Opinion on new gaming pc, 1800 dollar budget

[smit33]

So I'm building my first gaming pc and i've done a bit of research myself. I pretty much have an idea as to what components i want but i thought i would ask for a little bit of input on the build. This is what i thought:

CPU: Intel i7-2600k
8 gb of corsair vengeance ram
AMD Radeon HD 7970
ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
coolermaster silent pro 1000 watt psu
2 TB HDD, 7200 rpm

That's basically the bones of it, just thought i would ask for some suggestions.
Thanks alot

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: budget is about 1800-2000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies, music etc..

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, os

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg

Country: Canada but i have the parts shipped to the US because its cheaper

Parts Preferences: Interl cpu, preferably the 7970 for gpu

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: N0

Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Additional Comments: (e.g.: Need to have a window and lots of bling, I would like a quiet PC)

 

[g-unit1111]

Parts Preferences: Interl cpu, preferably the 7970 for gpu

The 7970 is an excellent choice for GPU but for a CPU you might want to think about X79 as opposed to Z68. X79 supports PCI-E 3.0 out of the box which is required for the 7970. It can run on PCI-E 2.0 but for optimum performance you want 3.0X16.

CPU: Intel i7-2600k
8 gb of corsair vengeance ram
AMD Radeon HD 7970
ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
coolermaster silent pro 1000 watt psu
2 TB HDD, 7200 rpm

There's a couple of ways you could go with this. For one the 2600K isn't really needed for a gaming system. Two, the Silent Pro is OK I would try to suggest a more reputable brand like Corsair or Seasonic. The first way you could drop the 2600K to a 2500K and the 2TB to a 1TB and invest the difference in an SSD and a good cooling solution for overclocking. The other way is to go X79 and get a more powerful system. It might meet your budget but it might not.

Try something like this:

Case: Corsair Carbide 500R - $139.99
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MKII Ultra - $139.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P - $179.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
SSD: 128GB Crucial M4 - $179.99
HD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda XT - $149.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB - $559.99
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99

Total: $1,777.90

 

[smit33]

When you say optimum performance are you implying that it will be noticeable on today's games or more so in a year or two?
Thanks for the response btw

 

[g-unit1111]

When you say optimum performance are you implying that it will be noticeable on today's games or more so in a year or two?
Thanks for the response btw

Actually it's more the video card's performance in games. This is what an EVGA tech told me when I was setting up SLI: You'll notice a bit of slow down when you run the card in a slot that's not designated for it For the best performance from your card you want it to run in the fastest slots on the motherboard. Each board has the fastest slot as the outer-most and the inner-most. Then it will designate one slot as X8 and one as X4. You generally run things like your NIC or sound card (if applicable) in these slots.

 

[smit33]

Alright i'll look into a new motherboard and is there really a negligible difference between the i5 and i7? Downgrading to the i5 would allow me to go and get a ssd now instead of waiting a couple months.