Upgrading some parts (i5-3570K vs i3-3220); Gaming PC; Please advise

[SanguineOutrage]

Approximate Purchase Date: now till black Friday

Budget Range: $300-400 After Rebates;

Gaming PC
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Current Specs

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ @ 3.30GHz
ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium Motherboard
8Gb (4x2Gb) G.Skill (F2-6400CL5-2GBPQ) DDR2-800 @ 5-5-5-15
ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
Seagate Barracuda 500Gb x2 (ST3500630AS)
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX (750W) PSU
Gigabyte 3D Aurora Chassis (GZ-FSCA1-ANS)
Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit)
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Parts to Upgrade: CPU, mobo, RAM, heatsink

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, microcenter.com, amazon.com

Location: middlesex county, NJ

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: (Prefer if the heatsink isn't too loud, though not a priority)

Why Are You Upgrading: Having a tough time running some games in higher quality. Can only run The Secret World on low settings. RAGE is a lag fest especially in the later areas, could use more frames in Dark Souls, Fable III and so on.

I oc'd cpu to 3.3Ghz from 3.0 and got about a 10 fps boost (Didn't test with many games only The secret world). CPU is pretty outdated now, so I'm pretty sure it's bottlenecking my GPU.

Components I'm considering:

CPU: Can't decide. would prefer to stick with i3 if its sufficient unless i5 trumps it by a whole lot.

Intel Core i5-3570K $220 @ newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

Intel Core i3-3220 $130 @ newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116775

MOBO:

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 $105 @ newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

RAM: Going with these for lower latency (don't need more then 8Gb)

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $70 @ newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231536

Heat Sink:

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle $48 @ newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055

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So what I'm asking for is for any thoughts, ideas, criticism, is it a good upgrade, is it worth dishing out for the i5 ....etc. w/e

Appreciate any and all feedback.

Thanks in advance.

-Zerx

 

[djangoringo]

That gpu is also weak for 1080p gaming i'd recommend at least the 7850 1gb for that.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ooeP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ooeP/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ooeP/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($129.99@ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($87.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $392.52
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

bellow 400$ with the gfx card, the i3 doesn't need that cooler.

 

[pezonator]

I just can't recommend the i3. You can't overclock it anyway, so why not go for the i5 3470, which is $30 cheaper than the 3570k. Just remember, you will be upgrading vid cards more often than CPUs.

Go for the cheap memory, it's really no different. Stick out your 4870 and just see how the CPU upgrade and new RAM affect things

 

[SanguineOutrage]

Thanks for the input.

I won't be getting a new gpu for now. I'll get that somewhere down the line. I'll focus on the cpu since I really don't upgrade my cpu for years.

So let's say I do stick with the i5 3570k ($170 @ microcenter pickup, $20 more then the 3470 @ micro) and for ram instead I'll go with some pair for around $35 (8Gb total)

Is the mobo and heatsink I linked in my previous post overkill? I only really OC as necessary, not planning on oc'ing right out of the box.

 

[pezonator]

Good.

I think the Z77 Extreme4 is a good board and should do you well. You really won't need a heatsink just yet if you don't plan on overclocking. I would put that towards a gpu first.

 

[Tavo_Nova]

actually why not get the i5 3570k? then in a month or so buy a gpu XD that way you get good cpu performance and a soon to be decent gpu.