New gaming build - What MoBo

[smittyt33]

Where to start.. I'm building a desktop. I already have a case, and all the external stuff I need. I'm just worried about the hardware right now.
I don't want to spend over $700 or $800, preferably.

I already bought the XFX Radeon HD 6870. It benchmarked well and it is possible to Crossfire it in the future.

Right now from what I've read AMD processors are crap. Especially with Cataclysm (which I'm going to be playing most of.)
So I think I'm going to go with an Intel build.
The Intel i5-2500k Sandy Bridge sounds like the best option to me. ?
Not too expensive and I can over-clock it.

Other than that, all the other components are side business OTHER THAN, the Motherboard. I have no idea where to start looking for the right Motherboard.
I know it has to be the 1155 socket, (for the i5-2500k), and that the P67 chipset is probably best for me based on capability and price.?
But I don't really have anything other than that to base my MoBo choice on... Please help. Haha
But I'll write out what I'm thinking on all my other components.

CPU: Intel i5-2500k Sandy Bridge.

GPU: Radeon HD 6870.

MoBo: No idea.. :/ 1155 socket, P67 chipset.?

RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) of... 1600? I was reading that the timing is more important than the frequency, except that isn't really the case on the new Sandy Bridge.? You tell me. I even just saw some 1866? And I know that the norm is 1333..?

HDD: I want something thats fast, and a great value. Not an SSD, too expensive right now. I also have a 1TB external hard drive so I don't need a lot of space on the HDD, maybe 500GB or so?

And last but not least;
PSU: I'm not scared to go overkill on this. The only thing I don't know what I want is whether its Active or Modular. ? Active is cheaper, but I know there are benefits to the Modular.? I also might go with the XFX brand just to match my GPU. Ha, unless Corsair is a lot better for some reason? I'm guessing I'll want no less than a 600 or 650 watt.? I'm cool with paying the extra $20 for the 750 or 850 though. What should I do?

Thats what is in my mind right now, I'm getting my GPU in the mail probably this Tuesday or Wednesday, so I want to start ordering the other parts soon so I can get this thing built! I just need to decide the intricacies.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sosofm]

MOBO : ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
PSU : SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095
RAM : G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416
If you want a 750W for a future Crossfire CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750M 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139030 modular.
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021 not modular.

 

[tekman42]

I would try these...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136768

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231309

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131771

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703030


Rock Solid, Name Brand, Trusted Performance and Great Forums, the Industries leading Warranties, and totals $750 BEFORE Manufacturers Rebates, and $710 after Rebates...allows room for an excellent cpu cooler...Intel Stock HSF's are notorious for ineffeciency so if air cooling...this>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 CAN'T be beat for air cooling and TCO (total cost of ownership) The PSU is Legendary for rock solid voltages and no droop, A FULL 7 YR warranty... PLUS (and this is important) It vents out the back of your case...Best Practices and rule of thumb I always follow!!!!! DO NOT ADD HEAT TO THE INSIDE OF YOUR CASE...electronics die from exposure to heat much faster than if Heat is " removed" from the case as efficiently as possible, I would NEVER install a PSU with one of those fans on top that vents the heat directly at your video card and cpu...That's like sticking your tongue directly to an old 9v battery and hoping it is a weak battery...your eventually gonna get bit!!!

OR if interested and a few more bucks but still under $800 Water cooling
All in one>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015

PLUS ADD ONE MORE 120MM FAN (about $4) FOR PUSH/PULL CONFIG on cooler, the fans have an arrow on the casing indicating direction the fan pushes air in, make sure both are mounted to blow OUTSIDE air INTO the case... Decreases coolant temps drastically!

The setup I just recommended will work Extremely well for you, the motherboard I listed has a mature set of drivers and applications, and excellent support in the forums for Asus products with excellent documentation and the boards are reliable beyond belief, I'm still running a A8N SLI Premium from 2002 with a Athlon II and other than finding 64 bit raid drivers for a pair of hdds, it is no issue to run Windows 7 although I went back to 32 bit windows for it...LOL, However I'm rocking a current P67 Maximus IV Extreme now and I firmly believe in Seasoned motherboard manufacturers because of the help if you get yourself in trouble while upgrading the bios, chipsets, or other issues and Asrock isn't nearly as prevalent in the Market yet, they are a younger product by far (there only 3-4 years old for mainstream consumers) than Asus.

It's worth the extra $20-$40 to go with reliability and a much larger forum for support should you need it, especially the peace of mind...things just work and are usually much more forgiving in compatibility with a broader range of devices. The bios is a uefi which is well designed and thinks about the end user (YOU) experience plus you can find a multitude of videos online at youtube as to how to configure step by step all portions of setting the board up!! Asrock>not so much! IMO.

Also for the price, you can't beat the 16gigs of ram especially if your rocking windows 64bit which I assume you are since you did mention 8gigs of ram. I 've found that you can't have to MUCH ram...It's always better to have more than you need, rather than need more ram and not have it!!!

Those who fail to plan>>>Are planning to fail!!!

Respectfully,

 

[mopman411]

MOBO : ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 ~ $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157265

PSU: XFX PRO850W XXX Edition Semi-Modular 80 Plus Silver Certified 850 Watt Active PFC Power Supply ~ $155
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207017

The motherboard is a good buy. Its got an easy to use BIOS, overclocks easy, has a good amount of features and has the front panel USB3.0 connection.

The price for the power supply is a little steep, for an 850 Watt. I'm using that PSU in my rig at the moment, its got a lot of modular connections. The PSU is the one that I would lean towards. XFX has a great warranty on their stuff as well.

HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.D HDS721050DLE630 (0F13178) 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive ~ $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145531

Hitachi has been my go to brand of hard drives for a long time. I use their 2TB drives in my rig as extra storage space, they have been operational for the past 4 years without issue. In particular I have a Hitachi in my spare rig that has been operational for the past 7 years, its a 250GB model.

Another piece of info, because you have a drive with space to use for storage, use that storage drive for your game installs. Doing your game installs on the storage drive you can put just the essentials on your OS drive. With that said, look for the smallest drive that will meet your needs. I say get an 80GB or maybe even a 160GB.

Heres my reasoning, as you use your drive it writes from the center of the platter out. The closer things are to the center of the platter on the drive the less seek time that will be needed on the drive. The less seek time the faster the response on the user end. Keep just the base essentials on the OS drive(windows, word, firefox, etc) and put your large storage applications on your storage drive. It works out to make the computer just that little bit faster than it would normally be.

(You said no SSD but I want you to see that its not as bad as you think) <--------------- Just an FYI
Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ~ $145
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233205

That is the drive that I use. I did my OS install from USB3.0 to SSD. The install to a usable environment too about 10 minutes.. I wasn't timing but I think it was less. After a couple cold boots, so the SSD can get used to the most accessed programs, my computer boots from cold to a usable OS in less than 12 seconds. Responsiveness for programs that I have installed on the SSD it outstanding.