Budget Gaming Build - Need Reviews

[KrzzProductions]

Until now I been stuck with a pentium 4 laptop with integrated graphics... lol and its definitely time for an upgrade. I am looking to build a gaming build under $800 (US) if possible. Here is what I came up with so far and I am willing to change things around if someone can point out a good reason to. I want to be able to play most if not all latest games on ultra graphics at at least 720p but 1080p is preferred. Some games I plan on running are battlefield 3, COD, GTA 4, hitman absolution, etc. Thank you.

CPU:
i5 3570K - Micro Center - Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor 407627
I went with an i5 as people state that for gaming hyper threading is not going to make much difference.

Mother Board:
ASUS P8Z877 -V - Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
I like ASUS's software for hardware configuration but I am not sure if the other companies have similar stuff. I liked the fact that with ASUS I can overclock my CPU right from the OS, real-time. Also this motherboard would allow room for upgrades in the future if I wanted to go with SLI.

RAM:
Viper Xtreme Series 8gb DDR3-2000 (PC3-16000) 4gb X 2 dims
Does it make a major difference between clock speeds of DDR3-2000 or DDR3-1866?

GPU:
ZOTAC AMP! GeForce 560 Ti
Newegg.com - ZOTAC AMP! ZT-50302-10M GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

or
EVGA GTX 480
Newegg.com - EVGA 015-P3-1480-KR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

I cant decide on GPU's since there are just so many at various prices that I cant decide which one is right for me. I was thinking of going with 560 ti but then on the other hand the 480 is only 10 to 20 bucks more and it performs a lot better. But if someone can point me in the right direction with this it'd be great!

PSU:
COOLMAX ZU Series ZU-700B 700W (80 Plus Bronze Cert.)
Newegg.com - COOLMAX ZU Series ZU-700B 700W ATX 12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Not sure if 700W is too much or too little for me.

HDD:
Really doesnt make much difference to me what kinda hard drive I get with the build but for the time being lets just include this 500 GB drive. I wanna get a computer running and then i'll probably buy a small 64GB to 120GB SSD and install my OS on it and have a mechanical HDD for all my storage. I want to wait for a good deal on the SSD as they are expensive and I want to keep my computer under the $800 budget at the moment.
Newegg.com - HGST Deskstar 7K1000.D HDS721050DLE630 (0F13178) 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Case:
ZALMAN Z11
Newegg.com - ZALMAN Z11 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
This case just looks uniquely cool and has tonz of fan placement for cooling. But anything in that price range would suffice. Like the hard drive this can be modified fairly easily.

Finally, with all the parts mentioned above before rebates the total comes out to 809.93 dollars. If i go with a cheaper alternative for the motherboard and some other parts I can bring down the cost even further so if you guys thing I should modify something from my build please suggest something.

P.S. This is going to be my first build ever if that makes any difference.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

cpu: 4 cores is all you need. if you did a majority of your work video and photo editing instead of gaming, it might be worth it to up the cpu.

mobo: i like asus. probably should be fine.

ram: stick with the 1600 rated stuff. you can overclock it a bit with any overclock of the cpu.

gpu: unless youre talking outside of the price performance ratio (imo: ~$300) get as much gpu as you can afford.

psu. im not sure that i could recommend the coolmax cpu. and you dont need that many watts. a quality corsair, antec, or seasonic psu of about 550 to 650 watts is all you need. other psu's of different companies can be recommended by personal recommendation, but it's hard to go wrong with these companies, even with their budget lines.

hdd: im not really familiar with that hdd company. i really like the samsung spinpoint f3 and the wd black.

case: for the few reasons i go to the user reviews, it seems like it could be a chore to do really neat cable management.

and welcome to tech forums.

and USA USA USA USA USA

 

[KrzzProductions]

Thanx for the help jasonalwaysready! Sounds like I can save a few bucks on the PSU then and may be look out for a better gpu. I can see how a higher end gpu would allow me to stick to the same card for a longer time as I dont plan on upgrading after I m done with the build for at lease a couple of years.

Are there any other graphics cards I should consider? If I do wanna go for a higher card would the GTX 570 be a crazy upgrade? <http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125384>

Or should I still stick to a choice between GTX 480 or GTX 560 Ti?

 

[jasonalwaysready]

you arent going to save money on the psu, but Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
is a much better product.

that gpu is probably fine. it is big, but should probably fit the case well enough.

 

[PP Mguire]

The 480 and 570 are pretty on par performance wise. The 480 is just a furnace of a GPU. The 560ti perform worse than both of them by a bit.