I5 2500k, compatibility and performance of new build, please comment

PSU - Your Corsair 650w will be fine for a single GPU.

SSD Cachine - Not worth it in my opinion. You can spend just a bit more money and have a solid 120GB SSD for your boot / OS partition, then supplement that with a good HD for storage / apps.

MEM - Any DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5v modules will do fine in standard height. Do not get modules with tall heat spreaders. They are uesless without serious overclocking, get in the way of some CPU coolers, and impeed airflow.




What exactly is your budget? Give us a little more info.... => http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advic...

Hi thanks for your input and sorry i have taken so long to get back, i haven't got my mail setting adjusted yet.

Approximate Purchase Date: buy a bit every month

Budget Range: £500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, bf3. Slight video editing.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, psu, maybe case?

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Uk sites, what ever is cheaper with delivery etc.

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: Not bothered as long as they have had good reviews.

Overclocking: Yes first time, so a little

SLI or Crossfire: Isn't this better to buy one expensive gpu rather then two cheap ones.

Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050

Additional Comments: Needs to play bf3 and to last a few years.

Personally don't get Gigabyte on the intel 1155 platform, they are disasters, look at Asrock Extreme4/Fatality, Asus P8Z68 V pro Gen3 or the MSI Z68A GD65 Gen3(personally endorse this board)

Also try looking at the HD7850 OC cards, they overclock well and perform roughly on par with a HD6970 both at stock, far more efficient and power friendly too. Also 550w is enough for your setup.

Thanks sarinaide, i have checked out all of these, reviewed them and price checked them before coming up with my list.
The thing is, is that most of what you have said are about a extra £20 to £40 extra each on all the items, and these are adding up.
What exactly in your opinion makes the gigabytes so bad with the 1155 chip. Or honestly is this just a giga hate, if you have some fair points i will re-think my mobo.
Thanks

I had two Gigabyte boards a GA-P67A-UD4 and a GA-Z68XP-UD3R(which was a RMA for the first) both hit boot loops that where unrecoverable, I have tested on G2 motherboards and they are scary to operate off, compared with the AMD boards Gigabyte has had a bad spell with the 1155 socket.

I haven't yet had a MSI board fail on me.

Yeah, one thing thou, i have read about this board is that it's not like there other boards, where people like yourself have had these sort of problems. A few reviews were amazed that gigabyte has actually got it right, and for a good price too.

I wouldn't go for that board for 2 reasons;

1] Not good for overclocking, power design and cooling is not good for overclocking.

2] It has two PCI-e lanes but they run at 16x by 4x which is not good for crossfire, add to that it doesn't support SLI.

Can you post links to stores in the UK that you want to buy from so I can help you with a build and whomever else reads this thread. Also just provide a list of everything you need.

Hi sorry for late reply sarinaide, really not bothered where i buy from as long as they seem reasonable and not a dodgy site, i usually go to scan, but if you can recommend any other sites that would be good.

I wasn't going to over clock to the extreme and is crossfire really that much better then buying a 7*** series later on down the road??

Many thanks

Look at rather getting a Z77 board, if you like Gigabyte look at;

GA-Z77X-UD3H $160
GA-Z77X-UD5H $190

Nice boards, rather disappointing aesthetics though.

Cheers recon. What did you think to my setup??

Lol not to sure, prob because it was a tenner more and it might come in use  

Yeah but there about £50 more aren't they? I know what you mean but i have to control my self. All these extra pounds makes my misses see that we should of got a shitty laptop.

lol will do

Which GA-Z68AP-D3
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?c...