 Plus Bronze 600w PSU, 6850 I don't remember the brand of, SSD, HDD, and DVD drive all in an Antec 300 case.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Most certainly!

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1080P, 23"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Tuesday afternoon, as I will be in Houston near a Microcenter.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
A handful of USB ports, Xfire/sli capable, decent overclocker. Onboard sound, doesn't need to be fancy.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 8 64 bit.


I'm updating a frankenbox that began life as a Gateway! Swapped out the case, psu and vid card to those mentioned above, now I'm looking to alleviate some my CPU bottleneck for PS2.
Right now I have a Q8200 @ 2.3 ghz on an oem nForce 730 mobo, so I can't even try overcloking it. I know for most games I would be better off updating graphics card, but the only time I am ever GPU limited in PS 2, I'm dead and getting high 50ish fps. Alive and in large battles, I hover around 10-15.
I'm currently looking at an i5 3570k, gigabyte ud5h, and whatever 8 GB ram kit is cheapest, as well a cooler so I can start overclocking. Alternatively, I could spring for a 3770k and go with a slightly cheaper mobo in what is likely a vain attempt to stay relevant if/when we see more games using more than 4 cores.
Any and all advice and thoughts welcome, thanks in advance!

Edit: Looks like they have a MaxV Gene open box for $164.... if it's there and nothing's missing, I should nab this, yes?

 

[Dangman]

Is that DVD burner SATA?

And no you don't need a 3770K. Your budget is enough for a new GPU if you're willing to go for that $500 budget.

 

[Sock Troll]

Yes, the DVD burner is SATA., though it's not actually hooked up right now, as my cat ate my other SATA cable, so I suppose it's not technically necessary, just nice to have those few times I need it. Getting the i5, an asrock extreme 4, and a $50 ram kit leaves me ~$160 from a $500 budget. Would it be worth upgrading my gpu to the 7770s and 650s I see in that price range?

I was originally planning to nab a new gfx card later this year, maybe black friday if a good sale hits and the money gods have been kind. Probably should have said that in the OP.

 

[Dangman]

Getting the i5, an asrock extreme 4, and a $50 ram kit leaves me ~$160 from a $500 budget.

Shit, forgot you needed RAM. In any case, your proposed setup isn't bad. Just make sure that RAM is rated at 1.5V.

Would it be worth upgrading my gpu to the 7770s and 650s I see in that price range?

Not really.

 

[dragonstongue]

asus P8Z78-V LK i5 3570k a cooler such as hyper 212+ 8gb ddr3 1600 8,8,8 1.5v Gskill NCIX has these for $51 right now. I would stay away from Asrock with a 10ft pole, alot of my freinds have gotten them over the last 2 years and few are happy with them, most having rma them to go with MSI or Asus for various performance issues and manufacturing flaws.

while 6850 is a bit underpowered I think you are hitting a cpu bottleneck more then anything else, you can clock the 6850 up some for sure, but, its not the gpu being held back, pop in a good cpu in a good motherboard and you will see a heck of a good difference.

Gaming specifically, no point in going 3770, 3570 is more then powerfull enough(few if any games show the benefit of the $100 or so more 3770 unless you are using multiple gpu and even then) 3570k clocks up very well with a good cooler, hyper 212+ is a very good cooler for its cost ~$30 online. Pair it up with a good Asus, MSI, some gigabyte boards and it will really fly, couple with 1600 class low latency ram 9,9,9 or 8,8,8 type timings and youre laughing (Gskill, and Corsair are 2 great examples)

 

[Sock Troll]

That's what I suspected, and to be honest I wasn't looking forward to down grading to the asrock , a few reviews I've read made it seem a little underwhelming. Anyways, I'm about to hit the road, I'll buy it, build it, and report back in a few days. Many thanks guys!