PC upgrade suggestions

megazordprime

I need help deciding what parts I need to upgrade my PC so it can properly handle 3D apps such as 3DS Max, Unity, and UDK. I made the mistake of being cheap and bought a prebuilt Cyberpower computer and thought it was a good idea because I didn't know much about building my own pc at the time. Due to an unfortunate turn of events, my PC got roach infested after one of my nephews put powdered sugar into it through the top holes. It resulted in my PC getting fried and it won't even turn on. I'm pretty sure that most of my parts weren't damaged but I know for sure that I need a new Power Supply. I took this experience as an opportunity to build a new rig based on the parts that I can salvage. Here's my current specs:

Intel i3-2100 Dual Core 3.1 ghz Sandy Bridge
8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Biostar H61MHB mobo
1tb HDD (I forget the brand)
An off brand 430w Power Supply that no longer works
Cyberpower branded ATX case ( I really don't like it because it takes too much space I'm looking to downgrade to a micro ATX case because my mobo is a micro ATX for some reason)
Nvidia GT 520 graphics card
generic DVD drive

I looked up these individual parts to find that most of these have LOW scores on newegg which was a red flag so I'm not too upset about some of my parts being damaged. I'm looking to downsize my PC to a micro ATX case and upgrade the CPU, Graphics Card, and mobo if possible.

Here's what i had in mind

Keep the DVD drive, HDD, and RAM and get the following

intel i5 or i7 ivy bridge 3.4 ghz
EVGA NVIDIA GTX 650 or 660
A reasonable micro ATX motherboard
600w PSU (preferably corsair brand)
Fractal Design 1000 micro ATX case

This exceeds my budget of around 600 dollars. I don't mind going slightly over if I have to, but before I decide on buying these, I want to know if they are some cheaper options out there if available. Any help will be greatly appreciated

IchII3D

I would recommend the 660 over the 650, the ?50 brand are a lower end card and really only for home theatre systems or laptops.

Also corsair make some of the best PSU's but some of them do suffer from buzzing noises. I would do a quick check and avoid the ones that do.

As for the computer as a whole, next gen is just around the corner and because the new consoles provide so much MEMORY I have a feeling PC ports of those games will require much more GPU MEMORY. I'm fairly confident your going to get some developers just loading there games into main memory and not even investing in a streaming system. This could make the PC versions of those games heavy on GPU MEMORY. Then again loading times would be massive if developers don't invest in streaming so it could end up with all games having good streaming. Its still hard to tell.

But generally speaking the new consoles come out in a few months and could change the PC landscape a little, I would try and get some more expert advice on this and make sure your setting yourself up with a good foundation to upgrade both RAM and GPU.

Luka

id take a haswell CPU if i were you, as they have better thermal properties (heatspredder soldered to the die again, instead of some TIM between them)
also if you want to get some GFX almost as good as GTX660 id take eVGA's GTX650Ti Boost SuperClocked 2GB which can be bought for 170€ here.
i have a corsaor CX600M and its a very good PSU for the money. i havent experienced any noise from it.

for a mobo, if youre going with the i5 or i7 please, for gods sake use all of its capacities and get a Z77(ivy bridge)* or Z87(haswell)* chipset on the mobo. with the money you save going form the 660 to 650ti should cover this.

case is very much something you should decide based on your needs and aestethic preferences, but stay with recognised brands like coolermaster, zalman, corsair, etc..

*links are just examples, search for yourself, iwth your preferences

IchII3D

http://gpuboss.com/graphics-card/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-650-Ti-Boost

The 650ti will get around half or two thirds of the frame rate of a 660 or 660ti

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-213-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2392

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-199-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379

As far as I'm aware the performance of Ivybridge and Haswell is disappointingly identical. The main difference is power consumption and the on-board graphics. You might be able to overclock them a little more but I haven't heard much about it.

I would recommend getting yourself a spec together and post it on TomsHardware and explain what you want and why. Those guys are really great and have always helped me when it came to getting the most out of whatever budget I had.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/

Also I often use this website to help identify value for money in a CPU. I'm not sure how good there GPU benchmark is though.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Oh another thing to add (must be like a million edits on this post) when your looking at GPU benchmarks remember different manufacturers will have different cloak speeds. I know from the 660 series the MSI Arctic Cooler seems to blow away the competition, the cooler on the card is fantastic. Make sure your properly looking into your cards details though as they can all be drastically different when it comes to noise and build quality. You might get one card thats fast and cheap, but its constantly running at 80 degrees and sounds like an aircraft taking off.