I5-2400 vs i5-2500k

[Gusto181]

With the upcoming release of BF3 and other amazing titles this fall, I have deemed it appropriate to update my sorry sorry machine. Has played everything up till this point, but time to upgrade.

Currently "rocking" an AMD 4600+ with a 8800GT. Just about anything will be better, but going to settle on getting the 2400 or the 2500k.

The gist of what I have read is that if you are not going to OC, then the 2500k is not necessary worth the money.
Currently the 2400 is going for $180 on NEWEGG, but the 2500k is still at $220. Given that I would have to get an aftermarket cooler to take full advantage of OC'ing the 2500k, (was thinking the Coolermaster 212+), that puts the price difference at about $65, give or take.

Due to budget, I probably should just get the 2400....
Due to knowledge (never OC'd anything before), I probably should get the 2400...

However, since it has been over 3 years since my last build and I somewhat chose poorly back then, I want to better future proof myself for the next 3 years.

I will likely only updgrade the CPU, MOBO, and RAM right now and look to add a new GPU down the road. For mobo and RAM was thinkging of getting:

MSI P67A-G43
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
or
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
(or something similar)

Recommendation? Thoughts? Is OC'ing really that easy? Is the 2400 better than good enough? Is an OC (if I don't epic fail it) 2500k really that much better?

Ideally wanted to keep my budget around $400 for the CPU/MOBO/RAM

Thanks for any input

 

[itzdanielp]

People all over the place have been hitting 4+GHz on the stock HSF on the 2500k, and pretty much anyone around here will tell you that the 2500k is a beast and one of the best processors made, especially for the price point.

I would go ahead on go with the 2500k, but stick with the stock HSF for now, until you need it, which will keep the cost down a bit.

The P67 series motherboards are right on track with what you are looking for and are solid, I personally prefer the Gigabyte or Asus brands, but MSI has had a pretty good track record as of late.

I would go with the 1600MHz RAM over the 1333MHz, any of the major brands are going to perform equally as well (Kingston, Corsair, G Skill, Patriot, Mushkin) so I would look for an 8GB (2x4gb) kit at 1600MHz, the lower the timings the better.

an OC on the 2500k is incredibly simple, and will give you a higher performing computer for a lot longer.