klorry56

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I am looking to build a decent gaming pc here in the next couple of months. Slowly piecing it together and getting the build I want so when black friday/cyber monday come around, I'll have the cash in case any or all of the parts are on sale.

Looking at my Newegg email today however, I saw that the I5 2500K is on sale and so is the Z68XP-UD3 gigabyte motherboard for the next 42 hours.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128512

I had already decided to buy the I5 as I don't think I care to spend the extra 100$ right now on a small upgrade to a processor and would rather put it elsewhere. I was previously looking at the P67A-UD4-B3 gigabyte board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128478

My question is, should I not bother with the Z68 board even though right now it is 30$ cheaper than the P67? Will I run into any issues if I use the Z68 board for a gaming rig compared to the P67? The only difference I can see is that maybe the PCI Express 2.0 may not be completely up to speed on the Z68 in comparison to the P67? I read the sticky about gigabyte boards and it didn't really address this. The only issues I have seen are people complaining about the lack of an IDE controller on the Z68 but I have a Sata optical disk drive, so that doesn't matter to me either. The only other issue I saw was one of the boards were quite fickle with anything higher than 1600 speed ram, and I am planning on using the G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1866 speed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Would this cause any issue with either of these boards?
 
Solution

The F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM are great for Gaming and will run at DDR3-1600 in 2 sets, whereas the F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL typically run in 2 sets or 4x4GB at DDR3-1333 Frequency. The F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL is a good deal if 2x4GB and Gaming is the goal.

The GA-Z68XP-UD3 & GA-P67A-UD4-B3 both are middle of the road for OC'ing.

The best P67 and Z68 for the money and low vCore MOBO's:
$195 - Z68 - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730
$160 - P67 - ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131771
$183 - P67 - ASUS...
Z68 is far superior to P67 in many ways, so not sure why you would think you would run into trouble using it for gaming.

Most of the newer Z68's support pci-e 3.0. I'm not aware of any P67's that are pci-e 3.0 ready.

DDR3-1600 is the sweet spot for i5, you don't need 1866 as it has no relation to overclocking the cpu like in the old s775 boards.

Besides those 1866 sticks have slow timings.
 
There's NO DIFFERENCE for GAMING P67 vs Z68, if anything the Z68 has some slower attributes - slower USB, SATA, Add-on Chipsets, and some FPS reduction 0%~4% have been seen.

Example - $280 GA-P67A-UD7-B3 and $360 GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 Perform IDENTICALLY - OC, Gaming FPS, etc
 

The F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM are great for Gaming and will run at DDR3-1600 in 2 sets, whereas the F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL typically run in 2 sets or 4x4GB at DDR3-1333 Frequency. The F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL is a good deal if 2x4GB and Gaming is the goal.

The GA-Z68XP-UD3 & GA-P67A-UD4-B3 both are middle of the road for OC'ing.

The best P67 and Z68 for the money and low vCore MOBO's:
$195 - Z68 - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131730
$160 - P67 - ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131771
$183 - P67 - ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131703

Of the P67's I listed, I prefer the NEC USB 3.0 in the (REV 3.0).

If you're stuck on Gigabyte then the $259 GA-Z68XP-UD5 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128513

Nice data - http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/916189-official-intel-p67-z68-motherboard-comparison.html ; look at both spreadsheets and in particular the 2nd with the vCore. Ideally you want at least 12-Phases to the CPU to achieve the lowest vCore and stable OC.
 
Solution

klorry56

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Out of curiousity, what makes the 3.0 revision still more expensive than the 3.1 revision? Cheaper parts used in the 3.1 to allow them to sell it at lower costs or is it missing something that the 3.0 has? I looked at the specs and couldn't tell much of a difference except the cost. I also noticed a few people in the reviews said that the 3.0 revision had a number of issues (what motherboard doesn't these days?) that were fixed in the 3.1 revision. Just trying to hammer out the details before I actually drop the cash on a machine that is going to last me a few years without dropping a couple grand (not counting video cards of course). I'm not really stuck on gigabyte either, I just noticed alot of people recommend them and I haven't dealt with keeping up with hardware changes since the P4 was the newest biggest deal... so I am a bit behind in times and am trying to catch back up with alot of the phrasing and extras that are or are not worth the money.
 

klorry56

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Nevermind, I just realized that when i was comparing JUST the price, I was looking at the Z68 versus the P67 ver 3.0 that you linked. That explains the price difference. I see now that the only reason there is a price difference on New egg for the P67s that you linked was because one saves 10$ and the other saves 15$. Ooops.
 
Yep, cheaper parts, but IMO ASUS is screwing folks for the NEC - last I saw the price difference was maybe $5 for the chipset not $23. As mentioned, "I prefer the NEC USB 3.0 in the (REV 3.0)"
REV 3.0 – NEC USB 3.0 controllers ; http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67_PRO/#specifications
REV 3.1 – ASMedia USB 3.0 controllers ; http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8P67_PRO_REV_31/#specifications

Unless you're a USB 3.0 addict it's not worth the differences.

This will twist your brain -> http://www.anandtech.com/show/4330/asus-p8z68v-review/5

---

I tell it as I see it, I like the Gigabyte P67/Z68 and recommend them often, but only the UD5/UD7 (higher-end). If I held an agenda or grudge then I wouldn't -> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276715-30-x58a-ud3r-raid-bsod-disk-boot-failure even after my episode I knew the UD9 and UD7 X58 were great -- not the UD3R's...

I look at Forum Feedback, My Experiences, and Problems real vs user.

 

klorry56

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Based on all the information here, I think I am going to hold off a bit longer before making up my mind. Maybe i'll just decide to spend a bit more money than I had originally planned and get the high end motherboard and such. Thank you for all your help fellas, I appreciate it. In the mean time, I think I need to do a bit more research to be 100% sure I know what I am looking at before I make any purchases lol.
 
Just remember this advice - Lower vCore = Lower CPU Temps. Also, there's no such a thing as 'Future Proof.'

The new LGA 2011 are coming out in a mater of ~4 weeks, but the SB-E is on par with the current SB LGA 1155. The next is Ivy Bridge in ~March 2012 and I 'expect' the CPU temps and vCore to be lower and 'hopefully' PCIe 3.0 clean.

The advantage to the LGA 2011 is 32 PCIe lanes which should allow for 4-WAY SLI if that's your thing. The LGA 1155 and SB is fine for up to 3-WAY + PhysX e.g. if doing so get the ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution with it's 'perfect' PCIe spacing.

To a degree, you get what you pay for.

Good Luck! :)
 


HUH?? LOL

None of that is true at all. P67 does not even offeer PCI 3.0 which has 2x the bandwidth of the P67's PCI 2.1. There is one Asrock P67 that is the exception.

Slower usb? They are both USB 3.0. Slower sata? They are both Sata6.

Not to mention Z68 has several very useful features P67 does not have like virtu, and ability to use on-cpu graphics if your video card fails.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-z68-express-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching,2938-9.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-z68-express-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching,2938.html

If I had the choice I would not even consider the P67.


 
^See the "This will twist your brain" link regarding USB/SATA/Blah P67 vs H67 vs Z68

Knowing anything about PCIe 3.0:
1. IF running (1) GPU it will run at FULL PCIe 3.0 on ANY LGA 1155 to the 1st PCIe. It's a straight run to the CPU. The 2nd, 3rd are 'PCIe Switched'. PCIe 3.0 compliant GPU and CPU are both required.
2. Saturation maybe once the GTX 700 series is out, yeah skipping the GTX 600's, or later, you'll see 'some' PCIe related 'gain'. Currently even the GTX 590 barely saturates PCIe 2.x 8 lanes. PCIe 3.0 x16 saturation or even PCIe 3.0 x8 (same as PCIe 2.x x16) saturation are laughable!

The PCIe 3.0 'P67' or 'Z68' only add a PCIe 3.0 'Switch' - period. ALSO, you would need to File-13/eBay your Sandy Bridge CPU AND File-13/eBay your PCIe 2.x GPU. By that time, hopefully, the PCIe 3.0 'CLEAN' MOBO's will be out -- then you'll see the real problem of 'Shared' bandwidth bottlenecking disappear = USB, SATA, add-on chipsets, etc. The other major problem is SATA3 saturation and hopefully soon we'll see SATA Express.

PCIe 3.0 will do zip for the GPU(s) SLI/CF for quite some time - YEARS.

You're buying Snake Oil!

I've said this before, there really NEEDS to be a PCIe 3.0 'Sticky' because no one seems to understand it's impact.

Scaling - http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_PCI-Express_Scaling/1.html
PCIe lanes x8/x8 vs x16/x16 vs CPUs - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p67-gaming-3-way-sli-three-card-crossfire,2910.html
 

bal727

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The asrock p67 has pci-e 3.0 support.