Besting Gaming Ram for GA-H57M-USB Mobo

[MiGoreng]

Hello, I'd love some expertise for this NOOB on my first custom build from scratch and am having trouble finding CL7 RAM for the Gigabye 57 mobo. I'm building a system that I will most likely not need to upgrade for 3ish years for mid-range gaming, streaming movies, netsurfing basic Office tasks, and running two monitors. Upcoming games for 2010 I would like to play on fairly good graphics is Starcraft II, Final Fantasy XIV, and Crysis II. After pricing everything out on shop bot, it comes to $1100 CAD before taxes/shipping. I've never OC'd before but will most likely try it eventually on the CPU but nothing crazy, and I don't intend to use SLI/Crossfire with this build.

CPU: Core i5 750 (Is the stock cooler in the box ok or do I need to get a heatsink and fan?) $208
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 or GA-P55-USB3 (Prefer the H57, but would love a set of compatible CL7 ram) $114
RAM: G. Skills Ripjaw CL7 DDR3 1333 (F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH) (All online specs I've found say this is made for a P55 chipset but not H57. Will it work?) $104
Storage: Kingston V series G2 64GB SSD (for OS and games) $115
Storage: WD 80GB 7200 (salvaged from my old PC for storage of everything else. I also have an external HD) $0
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 460 768MB (would the 1GB version have a noticeable difference in real-world gaming?) $200
O/S: Windows7 Home Premium 64bit $94
Case: Antec Sonata III 500 (This includes an Antec Earthwatts 500w PSU. Is this sufficient to run with this system? The GTX 460 says it only requires a minimum 450w PSU and 24A) $100
PSU: If the included PSU in the case is not sufficient, which one should I get?
Optical: LG 10x Bluray reader 16x DVD reader/writer (CH10LS20) $96
Keyboard: Logitech Wave Black USB (920-000326) $30
Mouse: Gigabyte Laser Gaming Mouse (GM-M6880) $17
Controller: Frisby USB 2.0 Controller $10

Any feedback on this would help me out heaps. My time window for purchase is anywhere between now and the end of August so prices might come down a bit by then. My old PC just barely makes the minimum specs for Starcraft II (to be released on July 27th).

Cheers,

 

[bilbat]

I just threw some of thisat a Clarkdale (i5-650) on a GA-H55M-USB3 on the assumption it'd be too fast for the Clarkdale memory controller & I'd have to slow it down a bit (just wanted to get a little experience with the controller combo); much to my surprise, 'dialed in' in less than five minutes, @ full tilt!

To OC, I always recommend an aftermarket fan - but discourage 'going nuts'! Doesn't tkae a lot of $$ to 'beat the pants off' the stock stuff - this particular build, I spec'd this one; 4GHz without breathing hard...

I might have mis-entered something, but with the CPU at 4GHz, a floppy and a couple 120mm fans thrown in, I get ~600W at Antec's PSU calculator... Doesn't yet have the GTX-460's - had to pick a 465... My money spent, I'd go with a 5770, or a 5830 - but, then again, I've never forgiven nVidia for a couple of past 'injuries & insults' I don't quite get the point of an 'H' chipset, either - why pay for the additional video hardware, if you don't plan to use it? I was very pleasantly surprised by the video on the 650, but I certainly wouldn't 'volunteer it' for any heavy-duty gaming. Is there something I'm missing about the 'H's? - haven't yet downloaded the spec sheets...

 

[MiGoreng]

Awesome, thanks for the input. I think I'll stick with the H57, since it also has more display outputs than the P55. I guess it's back to the drawing board for case and PSU however.

 

[bilbat]

since it also has more display outputs than the P55

I don't think you're understanding this... The H boards don't have any 'on-board' video - the video processor is on the Clarkdale CPUs, and the i5-750 you're talking about is a Lynnfield processor - no video! The 'display outputs' you're looking at on the board won't do anything - beacause they won't be 'hooked up' to anything... In addition, if you were to use a Clarkdale, with on-chip video, so far as I know, you can't get it to 'peacefully coexist' with that GTX-460 - nVidia is a 'jealous god', their drivers have a plain old fit if they detect anyone else's video drivers!

 

[MiGoreng]

Wow, that's a good tip and makes a lot more sense now.

 

[bilbat]

Wanted to be sure you had it before the purchase - we've had a number of people here who couldn't get the video on the 'H' working, and turned out to have already bought Lynnfields... Ooops! I think GB and NE both could make this more clear on their respective sites, too...

 

[MiGoreng]

Best answer selected by MiGoreng.

 

[MiGoreng]

Thought I'd post an update as I just ordered my build online yesterday. The motherboard was purchased from PC Cyber, while all the other parts were from NCIX since they're only a few minutes away from my house. I decided to pickup a P55 board just in case a few years down the road I wanted to SLI and found a sweet deal on one that runs x8x8. I've got a monitor I can use, so I'll wait until xmas for a new one of those. I've a friend that works in IT for the local school board and was gonna pressure him into hooking me up with a nice keyboard and mouse. (In $CAD prices)

Biostar T5 XE CFX-SLI P55 ATX $115
Core i5 750 w/Coolermaster Hyper N520 heatsink $233
G. Skills Ripjaws 4GB 2x2 CL7 DDR3 memory $103
EVGA GTX 460 768MB Superclocked (763MHz) $220
OCZ Vertex 2 Sandforce 60GB SSD for O/S and Games (Starcraft II, Final Fantasy XIV and Crysis 2) $130
(I'll pull a slave HDD off my old PC for media and also use an external hard drive)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w $60
LG 10x BD-ROM 16x DVD-RW $90
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $100
Azza Helios 910R ATX Mid-tower Case $55

After tax (12%) came to $1315. I probably won't be able to pick up the order until mid next week and attempt to put it all together and boot it up. Thanks for the help on my prior Qs

 

[bilbat]

Will be reading with interest [:bilbat:1] - am especially fascinated by the new SandForce controllers - I think the next year or two is going to bring us some amazing advances in SSD tech in particular, and memory tech in general. Might want to look at one of the SandForce Product briefs - one of the 'amazing' things is the controller does its magic on less than a Watt of power! Another thing to watch: SandForce is 'pushing' Intel, and you don't push Intel without Intel 'pushing back'! I'm pretty sure (though, much to my surprise, I haven't seen a 'roadmap' yet?) Intel has to be 'tweaking' their third-gen SSD controller, and the pressure is on 'em to come up with ICH/PCH support for SATA3, as well...

Another interesting development: Samsung has a successful 'shrink' for DDR3 memory, to 32nm, and 1.35V (for ≤ 1866 MHz, 1.5V for ≤ 2133); which means that soon, 4G DIMMs will become commodity items, and 8G DIMMs possible...

If you want a hand with 'crankin' that baby up' [:isamuelson:8] - I'm always here!

 

[MiGoreng]

Thanks, will probably post something up once I take a stab at all the pieces of the puzzle.

Support for SATA3 will be nice in the future, but anything is better than what I'm upgrading from which is a P4 2.8, 1GB RAM, Geforce 7300 and an IDE Ultra ATA-100 with a HDD which supposed seq. reads/writes are about 45mb/s.