Putting the Phenom Out to Pasture: Pt 1

Intel's next "tick" Haswell is around the bend, and early previews suggest that it's not going to make a significant difference in gaming PCs early on -- the real gains appear to be in the mobile and low-end processors.  My Phenom II system is aging, and between a failed power supply, a long-in-the-tooth Radeon 6800, and limited expansion opportunities, I'm looking at greener pastures.


I'm pricing out systems, and here's what I'm coming up with from the major manufacturers:

		Microcenter	Newegg	TigerDirect	Best Price
Processor	i5 3570k	$169.99	224.99
Mobo	Z77 Extreme4	$134.99	129	309.99 (Bundle)	309.99
Video Card	Radeon 7870	239.99	239.99	209.99	209.99
SSD	Corsair Neutron 240gb	279.99	219.99	219.99	219.99
Power Supply	CORSAIR AX760i 760W	219.99	199.99	209.99	199.99
Case	???	$100.00	$100.00	$100.00	100
RAM	16GB DDR3 1966	$109.99	$170.99	$178.19	109.99
Win 8 Pro		$139.99	$139.99	$134.99	134.99
Total		$1,394.93	$1,424.94	$1,228.15	1,284.94

This is, of course, wishlisting with the parts that TomsHardware suggests are the point of diminishing returns.  I can do a bit of trimming, and can likely repurpose an old case.  That'd trim off $100, give or take, but I don't have a functional 500+ W power supply, and I do want to upgrade RAM and to an SSD for my games.  If I move to a 180gb SSD, that'll save me around ~$50, and I have a copy of Win7 OEM floating around that may work (though I've read that Microsoft makes OEM Win7 not work with newer parts).  All told, if I can get it working, and that's a big if, I'd shave around $300 off the build, bringing it in in the high $900s, not including tax, shipping, and the such.