Making Some Adjustments - Advice Required

[BobsCountryBunker]

Hello all!

Been a while since I posted here. I can't believe it's been four years since my last build. Yet, here we are. Anyway, I'm still using my old E6600 based build, and it's time I move into the Sandry Bridge era. The plan is to spend about $600 for now, and another $300-$400 in a year or so, to ensure that I get another four years from my system. To save some money, I plan on using a few of my old components. Here is what I have right now:

Mobo:
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM:
Corsair XMS 2x2GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz
Storage:
WD Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.9MS
Case:
Coolermaster Centurion 534 ATX Tower Case
PSU:
Corsair HX520 CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX
GPU:
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked 896 MB

Obviously, there is a lot there that can't be saved. I might make $75 from selling some components on E-Bay (and that's almost crazy talk). I'd like to start upgrading my system piece by piece. First off, I want to replace the mobo, CPU and RAM. Not sure, But I may have to replace the PSU also. I need your advice with that, amongst other things. My plan is to get the following:

CPU:
i5 2500k
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=57962&promoid=1371

Mobo:
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=62701

RAM:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445

I'm hoping my PSU will be able to handle the 2500k and the new mobo. I'd like to hang on to my GPU for just a bit longer, and replace it down the road with something a little more robust. My hard drive is obviously on the smallish side nowadays, but I have another PC which I use to store photos and music so the impact is not huge. And since I have an OEM Win 7 64 bit on it, I'd like to keep it instead of getting a new drive and purchasing another OS. I have been reading about SSD, but I'm not sure if this would be necessary for my needs or not, again, your advice on this would be appreciated.

I will mostly use this system for gaming, mostly resource intensive strategy type games from Paradox and some (less intensive) MMOs as well.

Your advice on any of the above would be most appreciated. Thank you!

 

[abekl]

Sounds like a good start to the new system.

 

[kajabla]

Yep. The performance will be wasted until you get a nice GPU, but then you'll be fine. That PSU will be fine for anything, even a 570 (not a 580), as long as it's only one card.

 

[BobsCountryBunker]

Yep. The performance will be wasted until you get a nice GPU, but then you'll be fine. That PSU will be fine for anything, even a 570 (not a 580), as long as it's only one card.

True. In that case, could you recommend a good GPU? One that won't break the bank, but will last me a good 2-3 years? I assume that I would have to upgrade the PSU if I do. Probably a 750W, but not sure.

 

[kajabla]

Like I just said (and you just quoted lol) you do NOT need a new PSU.
What would the budget be on the new GPU? Is that the $300-400? In that case, probably a 570 of some kind. Personally, I like EVGA, but there are other good brands too.