Upgrade Advice

So I've had my current build for a little over 4 years and am in need of an upgrade, I already got a new GFX Card out of necessity (old one died a year or so ago) and got a EVGA GTX 460 and love it. I also upgraded the PSU and case a week ago also out of necessity, a Corsair Pro HX750 and a Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced, both of which are amazing. Currently U have an old AMD Dual Core that runs at 2.8 Ghz and 4 GB of DDR2 Crucial ram. I also have 4 hard drives, two 250 GB, one 500 GB and one 1TB, all 7200 RPM and I will phase out the 250s and 500 over time. So here is what I'm thinking my options are.

Option 1
AMD Phenom II X4 965 or 975
ASUS Sabertooth or ASUS M5A99X

Option 2
Intel i5 2500K
ASUS P8Z68-V Pro

With option one I would most likely upgrade my OS drive to a SSD as it would be significantly cheaper, but the Intel upgrade would allow me to have PCI Express 3.0 for future upgrades. For the RAM for either system I will probably go with two of these. I was also thinking about the AMD FX-8120, but I haven't heard the best reviews about it saying that AMD's FX line is a bit of a flop. I mostly use my PC for gaming, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, Starcraft 2, The Old Republic, and many others. I occasionally use it for Photoshop for my photography hobby, but being able to render isn't a selling point, it is a nice consideration. I've also never done an Intel build before, I've always had AMD in the past, except for my laptop which has an i7 in it. Thanks for any input you guys can give!

 

As far as I know. NVIDIA card works better with Intel and AMD card works better with AMD processor. So I would got for intel for your upgrade. But it is just what I heard from other people.

 

I think those people just assume that, but it is not true. It is bad business to limit your markets. Both companies want to take business away from the other, not give it away. And besides, it is up to the motherboard/chipset maker and the OS to make sure all the components play well together.

I don't see a budget listed. I also don't see an operating system listed. A common mistake is some users assume they can use their old Windows license on a new computer. Understand only a "boxed" full Retail license can be transferred to a new computer (or upgraded motherboard). It is illegal to use an OEM license that came with or was purchased for one computer on another computer. A disk “branded” with a computer maker’s brand name, or is labeled with “OEM/System Builder”, “Upgrade”, “Academic Edition”, or "For Distribution with a new PC only", is not transferable to a new PC (or upgraded motherboard) under any circumstances. These OEM licenses are inextricably tied to the "original equipment". So if that is the case, I recommend 64-bit Windows 7 or one of the many free Linux alternatives. And I recommend 8Gb of RAM.

The CPU is but one component in a computer. Building an Intel based computer is really no different than building an AMD based computer.