Need help picking cpu (2500k vs 3450 vs 3570k or ?)

[badboyeee]

Hello Intel Gurus,

I need some assistance with picking a CPU (then motherboard soon after). I am going to be in the MicroCenter area this weekend and I am running out of time trying to research.

Here are the MC specials: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/0c260263#/0c260263/28

Few days ago I was pretty set on just getting an i5-2500k and AsRock Z77 Extreme4 combo which is $250'ish, as it overclocks like a dream. Then yesterday I started reading about IB.

After some rethinking I now would like to be more future proof. Here are my needs/wants:
1) Moderate RTS gaming (ultra settings @ 1920x1080 for StarCraft2 & CoH2 when it comes out)
2) run VMs for MSCA/E studies
3) casual video editing (then I thought of about Hackintosh'ing. Would be nice to be able to run Mac OS and do my video editing on that).
4) VMWare ESXi (very optional, for down the road when done with MSCA/E as I would need to learn this to further my career)

My immediate needs are #1 & #2. Achieving #3 would be awesome. #4 I know very little about, but have a feeling that would be impossible.

I'm usually a cheapo so more familiar with AMD, but I was able to save up some money this time. Budget for cpu/mobo would be $275-$300 but dont mind going a bit higher if it allows me to do everything above.

I would like to do a moderate overclock, but im seeing the K cpus will disable virtualization? I had always build systems with thoughts of OC'ing, but I'm seeing non-K cpus are hard to do...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[EarthDog]

Get the best you can afford...but yeah you are right those K CPU's disable the virtualization so the VM's wont run as well as one with that functionality (havent used one personally so not sure of the difference...).

Overclocking with a non K CPU you are limited to the highest turbo ratio + bclk. You usually end up around low 4Ghz range.

 

[badboyeee]

Get the best you can afford...but yeah you are right those K CPU's disable the virtualization so the VM's wont run as well as one with that functionality (havent used one personally so not sure of the difference...).

Overclocking with a non K CPU you are limited to the highest turbo ratio + bclk. You usually end up around low 4Ghz range.

Okay so the i5-3450 is 3.1ghz with 3.5ghz turbo. I'd be happy if I can get 4.0 ghz. Possible? How much more difficult? I was planning to just use a CM Hyper212+ cooler. I also like how its $40 cheaper than the 3570k. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=425454

 

[Knufire]

You might want to go with the i7 for VMs and video editing.

 

[EarthDog]

+1. Like was mentioned above, grab a CPU with Hyperthreading as it should help a lot with your functions. 4Ghz shouldnt be a problem at all.

 

[badboyeee]

ahh ok, never considered i7's. so i7-2700k vs i7-3770k aka SB vs IB.. Is it worth the extra $60, considering the i7-2700k was already a bit over my original budget.. Advantages for IB is gaining USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0... anything else? Performance wise, only slight jump.. My video editing would be casual, i dont do anything professional. But if it really helps VM's, is it worth the $100/$140 premium from the i5-3450/3570k?