A few questions for new PC

[Joolz]

I'm building a new PC and have most of the stuff figured out but could use some help figuring out a couple pieces. Here's what I have so far:

Case - COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP
CPU - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
RAM - Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
PSU - Corsair 650TX
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
SSD - OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGT80G 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
DVD - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW
OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

First off I don't really have a budget but I don't want to spend excessively for a minimal bump in performance. I'll be using the computer pretty much only for WoW and web surfing (often at the same time). My questions are:

1. What GPU to get? No idea what's the latest and greatest these days
2. What MB to get? Obviously I'm still waiting for the Sandy Bridge MBs to come back in stock, but any recommendations?
3. Is the SSD drive that much worth it? I've never had one before.
4. Is 8GB RAM overkill? I want to future proof the machine as much as possible but if it's going to make no difference at all I could bring it down.

Thanks!

[Saithes]

GTX 580 is latest and greatest, but overkill for most stuff. I recommend the GTX 560 Ti since it offers the best performance at its pricepoint. Many people will list various brands of motherboards but currently MSI's P67A-GD65 and Asus P8P67 Lineup are the best with overall features and such. The OCZ Agility 2's aren't very fast, I'd opt more for a Vertex 2/3 or a G.Skill Sniper SSD.

8GB is not as much of overkill as it use to be, I definitely love having 8GB since when I had 4GB I could easily max it out with how many programs I run.

[llDemonll]

I'd upgrade to a 120GB SSD

Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro $189.99 when it's back on sale or ASUS Sabertooth P67 $219.99
GPU: Depends on what you want the computer to do. SAPPHIRE AMD 6950 $276.99
SAPPHIRE AMD 6970 $379.99
EVGA GTX 560 $249.99
EVGA Superclocked GTX 570 $369.99
are all good choice depending on price range

ssd are amazing, but as said i'd get a 120gb or larger so you can store more games on it

no, 8gb is fine no-days, especially how cheap ram is

[Joolz]

Thanks for the info, that helps a lot!

[vesseblah]

MSI GTX560ti Twin Frozr also one option for graphics card for $250, has got plenty of good reviews and comes with some bundled games.

On SSD side Corsair Force series also something not mentioned yet.

[ld420]

If I were you, id look into a minor case upgrade:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-197-_-Product

HAF 922, tons of room for your graphics card and mobo, massive airflow, and awesome cable management. The case you are looking at I have used, and tbh, its a bit flimsier than I like.

Also, dont rule out an ATi 6950 vid card. Same price point as the 560ti cards. Im a fan of eyefinity and ATi's new tesselation features. =P Nvidia is awesome too however. Also running SSD and the sandy bridge, and a good graphics card, id recommend a slightly beefier PSU. Seasonic, or a heftier corsair, as 650 *may* have issues. I had a 650w with an i7 2600k and when I OC'd , it would shut down while playing crysis on a stock 6970 vid card til I put in a 1000w corsair. Not saying go with 1000w, but, to be safe, id up the PSU.

[vesseblah]

Also running SSD and the sandy bridge, and a good graphics card, id recommend a slightly beefier PSU. Seasonic, or a heftier corsair, as 650 *may* have issues.

Makes very little sense, as SSD and Sandy Bridge are very low power components...

I had a 650w with an i7 2600k and when I OC'd , it would shut down while playing crysis on a stock 6970 vid card til I put in a 1000w corsair. Not saying go with 1000w, but, to be safe, id up the PSU.

... you're nowhere near the limits of high quality 650W PSU with that setup, it was either crap/old/broken PSU or some placebo fix (swapping the PSU knocked some loose cables into place). 1KW is enough to run three Radeon 6970's in Crossfire with i7-2600K.

[Vashuna]

Honestly i'd wait a little longer if it's possible to find a decent sata 3 SSD, for faster speeds! There are 2 on the market already that i can think of, intel 510 and corsair p3. There might be more though, so don't quote me on that.

A regular SSD is probably more than fine though.

[Jurwi]

1. Depends what you want. GF560Ti is good if you're poor, if you're not go with gtx580. It will run everything you throw at it at 1900x1200 resolution and max settings.
2. Get something from Asus P8P67 series, it really depends on how many SATA3 ports and shit you need. Since you don't sound like much of an OC'er or enthusias, I'd recommend P8P67 Pro.
3. It reduces load times for quite a bit, that's about it. It depends if you want to pay the money for booting your computer in 20 seconds instead of 40, and nearly instantly launching any software you have on the SSD. It's overrated for WoW, normal 7200rpm with dedicated partition at the beginning of the HDD is good enough for that. 120Gb is just overkill and costs way too much.
4. No, it's not overkill if you multitask a lot. Besides RAM prices are very low now, they won't be getting any cheaper. More likely they will just climb back up soon.

---------- Post added 2011-03-03 at 12:23 PM ----------

Honestly i'd wait a little longer if it's possible to find a decent sata 3 SSD, for faster speeds! There are 2 on the market already that i can think of, intel 510 and corsair p3. There might be more though, so don't quote me on that.

A regular SSD is probably more than fine though.

Pointless. I highly doubt he's going to get the fastest and by far most expensive one anyway, "normal" SSD's aren't nearly fast enough to require SATA3. 3 GBit/s of SATA2 is easily enough.

[ld420]

Yes. I "knocked some loose cables into place".....lol. I didnt tell the guy to go buy a 1k watt, and the PSU was a new seasonic 650, I just had power issues, and was letting him know about them as I have a similar setup, minus the vid cards and ram (I run 16gb). When I buy a new rig I try to future proof it.