Better CPU/MOBO or better GPU?

[trippindeath]

Hey guys so i am building my first computer and i am trying to keep my budget around the 800 dollar mark roughly

I plan on using it mainly for Autocad, gaming and general surfing. The games id be playing are starcraft 2 and WoW and maybe other things down the road, so i would prefer to play them maxed out. I want this to have upgrade ability in mind since i plan to SLI/XFIRE and get a 120g SSD down the road

Parts im fairly sure about:

Ram: Low profile Corsair ram 8gb 1600mhz

Case: Fractal R3, or coolermaster storm enforcer

Random DVD drive

HDD: seagate 1 tb 7200.12

PSU: Seasonic 620w modular, or HX650w corsair

cooler. Hyper 212

Stuff im not sure on:

CPU/MOBO: asus z68 pro and i5 2500k or a phenom II 955 and a 990FX board

GPU: radeon 6870/6950, or a gtx 560 ti

So if you guys have any suggestions or ideas that could help me that would be AWESOME!
I dont need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, OS, etc

 

[rvilkman]

Until bulldozer performance is known, you are best off with the i5 2500k. It performs a lot better than the phenom II.

As for GPU, you probably want to go with the ATI card, the OpenGL performance is better and it will help with the autocad.
As for which card to get, 6950 will max out most things at 1920x1080, but it is considerably more expensive than the 6870.

So depending on how soon you intend to crossfire: get 6870 if you crossfire soon as afterwards it will max out 1920x1080 easy.
If you don't plan on going with crossfire soon, get the 6950 and pay the small premium now to get more performance.

For HDD get the samsung spinpoint F3 1TB instead, same price better performance and reliability.

I think you may go over budget though if you go for the 2500k asus board and 6950.
Also might be worth it to go for hx750 it's not much more expensive and gives you a little more headroom for crossfire.

 

[wintermint]

i5-2400 + H67 if no plans to overclock
i5-2500k + P67 if plans to overclock otherwise H67 works just fine [Z68 is newest]
Dump rest on GPU

 

[trippindeath]

yeah I like the i5 for sure unfortunately its like an extra 130 dollars to get it over the phenom and the 990FX though yeah no word on BD yet

ok if im going to go for the radeon what one would you guys suggest Id prefer something thats quiet and cool, but those dont usually go together ive heard so quiet more then anything else because I do plan to spend some time infront of this computer

Thanks for the replies so far!

 

[rvilkman]

Well the MSI 6950 twin frozr III/PE is probably the coolest and lowest noise 6950 card there is, but it's also $279.
I have one of those so I know you can't go wrong with it.

Most of the non reference designs are good though, so to save some money maybe the Sapphire 6870 $160 or so after rebates would be a good deal for you.
At least last weeks there were combos which let you get both dirt3 and shogun with it as well

 

[trippindeath]

would the 6870 be able to max out WoW and SC2 without a problem?

 

[rvilkman]

Depends on resolution. You might have to lower the AA's but otherwise running maxed shouldn't be an issue, even at 1920x1080.

 

[trippindeath]

hmm awesome ok, well thanks for the help bud much appreciated, I'm going to have to see here i can save some money and then purchase this thing