Building New i5 System for around $800

Well, I am now considering it.
Do you really think OC'ng will be that big of a boost in the future? According to the CPU chart, there is like NO difference between the 2400 and the 2500 at least at stock speeds. The 2500 can OC to like 5.7GHz while the 2400 only goes to 3.99GHz but it seems that these days the bottleneck is in the GPU and if you get a better one you can keep up with the current games and so on.

I upgrade my GPU yearly and right up until RAGE, I never had any lagging or FPS issues.
My GPU overheated and now has annoying artifacts but the overall system kicks most games asses.


Also, with the motherboards. I am no longer considering the MSI P67A-C43 as an optional board as it has NO front panel USB 3 ports. WTF right? I am still up for a cheaper MOBO but I would prefer front panel USB3 [unless there's a reason why I don't need it]

Now I am in debate over these 3 motherboards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

And these power supply's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Also, someone said my hard drive choice is bad... Why?
I am SO freaking confused xD I am normally good at computers but this domain I am a little rusty on...

I recommend xfx or seasonic power supplies. Seasonic makes high quality power supplies. Xfx is made by seasonic.

XFX $89 before mir. $59 after.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I personally buy either asus or msi mobos. I've personally found asrocks flimsy. I don't know about gigabyte though.

I think the Asrock Z68 Extreme3 gets recommended a lot round here because it is feature rich and is good value.

I don't think the HDD is a bad choice.

Thermaltake are not really the sort of brand where you can buy a unit that is not in one of their known good lines (such as Toughpower XT and Toughpower Grand) without seeing a high quality review for it first. So discount that.

I don't see any reason to pay more for the 700W ModXStream over the 600W version as functionally they are identical (same number of connectors, same lengths etc), it isn't significantly more powerful (the 600MXS has 504W combined on it's 12V rails, the 700MXS has 554W combined).

The 600MXS has the advantage over the Antec HCG-620 of being modular, but the HCG-620 has the advantage of having longer cables (50/65cm to first connector vs 45cm - which will make cable managing easier), having a higher temperature rating (50C vs 40C) and being more efficient. You will have to balance whether any of these things is worth the price difference between them.

You need at least a 6950 for that dual monitor setup...

I agree, but I only tend to use one monitor when I game, I disable the other.
Dual screen gaming sucks. Trippe monitor gaming is awesome but I am not ready to drop that kind of cash.

Best answer selected by BASIQ.

Final Build Specs. Purchased from Newegg/eBay today

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
ASUS P8P67 LE REV3 [P67/LGA1155/SATA6/USB3]
PNY NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1 GB W/3D Vision
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W High Performance
WD Caviar Black 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower

All for $691.41 [After $25 MIR]