Clarification on specs

[sarinaide]

Hi All

I am planning to do the first part of componant upgrades at the end of the month and I will need to confirm my parts order soon.

Basics:

I am from South Africa so part availability is subject to stockist/merchant availability.

Existing Specs:

Core2 Duo E6420 @ 2.13ghz 4mb L2 (1066FSB)
Gigabyte GA-965P
Corsair VS DDR2 6400 @ 6GB
Gigabyte PSU rated 580W with 34A on +12v
2xSeagate HDD 80GB set to RAID 0
1xSeagate HDD 200GB (All are 7200.10)
NVIDIA XFX 8800 GTX

Casual gamer and use my pc for Gaming as well as business/civil usage, browsing.

Budget:

R5000-00 (1USD = R6.84 fluctuates mostly downward)
$750-00 (rounded off)

I may be able to stretch to $850 though I prefer not to considering monthly expenditures.

Target Upgrade:

Upfront I want to upgrade the CPU, MOBO and RAM and later in year I will upgrade the PSU and GPU.

I would eventually like to overclock even if just conservatively, and will down the line run SLI/XFire.

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Motherboard

I have considered both Gigabyte and Asus brands and the relative chipsets, I have rule out the H chipsets for obvious reasons so as it stands I have considered the P67 and Z68 chipsets, I have considered the following;

Gigabyte:

GA-P67A-UD4
GA-Z68P-DS3
GA-Z68P-UD3

ASUS

P8P67 Pro
P8Z68-V

I do like the P8Z68 V on the basis of price and specs, I had initially considered the DS3 from Gigabyte but it is not as competitive it seems on specs as the ASUS board and the bigger Gigabyte Z68's are R500 more for similar specs. Asus supports SLI and I am a Nvidia fan.

1] Should I go for the Z68 V which will cost me R1900-00

RAM

Due to the limited availability of certain 1.5v RAM in this country the only choices are as follows;

Corsair Vengeance CMV......1600C9
GSkill Ripjaws
GSkill Sniper
Mushkin

I have on the order dock, 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz RAM which is cheaper than the others. Gskill Sniper series goes for R1000 for 8GB while the RipJaws go for R1200 for 8GB. If the performance of the Corsair RAM is not so much of a drop off, then on my experiences with Corsair would like to stay.

2] Is the Vengeance RAM sufficient

CPU

As it stands i don't have bigger cooling devices on, so I am in the situation where the 2500k is valued at R1500 which is a considerable amount off the normal R2000 mark. My other option was to go for the I3 2120 and wait until the IvyBridge CPU's are released. If i did buy the 2500k I will then need to get cooling systems and likely a case which is all additional costs so in the interim would run it at stock.

If I go with the 2120 and wait until the I5/I7 for IvyBridge come out and upgrade, with the 2120 give sufficient performance in the interim?

1] I3 2120/2100/2105 yes or no?
2] I5 2500k + Cooling? and if possible a cooling system that will fit my case, that will cope with minor OC (500mhz)

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Later upgrades

I am considering a GTX 570 at the end of the year, I prefer Nvidia though if ATI have better performance I will consider it.

I was looking at the Corsair GS700 as well as the 750 and 800w equivilants, any recommended PSU in the 700+ watt range preferably with 60+ Amps @ 12v

Thanks for any assistance in this regard

 

[sarinaide]

GA-Z68XP-UD3, I am tending towards this a bit now.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

As for RAM, I'd go for one of the G.Skill offerings - Ripjaws X would be optimum, but the Sniper series should work just as well. Never had a problem with any of their memory. Make sure to get 1.5v, like you said. Good to see someone who knows what they're talking about around here.

I'd go with an Asus board. Just my opinion, but I tend to like their boards just a little better than Gigabyte. When I'm buying a new mobo for myself, it's either an Asus, MSI, or EVGA - those three seem to be some of the highest quality. Of the two you listed, I would personally go with the P67-Pro, unless you specifically plan on using an SSD or want access to Intel's onboard graphics. I just prefer the simplicity and raw performance of the p67 chipset over the more complex z68.

As for the CPU, here's what I'd recommend doing. If you're looking only for a computer to hold off until Ivy Bridge (which I personally wouldn't really do), then drop the expensive motherboard and get one of the cheap, intro-level alternatives. MSI's P67 $110 boards would work just fine. Then stick a cheap i3 in it. Because if you're only going to be using this setup until Ivy Bridge, you'll be setting aside the CPU and Motherboard anyway, so best to put as little money as possible into it.
If you want to get your system built now and not wait (which I'd recommend), put an i5-2500k on a good p67/z68 board and grab a nice cooler for it. Right now, the i5-2500k is essentially the best gaming CPU you can possibly buy, and more than enough power for any graphics card you can throw at it. Overclock it and you'd have one blazing fast setup.

Just some opinions to consider.

 

[sarinaide]

As for RAM, I'd go for one of the G.Skill offerings - Ripjaws X would be optimum, but the Sniper series should work just as well. Never had a problem with any of their memory. Make sure to get 1.5v, like you said. Good to see someone who knows what they're talking about around here.

I'd go with an Asus board. Just my opinion, but I tend to like their boards just a little better than Gigabyte. When I'm buying a new mobo for myself, it's either an Asus, MSI, or EVGA - those three seem to be some of the highest quality. Of the two you listed, I would personally go with the P67-Pro, unless you specifically plan on using an SSD or want access to Intel's onboard graphics. I just prefer the simplicity and raw performance of the p67 chipset over the more complex z68.

As for the CPU, here's what I'd recommend doing. If you're looking only for a computer to hold off until Ivy Bridge (which I personally wouldn't really do), then drop the expensive motherboard and get one of the cheap, intro-level alternatives. MSI's P67 $110 boards would work just fine. Then stick a cheap i3 in it. Because if you're only going to be using this setup until Ivy Bridge, you'll be setting aside the CPU and Motherboard anyway, so best to put as little money as possible into it.
If you want to get your system built now and not wait (which I'd recommend), put an i5-2500k on a good p67/z68 board and grab a nice cooler for it. Right now, the i5-2500k is essentially the best gaming CPU you can possibly buy, and more than enough power for any graphics card you can throw at it. Overclock it and you'd have one blazing fast setup.

Just some opinions to consider.

Thanks for the response

1] I will just revise the Gigabyte and ASUS P67 chipsets before making it final, I have looked at the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4, notably as a friend and merchant happens to stock Gigabyte so the ease is there even though I am tending towards ASUS in general.

I have seen my best friends ASUS P8P67 Pro at work with a I5 2500k and the performance rocks, if the UD4 matches the ASUS board then I may consider, if not will look at the ASUS P67's.

2] I have found the 2500k for a great price so I think I will settle on it, I have also considered the 2400. In terms of cooling I am likely to get something simpler than Noctua and the works, I am advised to go for the Coolermaster Hyper 212+. My only concern is whether it will fit into a Coolermaster 690 II Basic Case.

3] At this point i am looking at the Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 (2gb) or the GTX 560 TI, I don't really believe that future proofing a GPU is on as after 2 years it is pretty much redundant i.r.o top performers, so will likely sit in this bracket.

4] I haven't really considered SLI as of yet so with that in mind I am unsure as to whether the GS600 or GS700 PSU is required, the 600w is rated 48A @ +12v while the 700w is rated at 56A.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

Sounds good. I'd take the 560 TI over the 470 - fairly identical performance, but the 560 Ti is built on slightly newer technology.

If you want something a little more basic than one of Noctua's coolers, then a Hyper 212+ is a good alternative. If you want something with a little more cooling power, though, I'd consider looking into the Thermalright MUX-120; it's a really compact cooler which outperforms the Hyper 212+ and is dead silent.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lga-1156-heatsink,2535-8.html

Nothing wrong with a Gigabyte board, really. I don't have much experience with them, but if you have easy access to one, it's worth looking into. One of the reasons I like Asus, though, is their UEFI BIOS - completely customized and really nice. I'm not sure if Gigabyte's boards have the same high quality BIOS as Asus's.

Note: I'm gonna be leaving for two days in about ten minutes... sorry for quitting right now; I'm sure someone else will be glad to answer your questions.