X58/1366 or P67/1155 for gaming build?

Of the two, the P67 based system will be superior.

But, for a gaming sustem you can do much better by building one yourself.

The graphics card is much more important than the cpu for gaming.
The 2600K is a fine chip, but for gaming, the 2500K at $100 less will be equally good.

Excellent information. I am greatful for your replies.

-Maziar, why should I get a Z68 instead of a P67? Whats the difference?
-geofelt, you think I can do much better by building one myself? I'd love to hear your suggestions, care to ellaborate? I was going to possibly get this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/ite...

and add a caviar black harddrive. Then eventually, a gtx580 3gb and a dvd/blueray.

You might want to read this article on a $1000 pc:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-a-pc,2969.htm...

You get a better graphics card, a quality psu, and the experience you gain from building it is....priceless.

geofelt, thanks for the link; thats an excellent article. I'm going to base my rig heavily on the 2k rig except I plan on adding a gtx 580 when I can get together more cash (thats compatible, right?). you made a great point. why should I spend a grand on a prefab rig when I can build exactly what I want with 0 compromise. you guys have changed my build entirely. I really appreciate your posts

It's because Z68 is newer and has some more features.(not much of a difference but still)

The Z68 has an option to use a small SSD to improve the performance of your hard drive by acting as a cache. The result is better performance than a hard drive, but not as good as a dedicated ssd.

You can also use the integrated graphics of the cpu concurrently.


Neither of these are biggies for the gamer with a discrete graphics card.

You can also OC a K.

But... considering that the price premium for a Z68 compared to a P67 is small, why not?

IF you're using a single HD monitor then go with the Sandy Bridge, but a GTX 480 SLI vs single GTX 580 the GTX 480 SLI is faster. A large amount of GPU RAM really kicks in with large resolutions. In reality a GTX 580 is plenty enough for current games on a single HD monitor; running 135 FPS or 96 won't be a problem on your 60Hz {60 FPS} monitor  

Proof -> http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-570-sli-revie...

The only issues with GTX 480 vs GTX 580 is efficiency and in that the GTX 480 vs e.g. GTX 570 the GTX 570 will draw less power, run cooler and offer higher FPS.

edit: BTW IMO get the P67 vs Z68. The only advantages to Z68 IMO are: {joke} SSD Caching {$100 SSD + $70 HDD} makes no sense with 1/2 pure SSD speeds {repeated tasks ONLY otherwise ZIP}, get a 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD, and Quick Sync - perfect if you make a career out of making YouTube vids and don't care about the small gains vs all the problems with Virtu...

Best answer selected by bebop460.

thanks again everyone. im hoping to get my parts ordered today... if I can decide which lian li case. cant wait to build this thing. hopefully I dont f it up