Time to get a new system need some help

[wildman]

I think its time for a complete overhaul, my current system is a dual core athlon4600 , 2gb ram, 350gb hdd and a BFG 7950GT, still using XP as my os.

I have had this since late 2005/2006 iirc so I think its time to get modernised and go with a windows 7 build.

Primary use of machine is gaming / photowork

main games played are EvE, X3, TF2, CS, DoD, DDO and the usual offering of RTS games DOW, SC etc.

I haven't built anything for over 5 years so I am now way off the curve as to where we are with regards to processors, GPUs and even simple things like what current ram speeds are

Looking to spend around 500-600 quid in total (don't need a monitor got a nice 24" one already) and none of the usual peripherals as they are all currently working order.

Was hoping you guru's of hardware could spec me a reasonable gaming rig in that price range. Only caveat is I want to try and be a little future proof for some new games that might be coming soon (elder scroll V if it ever happens )

 

[wildman]

thanks for all the pointers. I was thinking of the 955 ' black' but a lot you seem to be recomending going with sandybridge. Also graphics wise I was going to try and stick with Nvidia as I have had some really bad experiences with ATi in the past.

Main reason for going to win7 over XP is that I want to go 64bit so I can us emore than 2gb ram properly and the only verison of XP i have is the 32 bit one. Looking at some suggestions I think i will probably up the budget by another 100 to 150 quid just means I need to wait another 2 months for bonus time so I can get it all in one go