Upgrading my computer

Hey,
I'm about to upgrade my computer and I was wondering if what I want to get will be supportable on my current specs.

These are my current specs:

PSU: 550W

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600

RAM: 3GB DDR2

Motherboard: P5N32-SLI-SE-Deluxe

Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT

Harddrive: 500GB

and this is what I wish to get:

Motherboard: GA-H67M-UD2H
http://gigabyte.com/products/produ [...] id=3657#sp

CPU: either...
Intel Core i5 760 2.8GHz
(http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs / Processors/Intel Core i5/Intel Core i5 760 2.8GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) Processor - Retail ?productId=40924)

or... Intel Core i3 540 3.06Ghz
(http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs / Processors/Intel Core i3/Intel Core i3 540 3.06Ghz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) Processor - Retail ?productId=39241

I'm aware that the i5 is better but if I get that it leaves me with no money so although I want it, I'm not entirely sure yet.

And lastly...

Graphics Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 460 AMP 1GB GDDR5 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-GeForce-DDR5-Graphics-Card/dp/B00405EWOQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1293446603&sr=8-5)

what I want to know is will they be okay on my system, or... if there's any thing else I could get thats just as good which will allow me to play games on high settings, (One game is one thats not out till 2012, so need to be open about graphics requirements)
without paying to much, or going to AMD (can't stand AMD)

Mainly I'm worried I need a new PSU, I know about RAM already and that I need to buy DDR3 forgot to mention that.

Wait until you have the money for a PSU that is rate 200-300 watts above what you currently have spec'd out, which would allow a 2nd GTX460 in SLI in the future.
Opt for the i5 quad core if at all possible..

(reminder: newer i5 SandyBridges and socket 1155 mainboards out in a few weeks)

Sandy Bridge is the codename for the new processor microarchitecture developed by Intel. U can find many articles about it by googling

I'm an AMD hater cos all of the ones I've used have never worked sufficently well in my opinion... so yeah, I stay away from them.
and why not Zotac? I can get another manufacturer wouldn't bother me, that one just looks kool hah

and I see whats special about Sandy Bridge?

nah I picked that card cos I know its pretty good, but that particular card manufacturor cos it looks kool aha xD
and there isn't any real point just like the look of it, and I don't currently, but once I've gotten it all upgraded going to invest in a nicer case.
and ohhh I see. I don't know to much about hardware... trying to compare my current things and what I may need takes me forever.

sandy bridge will be the new line from Intel to be launched 5 Jan 2011,overall performance has been greatly improved over the current available midrange hardware,i'd say wait till 5 Jan even if you dont buy a sandy bridge CPU the prices on the current i3,i5 and i7 hardware would like drop by a significant margin

prices are said to be similar to current options but with estimated 20% increase in performance across the board

and

info on socket LGA1155

I checked up on the proccessor... and it supports the 1156 ix chips... soo it shouldn't matter

and were up to why is Zotac not very good malmetal?
whats a better companies GTX 460 to go for?

I was looking at the wrong motherboard aha xD
I'd rather have this one,...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189292
I think its a little bit better as it supports i3 as well
amd I might need to go i3 first the improve on it at a later date

aha I want to buy a good one... but I don't want to spend tooo much =[
you not using the GTX460 atm then?
whats the GTS 450 Cyclone like? =]

I don't know what good and bad about it...
is it better than the GTX 460?
and I'm gonna go for a board that can use i3 i5 and i7...
and upgrade again in the future once I've got more money...
do you know any sites that sell parts cheaper
than aria and ebuyer?

I don't know the difference's between them really..
all I need is a board that can run all three chip types... can use 32bit or is it 64 bit the one that can use more than 4GB RAM? I forget...and that is powerful enough to be able to handle a game that should be coming out in 2012. (So I need to approximate the requirements of a game in the future haha xd)

Don't really want to wait.. cos knowing me the money will rapidly disappear xd
could you be so kind as to help me find a website that sells them cheaply?
and would I see a big change in speed and power over what I've got now with just i3?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/61?vs=191

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/61?vs=143

definitely and also it will be DDR3 RAM too....

well you'll have no choice so it doesn't matter, i-series only runs DDR3.
now, do you want mATX or ATX size board and what case will or do you have for this new hardware, also are you thinking of SLI in the future.?

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7229

I'm researching some hardware for you..

In the mean time:
I need yo to look for something for me 'across the pond' as they say....
I'm looking for a particular motherboard and all the sites I find on it are over in the UK...
I would like to see if you can find one for me, even make calls if possible.
I will send PM (private message) about it later.
item in question:
ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI mATX - motherboard.

I have 4 different motherboards for you to look at, these are US web-sites but I just want you to look and see which you might like;
search credentials were possible SLI and not Cross-Fire in the future, i-series 'platform' compatability and then both mATX and ATX sizes:

1.) ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$139.99 after rebate - US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product
2.) MSI P55A Fuzion LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$159.99 after rebate - US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product
3.) EVGA P55V 120-LF-E651-TR LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$74.99 after rebate - US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product
4.) ASRock P55 EXTREME4 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$144.99 - US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

the motherboard is the most important piece so we start with that..

ATi - Cross-Fire
nVidia - SLI

it's for high powered gaming and video...
running dual video cards together with a connector (bridge) and it turns the single card into a 'super card' by utilizing both cards together..
http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html

What is NVIDIA® SLI® technology? How does it work?
NVIDIA SLI technology is a revolutionary platform innovation that allows you to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA SLI-Certified motherboard.

How is SLI technology different from competitive product offerings?
SLI technology is the only multi-GPU solution that was built from the ground up with dedicated scalability logic in each GPU. This logic enables the most efficient communication between GPUs providing the best scalability performance. SLI technology also has the most comprehensive list of supported games.

Do you have dedicated hardware for NVIDIA SLI technology or is it just software?
Yes. NVIDIA GPUs combined with an SLI®-Certified motherboard (which ships with the proprietary NVIDIA SLI connector) are the necessary building blocks for the SLI platform. Dedicated scalability logic in each GPU and a digital interface between GPUs (the SLI connector) enable this logic. In addition, a full software suite of advanced rendering algorithms provide the best image quality.

How much of a performance increase will I see with SLI technology?
The amount of performance improvement will depend on the application and its ability to scale. Several of today's hottest games see a full 2x increase in performance when using SLI technology with two graphics cards. 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology enables up to 2.8x performance increase over a single GPU. In general, applications running at higher resolutions with higher image quality settings will benefit most.

Why don't all games see performance increases?
Applications which tax the GPU will see tremendous performance improvements of up to 2x with SLI technology when using two graphics cards. Most of today's hottest games and as well as next-generation games fall into this category. However, some applications, typically older generation applications, are limited by factors other than the GPU's processing power.

The most common limitation is the CPU. If an application becomes CPU bound, no additional graphics power can improve performance. This situation is most common at low screen resolutions like 1024x768 with no additional functionality turned on. Turning on antialiasing and anisotropic filtering or switching to higher resolutions can often move the processing requirements back to the GPU.

For CPU-bound applications, NVIDIA offers a new SLI rendering mode called SLI Antialiasing. This rendering mode allows you to enable SLI8x, SLI16x, or SLI32x (for quad SLI only) antialiasing and enhance the visual quality of any gaming application.

well I'm thinking that you can for either or in your case, mATX or ATX sizes.
so in order from best to 'not best':
quality
1.) ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
2.) EVGA P55V 120-LF-E651-TR LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
3.) MSI P55A Fuzion LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
4.) ASRock P55 EXTREME4 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
bang for buck
1.) EVGA P55V 120-LF-E651-TR LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
2.) ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

The Asrock one doesn't look to bad..
The MSI one looks pretty good too..
in terms of look and what it says

hahaha cheeky B**** haha
I inboxed you about the motherboard earlier by the way..
the one you wanted =]
so what processor do you think I should get?
I can't go any higher than about low i5 but that will leave me little money
for the graphics card..
and thats one of the main things I want to change atm