Current box will be 4 years old this Christmas (put it together to play Warhammer Online =/ ) so I'm planning to put together a new one in the next few months.

Case - Fractal Design Arc Mid
PSU - Seasonic S12II 620W
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4
CPU - i5 2500K
GPU - Gigabyte Radeon HD7870
Ram - Couple of 4gb sticks, 1600MHz. Ram is ram.

That's coming it at under $1200 which is about where I want it.

I've got a 1TB Seagate Barracuda lying around doing nothing so I'll throw that it and away she goes! Probably pick up an SSD somewhere down the line but for now that's it.

Critique away!

drop that video card of coin on a gtx 570, great card, or wait for the 670

no saying that ati are bad, but a 570 is cheaper, stable, and more card than you'll need

Without doing the research I'd drop the ati and get Nvidia. At least at the time when I buoght a cardthe 560ti was superior to all that ati offered (bang4buck wise). The drivers just seem so much better too.

I haven't actually looked at prices in the last few months but it seems like that isn't much for $1200
here's what I got for $1500 late last year -> http://www.ausgamers.com/forums/general/thread.php/3133544

I got the i7 over the i5 and the SSD straight up, along with 16GB ram

I've never had a problem with ATI hardware or drivers, but atm nvidia have the best bang for buck.

I've never had a problem with ATI hardware or drivers, but atm nvidia have the best bang for buck.

I'm in the same boat, going to do some more reading before I decide on one or the other.

With the CPU I would however suggest a i5 3570K or i7 3770K as these run the Ivy Bridge technology, with the price difference only being $20-$50 more and still fit the 1155 sockets. It is more beneficial for you, and you'll find the increase in performance a lot higher. You will however need a motherboard that supports the CPU, which I suggest Asrock Z77 Professional.

The ASRock boards are being recommended a lot, I'll take your advice and get an i5 3570k.

I assume you're referring the Fatal1ty badged professional boards? If so, can you think of anything I would miss out on if I opted to get the -M?

Drummo can you post your final order and how much you got it for when your done ?

Certainly, though I've still got a lot of reading to do :P

i am looking at an upgrade shortly also. but in the recent PC User mag it was suggested to wait for some new mobo's which are due soon.

any one know about these?

Drummo can you post your final order and how much you got it for when your done ?

Yes, and no.

Wall of text incoming.

Here's the list of what I've ended up with.

Case - Fractal Design Arc Mid
PSU - Seasonic M12II 700w
Mobo - AsRock Z77 Fatality Pro
CPU - Intel I5 3570k
GPU - Gigabyte Radeon HD7870
Ram - randy brand 8gb
SSD - Intel 520s 60gb
HDD - Seagate ST2000DM001 7200 2Tb Barracuda

and the kicker...

I didn't pay for any of it.

My b'day isn't far off, and apparently the last few years my old man has bought me something, only to find out that I had already bought it for myself (external HDD, media player, new monitor etc) and has had to return it and find something else.. This year he decided f*** it, and told me to send him a list of what I was planning on getting for my new PC as soon as he caught wind of my plans.

I sent it off to him and a few weeks later he calls telling me that he's got me a couple of things and I can come pick them up. He knew I was in a bit of a rush, as I was planning on having the new rig together in time for GW2 as my previous PC is now 4 years old.

When I walked in the front door of my parents place there it all was, all the bits and pieces stacked up on top of the case. Couldn't believe it, he just grinned at me and said happy birthday. I went around the next day and put it all together.

That's the story, now the PC...

It's absolutely fantastic. I have yet to perform any official benchmark but I've been playing Tribes, Blacklight Retribution and threw on Skyrim to break it in and so far it's handled all of them on their highest settings with NO dip in performance. I have a bit of an eye for frame drops, spent many years playing fast paced FPS and if there's the slightest hiccup I can feel it. I went with the ATI card despite the advice to avoid it. No problems so far. I have never had a problem with an ATI card, despite the complaints of bad drivers. Currently I do not regret my decision.

Thank you to Eorl btw, for pointing out the Ivy Bridge CPU's were out, saved me taking a bit of a backwards step there.

Oh, and apparently every game made in the last 4 years is a blindness simulator as they all seem obsessed with grotesque amounts of lens flare. I was playing Tribes, walked up the flag ramp to stop an incoming capper on sunstar, and was completely blinded by the glare. Needless to say I couldn't see s*** and the capper just picked up the flag and went on their way.

Would I change anything?

The only change I would consider at this point, is a larger SSD for the system drive. Even with the page file, and all the borwsers pointing their downloads to the other drive, after the windows install and update there's only a little over 20gb free.

Because I was raised that asking questions about money is rude, I don't know what the build cost, but given my father works around Clayton (Vic) I can only assume he picked up most, if not everything from the clump of PC stores in the area. Pc Case gear, Scorpion Technology, Nutech, MSY etc. If I had to guestimate price based on those stores I would put the total cost ant somewhere just south of $1400.

TL;DR - Dad ended up surprising me with the entire build for my birthday. Love it.

Haha good to hear you went with the Ivy, it looks to be an amazing CPU and definitely on my list of upcoming upgrades. If you have the spare cash, dip into a Intel 520s 240GB SSD, they are only $288 and it is what I'll be getting to run my OS and games.