Build Advice New build, recommendations on CPU and Memory? And benchmark sites?

[Perfectionist]

Hey I was wondering can anyone recommend good benchmark sites / sections of general benchmark review sites for CPUs and Memory?

E.g. same graphics card etc just the brand and timings of memory changes and measure the FPS

and e.g. same graphics card etc just the brand and timings of CPU changes and measure the FPS

Thanks for any help, trying to find "real" performance data rather than just "we can do that, we do this and oh, clock speed" as it's all a bit meaningless to me really.

Kind of thing I am looking to find out is just exactly how small the difference is between
i5 750, i7 860, i7 870, i7 920 and i7 975
and
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 7 v PC3-14900 (1866) CAS 7 v PC3-16000 (2000) CAS 8 v OTHER BRANDS of DDR3 (I am probably going to be buying my PC from 3xs.scan.co.uk and they mainly sell Corsair which would make it more convenient but I want to see if other brands are better value first)
(I am not sure what the timings on memory actually mean really, though I know higher clock speed is better, and I have no idea what CAS is)

Thank you for any help! Like the title says, any personal recommendations are very welcome too.

Current plan is something like this:

Case: Corsair 800D
Cooling: Scan installed watercooling (The reason I am going for watercooling is to have the PC as quiet as possible while still having good performance - I previously had the misfortune of owning a standard Sapphire 4870X2 card and it sounded like an aeroplane taking off when under load, I really don't want something like that again with my 5870)
PSU: ? Totally unsure on this one. Last PC had Corsair 1000-HX just for longevity and sureness, was told that larger ones are actually MORE efficient than smaller ones? Yet elsewhere I've seen people say smaller uses less energy, so totally unsure on this one.
Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Extreme
CPU: Probably Intel i7, undecided on whether I should go up to 920, 975 etc
Memory: Currently on 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT, DDR3 PC3-16000 (2000), 240Pin, CAS 8, may buy lower depending on how much the performance difference is (I don't want to pay lots for a tiny difference in performance, other than that I am going for the best within reason, I am trying to avoid being ripped off)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics: Sapphire ATI 1GB 5870
SSD 1: Intel X-25M (G2) 80GB (Windows 7, page file, background processes)
SSD 2: Intel X-25M (G2) 160GB (Programs, Games)
Storage: External 1TB maxxtor (already have)
OS: Windows 7 Pro (already have, will send for the system to be tested on)
Optical drive: Probably LG BH08LS20 - Want to be able to read/write *dual layer* blu-rays (made the mistake with my last PC of finding out could only do single layer after)

[Perfectionist]

Oh and I'm already looking at:

http://guru3d.com/category/review

http://anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=109&p2=108 - i7 975-E seems to be 5x the price of i5, and only gives 2-4fps more on all benchmarks, lol. I knew games were largely GPU limited but I didn't realise it was THAT bad.

http://tomshardware.com

[Slizza]

Originally Posted by Perfectionist

Oh and I'm already looking at:

http://guru3d.com/category/review

http://anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=109&p2=108 - i7 975-E seems to be 5x the price of i5, and only gives 2-4fps more on all benchmarks, lol. I knew games were largely GPU limited but I didn't realise it was THAT bad.

http://tomshardware.com

The fact that modern cpu's are generaly more than enough for games, and that the GPU is the more limiting factor is not a bad thing as far as cpu goes atall.
I don't know why you would be looking for games benchmarks to measure CPU differences int he first place.
You can clearly see what hardware performs better clock for clock and at stock settings on the sites your are already looking at.

You don't need any more info to know what hardware to buy.