I5 cooling and motherboard

[elmondinio]

I'm planning to build a new computer within two weeks.

The current set-up:
CPU: i5 2500k (later will OC)
GPU: radeon hd 6950 (later will upgrade crossfire)
PSU: corsair tx v2 850w
Case: Cooler Master Storm Sniper Black Edition
RAM: corsair vengeance 1600mhz 2x4gig


I'm stuck on the choice of motherboard's. I'm not sure whether to get the Z series of LGA 1155 motherboards (is there any benefit on Z series as I will be running Radeon 6950 GPU). Should I just get P series motherboard? Could you state which one's are viable picks
i was planning to get ASUS P8P67 Pro

Also which CPU cooler should I get with the i5 2500k to OC around 4.4ghz.

BTW which software do you use to see the GPU and CPU temperatures.


thank you

 

[elmondinio]

bump

 

[diellur]

As far as I know, the 'Z' series allows you to use Intel Smart Response to use an SSD as a cache for a spinning HDD, and to use the onboard graphics of the i5-2500K. The 'P' series does not.

Since you have a discrete GPU, then I'm guessing you won't use the i5-2500K onboard graphics. It's down to your plans with SSDs.

The P8P67-Pro is a good board...I use it and I read a lot of reviews about a lot of different boards before I settled on it. If it was me, I'd go for the equivalent Z68 so I had the SSD option, but that's just me (I bought mine before the Z68 chipset was out). It's good for overclocking, so you're sorted there.

CPU Cooler: Hyper-212 is a good, cheap option and will handle 4.4GHz. There's also the Noctua NH-D14 or the Thermalright Silver Arrow if you really want to max out your air-cooling (and probably get some more juice out your CPU).

Software: HW Monitor, Speedfan, CoreTemp...plenty of freeware out there. There's even some Windows 7 gadgets that will do it:

http://www.AddGadget.com/

 

[elmondinio]

best answer I could ever have, thank you so much