Right now im building a new gaming system and im between 2 CPU and mother board combos. An i7 4770k with a msi z87-g45 or an FX 8350 with an ASUS crosshair formula 5. I mainly do gaming, the games i play heavily are ARMA II, battlefield 3&4, some other random FPS, and a skyrim. I do intend on doing some video encoding but this is going to be mainly a gaming PC. My budget is around 400usd for the motherboard and CPU. And i intend on buy my parts from Microcenter. I already own the following items 32gbs of patriot viper ram, 120gb ssd and 3x 1tb hdd, an nzxt phantom 410 gunmetal, 850w thermaltake black widow psu, and a creative sounds card( cant find the model but ive used 3 of these and they work fairly good for the money). And for the GPU im looking at a hd 7970 or an r9 280x. and i do intend on overclocking.
Eiher would not be a bad idea. The 4770k would cost more but also perform at least a bit better, if not nearly as much better than the difference in price. If when overclocking you don't mind having to deal with a lot of heat at the cooler end the FX-8350 could net a good result. I suspect you might as well start with a FX-8320 when planning to overclock a lot, though the diference in price is not great. Make sure you get the Formula-Z edition of the Crosshair 5 motherboard, which is newer. Personally I might have settled for the less expensive Sabertooth 990FX R2.0.
If you don't mind spending a little extra I would lean towards the 4770k after all. Not as fun to overclock but easier to deal with for most builds. The i5 4670k could also be worth considering for the lower cost. We'll see when BF4 is out, but even with its new CPU heavier engine I don't think that the hyperthreaded i7 will really have any advantage. I don't know about the new ARMA game though.
I would buy an 8350 and the Asus Sabtertooth 990fx r2.0. The Crosshair V Formula isn't any better and the Sabertooth is ~$45 cheaper. You aren't going to be able to afford a 4770k and a good motherboard for $400. If you can afford it the 4770k is going to be the better option though.
from what ive been told the board i posted above is good and micro gives you 90$ off your CPU and an additional 35-50$ with a motherboard.
if you are getting it from microcenter get the 4770k and the msi z87 gaming mobo hands down since the i7 is what like $280 at microcenter
what i was thinking, thank you for confirming that.