Upgrading PC

[Vinzix]

I'm looking to upgrade my PC, but I'm rather nub at choosing parts since I don't know what half of the stuff means. Here is an example setup of what I might upgrade towards;

INTEL Core I5 2400 32NM 4 Cores 4 Threads 3.1GHZ ~ 3.4GHZ 6MB LGA 1155 Boxed :: Tones.be

GIGABYTE GA-Z68AP-D3 DDR3 Socket 1155 Intel® Z68 :: Tones.be

Can someone compare parts for me with these? Preferably around the same price range. It's only a processor and a motherboard which I need.
If there are any cheap i7 sets, please link.

If possible, EU prices too, thanks in advance.

Edit; ATX tower.

[coldReactive]

Are you only going to game?

if yes, no need for i7.

[Vinzix]

Yeah, gaming only. If there is one thing I need for the moment, since the request is so high, is a decent CPU for SWTOR and GW2 soon.

[coldReactive]

Might want to wait a little while, the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series just came out, and already out of stock on the higher end ones. HD 6000 series did not get a price cut, and all of the major brands pulled the 6990 (and vice versa for GTX 590 for nvidia)

[Vinzix]

I know it's always safer to wait, but I'd rather have an upgrade set ready now, lol.

[coldReactive]

The 7970 would be the best bet then. Keep it on auto-notify. It's got 3 GB of VRAM, serious power, and 200 USD less than the 6990 or so, even though it only has 1 GB less of VRAM 8U

[Vinzix]

Mhm, a lot of that is -chinese- to me, but I'll check it out, ty.

[eid2u4emit]

Processor:The processor you posted would run those games fine. Amd processors are cheaper however, not quite as good but still decent.

motherboard: Thats a fine motherboard. What you want to look at when choosing a motherboard is what kind of ram, how much ram. How many pci slots. Processor slot. Usb ports.

Videocard: You wont need an over the top video card to run gw2 or swtor. The 6850 could probably run both at high settings in a reasonable resolution. However the motherboard you have posted has two pci slots. So you can put two video cards in there. I would say two 9800gts would be a cheap solution to run those games fine.
The question is whats your limit. The 7990, which is over kill on swtor and gw2, will most likely play any games released in the next 3 years on all ultra high settings dx11 at 60-100 fps, but it will cost you a lot of money. The 6850 or dual 9800gt would play games out right now at 30-50 fps but what about games that come out next year?

Memory(ram): Memory is simple. try to get all the same speed, and go no less than 4 gigs at the very minimum.

Hard drive: Some people like to go overboard on the hard drive, but for me 100gigs is ok. A video game is no more than 10 gigs each, and that's on the high end. Maybe a movie or two and some music. Unless you are rendering huge videos, you wont need a big hardrive.

Power supply: Its important to get a good power supply. Newer video cards recommend 600 watts, and if you have two video cards it could be more. The brand also matters. Try to get one that is at least bronze certified (80% of power guarantee). Some power supplies say they put out 700watts and yet can only support 400 watt systems. Corshair, Antec, and Seasonic are probably the best. That doesn't mean just those ones, but research your power supply first, because if it cant handle your video card, there could be some big problems.

Operating systems: Well almost no big game supports linux so this leaves windows. Unless you have a windows install cd, or know someone that will install it for free, this means you have to buy windows. Windows xp is pretty cheap now, but its almost out the window. I remember reading somewhere Microsoft will stop supporting it soon, and there are already some major games that don't run on windows xp, like battlefield 3. Now both the games you listed, ( and every mmorpg i know of) runs on windows xp, but this might not be the case for long. A new copy of windows 7 can be pretty expensive, so take this into account when you are thinking of your final price.

You will probably want a dvd drive also so you can play games you have a physical copy of, these aren't that expensive tho.

Links
6850
ASUS EAH6850 Directcu/2DIS/1GD5 1024MB GDDR5 PCI Express :: Tones.be

9800gt
could not find it on the site you found your mobo and cpu on.

Antec Power supply 520 w 80+
ANTEC HCG-520 520W High Current Gamer :: Tones.be

Windows 7
MICROSOFT RET NL Windows 7 Home Premium Retail :: Tones.be

Hard Drive (lowest priced one they had on the site, could prob find a cheaper one elsewhere)
WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKX 500GB 16MB SATA600 7200RPM Caviar Blue :: Tones.be

Ram 4 gigs of ram
CORSAIR TW3X4G1333C9A 4GB KIT (2X2GB) 1333MHZ DDR3 9-9-9-24 1.5V Classic DC KIT :: Tones.be

What i recommend is buying a prebuilt pc with windows 7 on it, and upgrading its memory. videocard, and maybe the power supply.

[Vinzix]

Well, I'm not really upgrading an entire PC. Like I said, just those 2 parts.

[wintergreen]

Get an 7970 or 7950 when it comes out. VERY good performance. At least get an AMD clocked uber high.