What should I get this time?

[retiredat44]

What should I get this time? Every 4 or 5 years I build at least one computer to keep up so I can fly combat flight sims with friends online. I am a bit late this go-round. I have not kept up much for a while and am looking to see what I can budget. My old computer from 2007, is: MSI P7N motherboard with Core2duo cpu, etc.. DDR2, etc,, outdated and can no longer keep up with the simulation world, online. MY friends tell me to go for I-5, quad core over 3 ghz cpu. I like Asus motherboards, but am open to others. DDR3 ram, etc.. also buying new case. I already know where I can get lots of these parts, and decent prices,,, different stores, some online others in stores nearby.

I am trying to break this into paragraphs, but this forum is not letting me move (it finally let me, after I saved it and came back), around and make paragraphs,, weird..??!! So, maybe a 3.4 ghz quad I-5 cpu, a decent asus motherboard,,, I don't know how big the pipes are now,,, last time I checked 1100 and 1300 fsb... are the fsb bigger now, should I find something with more fsb,,, also,, I have a PNY Nvidia GTX 460 video card, and it should probably be ok,, but I have the chance to sli it, I know where I can get a matching one at a good price, and I know people have got happy results with the Nvidia 560 series.. but going up to like the 580 series would be nice, but the money is getting to much so, I don't think I will do that... I already upgraded to Win8, mainly because I got it cheaper than Win7. I would love to hear opinions for a budget. Meaning,... I can't go hog wild, just something decent. What would be decent,, and keep it maybe around $700. I already have the software.

Also, I need a couple more sata drives... I only have one sata, the rest of mine are the old ide drives (suck). I know some people who got ssd drives and like them. Not sure if I will, considering. I am not worried about cooling much, but should I be? Are the newer computers still running hot, I thought since they keep shrinking the parts down, less current, equals less heat. But, maybe they still need big fans,,, not sure if I wil go water cooling, as, the budget may not allow it,, I will see. We need a new/used car and it has higher priority than the computer stuff. I need to give my wife my rig, as hers is an old Pentium 4 that is a pile of carp.

btw, I have a 46" LCD HDTV I use with HDMI cable from my video card. it doesn't take much power from a video card with hdmi.