Hoping for an opinion of a couple of new components

[zelgath]

I'm looking to get a new motherboard/ram/cpu setup to go with the hardward I already have in my current pc. I'm aiming at purchasing in the next couple of weeks. The most intence use the comp will see is gaming in titles like left for dead 2, dragon age, or starcraft 2.

What I already have and intend to re-use,

PSU: Antex Earthwatts EA-650 (12V Rails 22A+22A+25A)
GPU: Powercolor Radeon HD 5850 1GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320-GB Hard Drive ST3320620AS
WD Caviar Black 1 TB SATA 3 Gb/s 7200RPM WD1001FALS
Mon: Samsung 226BW 1680 * 1050
Keyboard: Logitech G15 1st Ed.
Mouse: Logitech G9
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 System (not sure the exact one)
Cd\DVD: Tsstcorp SH-S182D Cd/DVD Burner

I am planning to use Canada Computers as my retailer since there's one really close to me in southern Ontario and they seem to have decent prices.

I might be looking to overclock in the future if I need a power increase for future games. I will not be looking to use dual GPUs.

The parts I was thinking of getting are:

Intel Core i5-760
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_65&item_id=032427

Corsair XMS3 Classic 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) latency 9-9-9-24
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_612&item_id=025353

Is this ram any good? As far as I know I don't need more than 1600MHz even if I overclock the i5. I'm looking at that ram because it on sale for $40 off for the rest of this month.

Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 or Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_583&item_id=028262
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_583&item_id=027168

I was looking at the UD3 because it has sata 6Gb/s and USB3.0 but I notice that it cuts the GPU bandwidth in half if either of those features are active. By a quartre if both are active? Will this matter on the 5850? I don't have any sata 6Gb/s devices right now and probably won't get one soon. Is the extra $10 worth it? I would still have usb3.0 on the usb3 board and it wouldn't kill the pci-express bandwidth on the cheaper one.

I noticed on Gigabytes' website that the i5-760 isn't supported on the rev 1.0 release of either motherboard. What are the odds of getting a board from that release? Afaik the 2.0 revision both support that cpu natively. What would happen if I put it together and it wasn't supported? Would it get far enough for me to flash the bios or would it just not post?

I will probably be buying a copy of windows 7 64-bit home premium to run this system since I only have a 32-bit winxp licence right now.

 

[Mr Pizza]

Well for an upgrade... go with an i7?

Horrible Ram you picked
get some Latency 7-X-X-2X

Get this motherboard, http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_583&item_id=026634

 

[zelgath]

I'm upgrading from a P4 630 (3.0GHz with HT socket 775) so almost anything is going to be an improvement.

I'm avoiding the i7's for now since they are atleast $75-100 more and I don't think anything I'm using a computer for will come close to pushing a quad core nevermind one with 8 threads.

Also, why that board? I was ignoring it before because they don't actually have any of them and it doesn't have usb 3.0.

Can anyone reccomend some decent ram?

 

[Mr Pizza]

Well then... its a great board.. and you really think you need USB 3.0? it wont be widely used for ahwhile... but eh.. your choice.

 

[zelgath]

I will probably try to use this system for 3-5 years with a cpu upgrade to extend the life when it can't run games very well anymore. Depending of course on availability of processors and how the prices change.

 

[zelgath]

Any thoughts on this RAM. It's got better timing and runs at a low voltage but is a lower frequency.

G.SKILL ECO Series DDR3 1333MHz (PC3-10666) 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit (F3-10666CL7D-4GBECO)
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_611&item_id=027821