ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z

[john boy]

Hi All. Just got reading the October 5, 2011 article on Building A Liquid-Cooled Micro ATX Gaming Monster with the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z, and though it's more than my budget, I am looking to upgrading my older Asus Rampage 775 Socket System, and purchasing this ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z Motherboard along with a Intel Core i5-2500K, a ASUS ENGTX560 Graphics Card, and GSkill Sniper Series Gaming Memory *GB (2 X 4GB) DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800) Cas 7 Timings 7-8-7-24. Building it in a Cooler Master Case with Six 120 Fans, and Two Top 140MM Fans, Corsair HX 850 PS, Two WD 1TB 32MB Hard Drives.

Any suggestions on the combination or any forseeable bottlenecks with this combination? Any help or suggestions appreciated.

 

[itzdanielp]

I would suggest getting a 560Ti over a standard 560, as there is little price difference, and a big performance difference.

Also, if you need the redundancy keep the dual 1TB drives, but if it was me I would (and did) get a single 1TB for storage, and a 120GB SSD for programs / OS. That was the single most noticeable upgrade for me. And with HDD's getting crazy expensive you can get a good SSD for around $200, so around $50 more than a 1TB HDD.

Last thing would be picking up an aftermarket HSF, it would be a sad day to get that rig and not OC it at all :/ I just picked up a Corsair H100, but you can get an H60/H80 for less, or a Hyper 212+ for around $30.

Other than that, looks like a rockin' build. Enjoy!

 

[john boy]

I would suggest getting a 560Ti over a standard 560, as there is little price difference, and a big performance difference.

Also, if you need the redundancy keep the dual 1TB drives, but if it was me I would (and did) get a single 1TB for storage, and a 120GB SSD for programs / OS. That was the single most noticeable upgrade for me. And with HDD's getting crazy expensive you can get a good SSD for around $200, so around $50 more than a 1TB HDD.

Last thing would be picking up an aftermarket HSF, it would be a sad day to get that rig and not OC it at all :/ I just picked up a Corsair H100, but you can get an H60/H80 for less, or a Hyper 212+ for around $30.

Other than that, looks like a rockin' build. Enjoy![/q

Forgot to add that. Using a Zalman CNPS 9700. Use these in four other systems. Temps always in the 34-36 C range.

 

[itzdanielp]

Excellent

 

[john boy]

I was just wondering. When I Built this system, I built it from a article here on Tom's Hardware, on building four or five 775 socket systems. The one I built was one of the systems, featuring a Asus Rampage Formula Motherboard, using either a Pentium, Core Two Duo, or a Core 2 Quad chip, and using either Radeon or Nvidia cards.

I chose two of the featured Nvidia GTX 285 OCFU Cards, and bought two to run in SLI mode, but there were so close together, the top card was always about 15 degrees hotter that the lower one, so I opted to just run just one .

I still have a brand new Nvidia GTX 285 OCFU card still boxed up, and has never been used. I'm just wondering if this card is compatible with the Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z 1155 Intel Z68 Mother Board, along with the Intel Core i5-2500k , and the GSkill Sniper Series 8GB (2 X 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Gaming Memory.

This GTX 285 was around $400.00 new, and I'm wondering if This card would be compatible so I could save some money, instead of having to buy the ASUS ENGTX 560 TI DCII.

Any one have any thoughts on this?

 

[itzdanielp]

It is absolutely compatible.


The 560Ti DCII will be a higher performing card, but you can save yourself some $$ there for a while

 

[john boy]

Thanks. I just remembered, I got a new ASUS EAH 4870 still new in the box also, so I'm betting that card will be compatible for a while also.

 

[itzdanielp]

yep, although not at the same time

 

[john boy]

Yes I know, I gonna run either the Nvidia Gtx 285, or the Asus EAH 4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5/A Dark Knight, until I get the funds to upgrade to a better and faster card. I'm still hoping anbanking on the new Maximus Gene-Z, the Intel i5-2500K and the GSkill Sniper Series Gaming Memory, is going to be a faster gaming system than the older Asus Rampage Formula Socket 775 with a Core Two Duo E-8500 Chip. Really hope its faster as much as this stuff cost! Thanks!

 

[itzdanielp]

It is, you won't be disappointed