New gaming build advice

[Admiral Nelson]

It's been five years since I built my last system (with excellent advice from TWC members) so I thought I'd ask for suggestions at this forum again. I'd like to build the best gaming system I can for around C$1000. I already have a DVD drive, Windows 7, and 1680x1050 monitor.

With some preliminary research, I'm thinking of getting these components. I'm not as up to date on the latest tech so I'm very open to suggestions!

Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti Fermi 900MHZ 1GB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI Mini HDMI DirectX11 PCI-E Video Card
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Frostbyte PC3-12800 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 1.5V Dual Channel Memory
Bitfenix Shinobi Window ATX Mid Tower Case Black 3X5.25EXT 8X3.5INT No PS Top USB3.0 Audio
Antec Truepower New 750W Modular Power Supply ATX Active PFC 80 Plus SLI Ready Blue 120MM PWM Fan
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366/1155/1156/2011 120MM
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM

And some questions:
What's a good mobo for this system? There's a huge range of options.
Is a Gigabyte GPU a good choice?
Is there any downside to a modular PSU?

[Zerosliver]

Your cpu and gpu choices are outdated, both parts have had recent releases of new product lines, i'd suggest checking out Ivy Bridge cpus and AMD 7000/Nvidia 600 series gpus.

[Blau&Gruen]

Power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power E9 CM 580W ATX 2.3. You do not need a 750W.

i5-2500K is still fine but ivy prices may normalize over the next four weeks.

i5-3570K (IB) would be the pendant to 2500K (SB). Consider to take a Z77 Board if you go for Ivy.

What's a good mobo for this system?

Depends, wait for some additional tests.

So far most testings have concentrated on mid range and more elaborated oc boards.
I have not seen many tests comparing boards of the lower price segment until now.

[Shocked]

I've just built my rig and those are basically the same specs as mine, so far it has run great on games. I've had some driver/software issues though

[Blau&Gruen]

What kind of driver/software issues do you have?

[Shocked]

What kind of driver/software issues do you have?

I've created a thread for it already (it's in the Basement section)

[Crazyeyesreaper]

2500k is still fine vs the 3570 runs cooler and can overclock same distance IVB has PCIE 3.0 tho which is helpful later on,
750w PSU is fine modular units are preferred these days,
Gigabyte are allright but

Biostar Z77XE4 is the best board out that supports the 2500k in terms of price/ performance / features

[Admiral Nelson]

I'm trying to figure out the difference between these two cards. Can someone help me out? The difference in price is considerable.

EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Fermi 732MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Fermi 732MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 2XDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E Video Card

[Crazyeyesreaper]

I'm trying to figure out the difference between these two cards. Can someone help me out? The difference in price is considerable.

EVGA GeForce GTX 570 HD Fermi 732MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Fermi 732MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 2XDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E Video Card

its obvious the cooler is different

one uses the GTX 560 Ti cooler which blows air straight down onto the heatsink aka its quiter but hot air from the gpu winds up in the case,

the other cooler with the fan at far back is a blower style, usually its much louder but it exhausts the hot air out the back of the case.

[Leonidas The Lion]

I use the ASUS GTX570 DirectCU II ENGTX570 and I must say I've very happy with it.

[craziii]

if you plan on keeping that monitor there is no need to get a 560 ti. future proofing doesn't work either since the next gen consoles could be release in 2013 or 14. 750w psu is overkill for medium range gpus like 560 ti or 460 1gb. if you gonna go for 7970 or 680 then 750 would be perfect.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

no reason to worry about next gen consoles,

at best the Wii U will utlize an AMD 4850, aka 8800GTX performance that was high end in 2006
Xbox 720 or w.e microsoft wants to call it looks to be using a 7750 / 7770 at best
PS4 looks to be using an AMD Trinity-based APU + AMD graphics probably similar to the new Xbox,

next generation of consoles are nothing special, there pushing from 1000x600 res to 1920x1080p at 30-60fps with efficiency being higher graphics will get better but its not gonna be a massive difference,