TopGun960 wrote You guys were absolutely right! Thanks! I decided to go with an intel i5-2500k and an ASRock B75 PRO3 motherboard. Everything else the same. An 800W power supply would be plenty to power it and maybe add some extra cards/drives later correct?

Nice, but B75 boards are Z77 boards without the overclocking features making the fully unlockable and completely overclocking friendly i5-2500k useless. The MSI Z77 G43 is a $120 motherboard and has everything you'd ever possibly use ( and it does fully support SLI and C/F and splits into 8x 8x when enabled ) and I can't recommend it enough. But back onto the CPU, the 2500k is a great CPU, but if you're going to be gaming a large percentage of the time, your GPU can't be slacking - I looked back at the OP and I see a 6750 which will not only limit your games but limit the resolutions you play on at the same time since that is the biggest FPS killer. So in short, it's better to half a strong dual core that is on par with a 2500k on some games and get a higher end video card that will get you a significant increase in FPS rather than a stronger quad core but a weak video card. Also, what 800w PSU is it? You could run the current system off of a 380w Antec Green and still be able to C/F the 6750. The name of the PSU is actually critical in this case and means everything - a lot of people just look over PSU's and just randomly pick one out of the group and end with a terrible unit with horrible efficiency and will make you regret it in the long run. It IS the heart of your system and if suddenly dies or catches on fire, it may take your other and more expensive parts with it. Take a look at the video below.

It is a Dynamo 850W Power Supply. Would a Biostar T277B motherboard be better? Or how about an MSI Z77A-G43? I was thinking about going with an Ivy Bridge Processor (i5-3570k) simply because of the PCIe 3.0 compatibility for the graphics card... However I do plan on overclocking this eventually and am worried about the terrible overheating problem...

Edit: Yeah I completely forgot you just recommended the MSI board! I do like the features of that one far better than the Biostar board. However the video card is a 7770 not the 6750. I accidentally linked to the wrong one. I know that the radeon HD 7770 will far out-perform the 6750.

TopGun960 wrote It is a Dynamo 850W Power Supply. Would a Biostar T277B motherboard be better? Or how about an MSI Z77A-G43? I was thinking about going with an Ivy Bridge Processor (i5-3570k) simply because of the PCIe 3.0 compatibility for the graphics card... However I do plan on overclocking this eventually and am worried about the terrible overheating problem...

Edit: Yeah I completely forgot you just recommended the MSI board! I do like the features of that one far better than the Biostar board. However the video card is a 7770 not the 6750. I accidentally linked to the wrong one. I know that the radeon HD 7770 will far out-perform the 6750.

The MSI G43 or the Biostar Z77 are both great choices and you can't really go wrong with either of them. Choosing an IB CPU over a SB simply because of PCIE 3.0 is not a good choice, especially when cards don't max out PCIE 2.0 bandwidth making it useless at this point in time. Dynamo? I've never heard of that brand in my life and it's probably not a very reputable and reliable PSU - You could run this off of a 550w XfX which has a great warranty and is a rebranded Seasonic. You're comparing one low-end card to another, again, if you want the best FPS, focus more on a strong GPU because that will make the biggest impact.

I do eventually plan on getting a bigger and badder graphics card, but at the moment the 7770 will do what I need it to do. So will this XfX PSU have all the connectors I need? I am a little confused on the 8 pin CPU connector and the PCI power connectors. The board has 4 PCI Express slots and 3 PCI slots, while the PSU only has 2... Thanks for all the help by the way. It's been very helpful and informative.

Edit: Actually would [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] Apevia work? It only has 4 sata connectors but I will likely never have that many drives in there anyway. It is crossfire ready and plenty of protection. Plus its 700 watts which is well more than enough.

TopGun960 wrote I do eventually plan on getting a bigger and badder graphics card, but at the moment the 7770 will do what I need it to do. So will this XfX PSU have all the connectors I need? I am a little confused on the 8 pin CPU connector and the PCI power connectors. The board has 4 PCI Express slots and 3 PCI slots, while the PSU only has 2... Thanks for all the help by the way. It's been very helpful and informative.

Edit: Actually would [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] Apevia work? It only has 4 sata connectors but I will likely never have that many drives in there anyway. It is crossfire ready and plenty of protection. Plus its 700 watts which is well more than enough.

The 8 pin power connector is to connect the 8 pin supplemental CPU power which is usually in the top left of the board. It will have all the connectors you need + more and will handle crossfired 7770's ( I don't recommend that actual GPU, but you're being stubborn ) since it has 2 x 6 pin PCIE power connectors. Grab the XfX unit and be happy. Again, that Apevia PSU is crap and you overlooked it - also, just because it advertises 700w, it does mean it outputs no where near it. Look @ JonnyGuru for more detailed and expert opinions.

Generation wrote

TopGun960 wrote I do eventually plan on getting a bigger and badder graphics card, but at the moment the 7770 will do what I need it to do. So will this XfX PSU have all the connectors I need? I am a little confused on the 8 pin CPU connector and the PCI power connectors. The board has 4 PCI Express slots and 3 PCI slots, while the PSU only has 2... Thanks for all the help by the way. It's been very helpful and informative.

Edit: Actually would [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] Apevia work? It only has 4 sata connectors but I will likely never have that many drives in there anyway. It is crossfire ready and plenty of protection. Plus its 700 watts which is well more than enough.

The 8 pin power connector is to connect the 8 pin supplemental CPU power which is usually in the top left of the board. It will have all the connectors you need + more and will handle crossfired 7770's ( I don't recommend that actual GPU, but you're being stubborn ) since it has 2 x 6 pin PCIE power connectors. Grab the XfX unit and be happy. Again, that Apevia PSU is crap and you overlooked it - also, just because it advertises 700w, it does mean it outputs no where near it. Look @ JonnyGuru for more detailed and expert opinions.

Look. I just dont have any extra money for a better GPU. Even getting the XfX is a little more than I want to spend. Are there any better graphics cards for around that price? Everything including the XfX PSU is going to cost me 815 bucks, a little more than I want to spend... How much more would a "good" graphics card run me up?

With some more look into the MSI board it would appear that it has some horrible overclocking options... I would really love to overclock. This board doesnt let you manually set voltages, or mess with the settings at all really... Also I've heard that this board in particular has issues with the dual channel RAM support. Is there a good, cheap board for overclocking? Or am I just going to have to shell out 1200 dollars for this thing?

Sorry for the triple post... I know that is a "noob" thing to do. As previously stated, the 7770 is a piece of junk that wont get much done. After some research into how these cards work, I realize that. More stream processors at higher clock speeds= better overall card. Now, all that said and done, I still can't find a fast, and cheap, card. Any help here?
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] is what I plan on purchasing. I already have the hard drives and the optical drives. I will also be using an Antec Kuhler H2O 620 as my cpu cooler. All I need now is a good graphics card.
Once again, thanks for any help!

P.S. Would that mother board be any good for overclocking?

TopGun960 wrote Sorry for the triple post... I know that is a "noob" thing to do. As previously stated, the 7770 is a piece of junk that wont get much done. After some research into how these cards work, I realize that. More stream processors at higher clock speeds= better overall card. Now, all that said and done, I still can't find a fast, and cheap, card. Any help here?
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] is what I plan on purchasing. I already have the hard drives and the optical drives. I will also be using an Antec Kuhler H2O 620 as my cpu cooler. All I need now is a good graphics card.
Once again, thanks for any help!

P.S. Would that mother board be any good for overclocking?

More stream processors and memory for example does not equal to a better overall card.

An example of this would be a 6450 which is $30 and has a base clock of 950mhz and has 2gb's of vRAM compared to a $225 GTX 560 ti with a 900mhz and 'only' 1gb of vRAM - a GTX 560 ti in every single benchmark you put it up against since it's simply a better GPU core. Period. Prefilled loops like the Antec Kuhler H2O 620 and the entire Corsair H series suck besides the H100 being a *loud* exception. You can PM a Hyper 212 / Corsair A50 / Xigmatek Gaia for under $30 and they will perform just as well. Just grab a 6850 and be happy with it and drop down to a 550w XfX unit.

I was speaking in generalities, but I do see your point. So the 6850 will perform admirably? I was going back and forth between the Hyper 212 and the antec 620 and I thank you for steering me in the right direction. If I use [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] <--- This I am assuming the extra gig of memory would make it an even better card? Also that mother board would overclock fine correct?