I am gong to upgrade my C2D and need some advice.  This pc is only for off-line games so I'm going to keep my XP PRO for now.  The only access to the outside world is from my flash drive for updates for the games (virus checked by my other pc).  I am looking at MSI Z77A G43 LGA1155, MSI R7850 Twin Frozer 2 GB 2GD5/OC 256 Bit Graphics card, Intel I7, and 8 GB Ram, for the essentials.  I'm confused about sockets as in the motherboard.  So do I care as I just want everything to "come together".  The power supply will be upgraded if necessary, and the rest of the components left intact unless their upgrade is necessary too.  So if I buy these on-line, will they all work together?  I don't want to buy these and find out that one won't work with the other.  I"m in the Philippines and must buy these on-line.  All input is appreciated.

JimMotherboard supports Core i7, as well as this Video Card, you will want to get good DDR3 RAM (
DDR3 2667*(OC)/ 2400*(OC)/ 2133*(OC)/ 1866*(OC)/ 1600/ 1333/ 1066 ) which unless you are overclocking, I'd go with DDR3 1600. Also I'd get a good power supply of at least 750watts if I was building this. You could probably get by with lesser wattage rating PSU, but its best to have more than needed than drive a power supply too hard struggling to keep up with the power demands. 650Watts would probably be the bare minimum for this build.
What are your current system specifications?
I would avoid MSI as a brand if possible.
What's your budget?
i7 is pointless for most games as an i5 will give you identical performance, barring rare CPU intensive games.
The 7850 is an odd choice to pair up with a high end CPU.

Without knowing the answer to the above questions, a rough recommendation would be a Gigabyte or Asus Z77 board, i5 4670K, and an AMD 7950 or 7970.  A good 650W PSU is all you would need for that build - note the word good Hey Calum,

Thanks for your SUGGESTIONS as I like your IDEAS on this upgrade.  What don't you like about MSI?  Here is some screenies on my system.

Thanks,
Jim

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Other than an MSI MBoard i'd say OK.

But i would answer Calum's questions above...
A) Budget
B) What are you expecting outta the upgrade ?
C) All of what Calum asked.This upgrade is for my sim pc (games only / no internet) and games.  As for the budget, obviously I want to keep it reasonable, maybe in the $500 - $600 range if possible.  I'm only upgrading the cpu as I don't need to replace the optical drive or hard drives.  I call it just a basic upgrade suitable for gaming.  My games are mostly from Steam, a 12 yo train simulator, flight simulator, and a few racing games.  I don't think any of them are "power hungry" games, but my system is quite old.  The frame rates in the train sim and a couple of the Steam games really suck.  A couple of them just wont completely load the game or graphics.  Looking at my pc specs I attached, it looks like to me that a decent processor and a much newer graphics card and more ram would probably solve my problems.

JimIn that case, my rough recommendation above still stands we really need to know the make and model of your power supply, though.
An i5 4670, 8GB of DDR3, a Gigabyte or Asus board and a 7950 would be a very nice upgrade and should last you a good while.
The reason I don't like MSI and don't recommend their products is due to reliability, or lack of it, and their tendency to produce buggy products that even when they work, don't necessarily work as expected.Curious as to how you play Steam Games on this without Internet?

I have steam client on 3 computers (desktop gaming rig, netbook, and laptop,) and the offline mode is a limited time lease to use stand alone games while away from the Steam Network. I took my laptop out of storage that is only used when I am on business trips and was hoping to play Torchlight II the one day and pick up where I left off with that stand alone game offline and it would not allow the game to play because the lease had expired and I needed to reconnect to the Steam Network to be given a reset on the offline mode time lease.Hey Dave,

Wish I could help you CONCERNING the Steam games, but I don't have that problem and have never heard of a Limited Lease Time etc.  My Steam games are all downloaded to the pc and I only connect to the internet if I think I should check for any updates, otherwise I just play off-line.  When I clic on the game, it asks me if I'm going to connect or play offline, and the games all play just fine offline.  I have about 25 or so games and they all work just fine offline.

JimThat is interesting, I've always been under the impression that Steam games will only work for a time offline, not indefinitely.  I haven't tested it myself, due to just leaving it online, though.  Perhaps certain games are fine in offline mode and others aren't?  I'm thinking maybe Steamworks games in particular need to be connected every so often, whereas perhaps others don''t, though I'm just speculating.I guess I better get some ideas on these Asus or Gigabyte motherboards suggested for this upgrade as I don't know anything about them.  So to keep the costs down a bit, I'm going with the I5 processor, AMD 7850 graphics card (costs less than the 7950), so the motherboard is the next item I need to deal with.  As for the power supply, it is a ACBEL 500W which if I remember right, isn't all that old as it was replace a few years ago.  I'll add probably 4 or 6 GB ram to this upgrade and I think that will do it.  My son told me that my games don't need the power that I was originally looking at, so I reduced my specs a bit.  After viewing the Steam specs on a few of my games, I see that all they recommend was an I3 processor, so it looks like I have plenty of cushion with this upgrade.  So all your input for the motherboard models is appreciated.

JimI'd suggest a new PSU if your gonna spend that much...
Acbel isn't a name that exactly inspires confidence...I would suggest either the Asus Z87-A or Gigabyte Z87X-D3H.
Definitely replace the PSU as patio says, Acbel isn't a known good manufacturer/rebrander.
I would suggest at least going for the 7870 as it's usually very close in price to the 7850, but point taken - if your games don't need that much horsepower the 7950 is probably a waste even if it is the better bang for buck.
I would also go for 8GB of RAM, 4GB isn't that much these days and 6GB would require 2x1GB sticks and 2x2GB sticks, or some other weird combination of mismatched modules - better to just go for 2x4GB and be done, then you have two slots free for later expansion if required.Well, thanks again for all the input.  I know my problem is solved now and I know what to buy so I can continue with this upgrade.  I've also learned a lot on upgrading.

Jim