Advice: Best Motherboard for Intel Core i7-3770K Processor (BX80637I73770K)

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janpatz1983

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Mar 31, 2013
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I am seeking advice, I am planning to purchase ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for my Intel Core i7-3770k. are this two compatible? It's my 1st time to build a gaming PC
 
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DarkSable


Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. You're wasting money big time in places where it won't get you any benefit.

Drop down to something like this (none of which reduces your gaming performance at all) which then allows you to get a better graphics card. The rule of thumb is to spend twice on the graphics card what you do on the CPU - which means for an i5-3570k or i7 (which performance-wise is the exact same) you're looking at a $400 card, minimum.

This will outperform your build buy quite a lot, because it's taking the extra money and putting it where you'll actually see some use from it, instead of paying another $100 for four more USB ports and a thunderbolt port...
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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They're compatible, but for a gaming PC, both of those are wasting a LOT of money:

1) The sabertooth has more features, but the exact same performance, as a $150 motherboard. Buy an AsRock z77 Extreme 6 and it will be MORE than plenty.

2) For gaming, the i7-3770k performs EXACTLY the same as an i5-3570k. The only difference between the two chips is that the i7 has hyperthreading, which games don't benefit from.

If you go with an i5 and a motherboard that costs no more than $150, you'll have the EXACT same performance, plus another $200 to put into other parts. What's the rest of your build; specifically the graphics card?
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. You're wasting money big time in places where it won't get you any benefit.

Drop down to something like this (none of which reduces your gaming performance at all) which then allows you to get a better graphics card. The rule of thumb is to spend twice on the graphics card what you do on the CPU - which means for an i5-3570k or i7 (which performance-wise is the exact same) you're looking at a $400 card, minimum.

This will outperform your build buy quite a lot, because it's taking the extra money and putting it where you'll actually see some use from it, instead of paying another $100 for four more USB ports and a thunderbolt port. You'll notice it's only got a 550w power supply. That's more than enough - if you wanted to run two cards in the future, upgrade to a 750w power supply.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($154.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Ghost (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1177.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-08 01:49 EDT-0400)
 
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Bobby77

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May 3, 2013
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I am planning to custom build as well for PC gaming. Your below mentioned components are not going become obsolete next 4-5 yrs? If I do need to upgrade in future than there shouldn't be any problem with motherboard? Do you know any of these components are toward their end of life? Please provide your input.
Thanks



 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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There's not really any such thing as future proofing like you're talking about. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK4ip08auGg

That being said, if you're talking about just upgrading the processor in the future, yes, you'll likely need a new motherboard, as the socket will have changed; but if you're talking about upgrading the graphics card or anything else, then you're just fine.

None of these components are near the end of their life; they're some of the best stuff out there.
 
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Bobby77

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Thanks for your input.
Do you think Radeon HD 7950 is good replacement of GTX670? If so what kind of HD 7950 I should go with? I only go with HD 7950 if there is price in difference over $100. Currently, GTC 670 is around $399 for me.



 
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Bobby77

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I am US based. Newegg has GTX670 for $419 - $20 rebate.
Do you see any cheaper than anywhere else? 7970 is same price as GTX670.
I can OC HD 7950 easily, there are so many HD 7950 which one is better? Sapphire? Myst Edition?



 
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Patrick Nichols

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Aug 6, 2013
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Oh contrare, games like bf3 and crysis3 both benefit from hyperthreading.
 
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vnair10

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Nov 16, 2013
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Please can someone give me a list of parts for a well performing gaming computer, mainly to play bf4. But one that will also run all other thing pretty fast eg microsoft word and for simply searching the web etc.

this is my first time building a computer so a list of parts, trying to keep a low budget is what i am after.


 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Not that much, and certainly a small performance gain in two games is not worth it. They also only gain that because they're badly coded - hyperthreading only applies to double-precision calculations, and no game should need hardly any of those done at all.



Please make your own thread instead of just posting in a random, half-year-old thread.
 
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arrowshoot

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Nov 23, 2013
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Dark Sable and Ashi,

I have some cash and want to upgrade my system, without wasting too much money.
My intention is to make my system faster, so that my tasks take less time, I do a lot of photo editing, particularly with large size RAW files which can be like 30-50 MB each.

I am not a person with IT background, so I will need some help from you people. I want to know which parts I should change to see substantial increase in speed.
My current system:
I have the core i7 3770K
the mother board is gigabyte Z77M-D3H
Graphics card : Nvidia GEFORCE 560 SE
RAM 4 GB X 2 - 800 MHz, from Gskill.
SSD 128 GB from OCZ agility 3
And I use a 3 TB WD green HDD.

Looking forward for your advice. It will be great if you can give some options, because I live in Thailand, where all components are not as easily available as US.

Arrowshoot
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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You really aren't going to get much of an upgrade for cheap - the first thing you should do is get some more ram in there; do you have 4GB total or 8GB total? You want at least 8.

Other than that, the only thing that would make a big difference is having an SSD to use as a scratch drive - you copy whatever project you're working on to the ssd and use it for that project, then copy it off when you're done and don't need to access them quickly.
 
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arrowshoot

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Nov 23, 2013
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I already have 8 GB memory (4GB x 2) , but they are 800 MHz. Does it help to get higher bandwidth memory like 1866 MHz or 2400MHz?
I also have SSD, but using it as a boot drive, so while booting is fast, the pics processing takes longer as it has to access the data from the HDD. I may buy a SSD 240 GB, I was think if a PCI-E SSD will help?
I was thinking if an overhaul of the system will be better. Like changing to a new LGA 1155 motherboard (that supports my core i7 3770K) what do you think ? any suggestions for a new motherboard or I should not?
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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1) DDR stands for double data rate. RAM that is reported as 800MHz is sold as double that - 1600MHz. Going faster than that will be a waste of money and get you very little return.

2) Consider buying a second SSD, or else just make a partition on your current SSD to use as your workspace - either would work just fine. No, a pcie SSD shouldn't be bothered with - it's a LOT more money for not much benefit.

3) ...you HAVE an LGA 1155 motherboard. Why would you buy a new one? Better yet, you have a z77 chipset, which means you can buy a cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO, install it, and overclock your CPU to get faster speeds.

If you do that, make SURE that you read a LOT about how to do it, because if you just let software or auto-voltage on the motherboard do it, it'll over-volt, and cause way too much heat, possibly damaging components. Do it right, and do it by hand.

You really have a very good computer there; for what you're doing with it, there isn't much upgrading you should do to it before the huge upgrade of jumping to workstation parts.

 
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arrowshoot

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I I have the thermaltake jing CPU cooler installed,

http://www.legitreviews.com/thermaltake-jing-silent-cpu-cooler-review_1589

Is it good enough to help me Overclock? It says "It supports to OC 4.0G in i7 CPU."

Arrowshoot
 
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