Quickie: CPU Upgrade – Help Wanted

I got Fallout: New Vegas on Monday but haven’t really played a lot yet. One reason for that is that time has been in short supply, but another is that my gaming rig isn’t really handling itself well anymore. Most notably, my CPU was produced in 2006 and while it was awesome at its time, it really can’t handle modern games all that well anymore. My video card also needs an upgrade, but it’s way newer and not remotely as stressed out as the CPU.

So, with wages coming in soon I’m looking to upgrade CPU, board, and likely RAM to something that can handle modern games well. Currently my eyes are on an Intel i7 875k, but I’m not really into over-clocking (though I might try it with such a processor) and don’t know much about the processor market these days. I know even less about motherboards, never did really, and therefore would quite appreciate some suggestions as to what to get.

I’m somewhat flexible where money and power are concerned, so if you have had any positive (or negative) experience with CPUs and boards of this caliber recently, please do share.