Thoughts on this build - 07/11/11

FutureVp

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Jul 11, 2011
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Hi folks,
i was hoping to get some serious feedback on the following specs for my new build. any input you all can provide would be great. Thank you in advance. This systems will mainly be used for MMO's

MotherBoard: ASUS Sabertooth P67 B3 TUF Edition Motherboard - ATX, Socket H2 (LGA 1155), Intel P67 Express, 1866MHz DDR3, SATA 6.0 Gb/s, RAID, 8-Channel Audio, Gigabit LAN, SLI/CrossFireX Ready, USB 3.0

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K BX80623I52500 Unlocked Processor - Quad Core, 6MB L3 Cache, 3.30 GHz, Socket H2 (LGA1155)

COOLER: Noctua NH-C14 140mm x 2 SSO CPU Cooler

DVD ROM: Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X Internal DVD Burner - DVD±R 24X, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6X, DVD±R (DL) 12X, DVD-RAM 12X, CD-R 48X, CD-RW 32X, SATA, 2MB, Black, OEM

MEMORY: Corsair XMS3 CMX4GX3M1A1600C9 16GB PC12800 DDR3 RAM - Dual Channel, 1600MHz, 4x 4096MB

CASE: Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Mid-Tower Case - ATX, MicroATX, 4x 5.25" Bays, 6x 3.5" Bays, 8x Expansion Slots, 4x USB 2.0 Ports, 1x USB 3.0 Port, 2x 200mm Fans

GPU: MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) Video Card - 1028MB, GDDR5, Overclocked, PCI-Express 2.0 (x16), Dual DVI, HDMI, DirectX 11, SLI Ready

HARD DRIVE: Western Digital WD1002FAEX 1TB Caviar Black Hard Drive - 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB, SATA 6Gbs

Power: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready (already owned)
 
Solution
The Sabertooths are new and quite frankly I wouldn't recommend them. They have a huge "heatspreader" over the entire motherboard claiming to dissipate heat throughout the motherboard. I've read reviews claiming the opposite. Rather the Sabertooth actually traps heat onto the board raising the overall temperature of the key components on your build.

As mentioned above, the Z68 boards are the ones to get. Gigabyte has Z68's with SSD's bundled. Which is an amazing idea and I'm sure who ever thought of it got a nice raise.

16GB or RAM? Really? What exactly are your doing? You will probably get by just fine on 4GB and if you really need the RAM, 8GB. You will not need 16GB or RAM. You will obviously save some serious cash by going 4GB or...

jeremy1183

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Apr 29, 2011
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Drop the WD 1TB and get the Spinpoint F3...it's also 1TB and onlt $54. You will not see hardly any improvement if any between 3 gb and 6gb sata.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=samsung%20spinpoint%20f3

I have talked to some people that have that Asus TUF Sabertooth and they said that they should have gotten something different. Even though the Thermal armor design has shown to keep the board cooler is the problems people run in to when they screw up their bios and have to remove all the thermal design just to reset it...not to mention whatever else you need to get to thats hidden under it.

If you are wanting to overclock i suggest a z68 board like the z68 extreme 4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157250&Tpk=asrock%20z68%20extreme4

or some of the gigabyte z68 boards

Who needs 16GB of Ram? Save some money and drop down to 8 or even 4 GB
 

BohleyK

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Oct 8, 2009
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The Sabertooths are new and quite frankly I wouldn't recommend them. They have a huge "heatspreader" over the entire motherboard claiming to dissipate heat throughout the motherboard. I've read reviews claiming the opposite. Rather the Sabertooth actually traps heat onto the board raising the overall temperature of the key components on your build.

As mentioned above, the Z68 boards are the ones to get. Gigabyte has Z68's with SSD's bundled. Which is an amazing idea and I'm sure who ever thought of it got a nice raise.

16GB or RAM? Really? What exactly are your doing? You will probably get by just fine on 4GB and if you really need the RAM, 8GB. You will not need 16GB or RAM. You will obviously save some serious cash by going 4GB or 8GB which you can spend or save.

Noctua makes nice coolers. I have the DH-14, its massive but does the job. The TwinFrzr II GTX560 ti is the one to get unless you rather the Gigabyte SOC GTX560 ti which has a higher OC. However, the SOC's have a reputation of being more unstable.

Everything else looks good.
 
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FutureVp

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Jul 11, 2011
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Thank you all for your feedback I’ve actually had bad luck with a z68 board from Gigabyte. I recently bought one only to find that there is/was an issue with the audio bus being shared causing Blue Screens switched it out for 2 others (same board) with the same result thus me choosing the Asus board which from my experience with ASUS has always been solid on every build over the last 5 years.

Thanks for the tip on the HD I’ll defiantly update my build spec based on that recommendation if you think I won’t see much of an increase in performance it’s probably worth saving the 20 bucks.

As far as the RAM goes i know 16GB is overkill but for 90 bucks I figure I’d be greedy knowing I’ll never ever use that much RAM but wanting to max out my DIMM slots just because i can.. =) the low profile was what drew me to that particular RAM given the clearance issues some aftermarket coolers can cause.

I was looking to overclock to 4.3ghz on the i5 2500K assuming power consumption and cooling was stable enough to run on a machine that will be used daily.

I’ve read many reviews on the Frozer II and like what I see, if I have to clock down for stability I can but as you mentioned the SOC is a bit unreliable from what I’ve read thus far.

I guess I’ll continue to look for a solid z68 motherboard in the $200 range give or take 20-30 bucks but as i mentioned before my experience with those new boards have just been terrible.

Thanks all I appreciate your expertise and insight!
 

striker410

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I would also drop the case down to a HAF 912, the PSU to a Corsair or XFX 750, and the Cooler to a Hyper 212+. Same with ram down to 8GB.
With the money saved, get a nice 6870 or 6950 Crossfire setup which will beat the snot outta anything else. If your games only support 1 card, a GTX 580.