Gaming pc upgrade around $800

[Blah DTMM]

It's come time for me to upgrade my gaming pc, although I've fallen out of the loop on hardware over the last few years and I need advice. Currently I've got:
ATI Radeon 4870 512 mb
Core 2 duo e8500 3.16 ghz
4 gb DDR2
Asus P5Q motherboard
Antec 850 True Power Quattro PSU

So I'm thinking a new graphics card, new quad core CPU (which means new motherboard I assume?) and an upgrade to 8 gb of DDR3 ram. I'm okay with spending $700 to $800 on parts. I'd like to be able to play upcoming games (Battlefield 3) maxed out. I'm in Canada so I would be ordering from ncix.com and or newegg.ca. Thanks!

 

[michxymi]

It's come time for me to upgrade my gaming pc, although I've fallen out of the loop on hardware over the last few years and I need advice. Currently I've got:
ATI Radeon 4870 512 mb
Core 2 duo e8500 3.16 ghz
4 gb DDR2
Asus P5Q motherboard
Antec 850 True Power Quattro PSU

So I'm thinking a new graphics card, new quad core CPU (which means new motherboard I assume?) and an upgrade to 8 gb of DDR3 ram. I'm okay with spending $700 to $800 on parts. I'd like to be able to play upcoming games (Battlefield 3) maxed out. I'm in Canada so I would be ordering from ncix.com and or newegg.ca. Thanks!

Got case? Monitor Res?

 

[Blah DTMM]

My current case is still good. Monitor resolution is 1680x1050.

 

[michxymi]

Keep your old PSU and Case then and add

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128510&Tpk=gigabyte%20ga-990x

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506

Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL60GB-DX 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226151

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185


That's a killer machine for this resolution but also for 1920x1080. It has everything! High quality parts, powerful GPU, SSD along with 8GB of RAM plus it's Bulldozer Ready! 955 clocks to 4.0 GHz easily but if you plan to overclock you 'll need a good aftermarket heatsink.

SUM 683$ With MIR

 

[Blah DTMM]

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't know much about SSD's and am curious about using one with the HDD. How is this set up exactly? Since it's only 60 gb, would it mostly just be used to boot the OS and a few programs?

 

[Blah DTMM]

Ah okay. Is this the other one you mentioned?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

 

[Blah DTMM]

I was confused why there were two that seemed exactly the same but with different price. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[Blah DTMM]

Hmm, after doing a bit more research I figure I don't mind upping the price a bit if I can increase performance some more. I was considering these two changes:

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

EVGA 012-P3-1570-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593

I assume I would need a different motherboard for that cpu then right? Although I don't know which one. Is the increase in price from these 2 changes justified by the increase in performance I would get? Also, there's so many different GTX 570's and core i5's on newegg, did I choose the right ones?

 

[Blah DTMM]

So something like this for the motherboard:

ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131773

There's so many different versions varying greatly in price of these things and I don't see the differences in them. Which one would you choose?

And this for the GPU:
ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121432

And one more question. Is the SSD worth the extra $200 or so gaming performance wise?

 

[Blah DTMM]

Alright, then I'll probably go for the SSD as well. Again, thanks for all the help.