It's that time again.

[Greyblades]

Yes fellow gentle PC gamers it's that time in my life again when my rig becomes obsolete, specifically the CPU and replacing it requires a motherboard with a different chipset to what I have and new motherboard requires new RAM so after trawling I've found a set that looks good:
AsRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 Motherboard (Socket 1155, DDR3, PCI Express 3.0, 7.1 HD Audio, ATX, ASRock On/Off Play Technology)
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155)
Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit

I have a Nividia GeForce GTX 560 Ti that I want to keep, I just need someone to tell me if the setup will work out and if there's a better setup at a similar price.

[Furunculus]

no pcie 3.0 with sandybridge
only pcie 3.0 on z68 with ivybridge

what you want is an 8-10 phase z77 board for £80-90:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AsRock-Z77-M...9410788&sr=1-8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Z77A-G45...productDetails

[Husar]

no pcie 3.0 with sandybridge
only pcie 3.0 on z68 with ivybridge

Why would you want pci-e 3.0 in the first place?

Unless you go multi-GPU, the differences are negligible. Link

[Greyblades]

Because the articles I have had the pleasure to read while researching which processor I should get did not mention that, it gets pretty convoluted quick figuring out what each Acronym pasted onto the processor name means in releation to eachother/ other equipment. So what is the best I can get for a single GPU?

[Husar]

pci-e 3.0.

My point was just that I wouldn't spend considerably more or do anything special just to get the 1% or 2% more speed it offers over pci-e 2.0. In fact the test shows that with a single GPU, even pci-e 1.0 hardly falls behind, just a 4-5% difference there.
If price and effort are the same, it hardly matters, I just wouldn't jump through hoops to get pci-e 3.0.

[Furunculus]

agreed, but there are plenty of z77 boards in the same price bracket, so why buuy a pc without it?

pcie3 is better for gp-gpu stuff however.

[Greyblades]

So this would work fine?:
AsRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 Motherboard (Socket 1155, DDR3, PCI Express 3.0, 7.1 HD Audio, ATX, ASRock On/Off Play Technology)
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155)
Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit

Would it be worth considering an ivy bridge processor? This one seems as good and doesnt seem any more expensive: Intel 3rd Generation Core i5-3570K CPU (4 x 3.40GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 6Mb L3 Cache, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)

[Lemur]

FWIW, most code-monkeys and gearheads believe that R2 is CPU bound, not GPU bound. So doubling down on your 560 will probably leave you no better off than now.

Better to look at an unlocked i5.