Building new pc and need advise on CPU

[krang]

Hello, I am building a new pc because my old q6600 and gtx260 are long overdue for an upgrade since I'm a gamer. I have read allot of threads and have done my research but I'm still on the fence as to what CPU to buy. So I come here hoping to get advice on what to buy.

Here is my current build :

1 x COOLER MASTER HAF XM RC-922XM-KKN1 Black Mesh, Plastic, Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x GIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GD GeForce GTX 680 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
1 x CORSAIR HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC
1 x ASUS Maximus V Gene LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
2 x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
1 x XSPC Raystorm 750 RS240 Extreme Universal CPU Water Cooling Kit

I already have a bunch of HDDs and 2 Ocz vertex 2s in raid. I also have an auzentech audio card which I will transfert.

I am buying a pretty decent water cooling kit and I plan to overclock the CPU as mush as I can (within reasonable voltage). Now I don't think I need an i7 since games don't really utilize hyper-threading just yet and I pretty much only use my pc for media and gaming so it's a 100$ spent elsewhere. I am thorn between the i5-2500k and the i5-3570k because of the heat issues and overall worse overclocking ability of the 3570k. I am much more confident about using a 2500k because of the higher clocks possible to be achieved, lower heat at higher clocks and the fact that the chip has been out for a while now and has had revisions. But on the other hand, I know I'm missing out on the advantages of Ivy bridge on a z77 board. And I know that at the same clock speed IB still outperforms SB, but that's the thing I'm planning to overclock as much as the chip can.

So for my current build setup what would you recommend and why? Also if anything is wrong with my build please tell me

Thanks!

 

[stantheman123]

Go for a core i5 3570k Yes it might not overclock as well but at the same clocks the i5 3570k is about 10%. A i5 3570k at 4.4 would perform the same as a i5 2500k at 4.6-4.7 Also the i5 3570k lower power consumption and Supports pcie 3.0 for those new Gpus like a 8970 or a gtx 780 when they come out. Also 4gb is overkill for anything really. either get the 2gb of gtx 680 or consider the amd 7970 ghz since its cheaper and a bit faster

 

[satyamdubey]

+1 for Stan, 4gb is overkill. 3570K would be better choice.

 

[hdeezie80]

Yeah 3570k is one of the top performers in games, they are not hyperthreaded but for gaming which general never utilizes more than 4 cores aside from BF3, it's actually an advantage as you get more processing power per core without hyper threading plus it should OC pretty well on water. sandy bridge does overclock ALOT better but it performs %10 percent less clock for clock when compared to ivy bridge so it depends on your cooling mainly. If you plan on playing over 1920x1080 get the 4 GB 680. In my experience on certain games @ 2560 x 1440(plan on buying 2 more when possible) I've gotten to the 1.2 and up GB range, the memory is down clocked on 4gb cards since they create a bit more heat than 2gb cards so for smaller resolutions 2gb is the best choice. Get the ax240 for your radiator if you can since it performs a little better than the rs and will still fit in the haf xm.

benchmarks -> ( http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-performance-comparison,3370-16.html)

 

[krang]

Thank you for all the replies. As I can see all of you are in favour of the 3570k .. which baffles me but from what I've been seeing most people are. So Ill probably end up going the IB route.. even though I have my doubts. A friend of mine who uses water cooling has both 2500k and 3570k and he says he gets way better performance once overclocked from the 2500k :S

As far as the 4gb goes, I found a Canadian website that has this particular Overclocked gigabyte 4gb card on sale, so It basically costs 10$ more than a 2gb card ... now plz tell me if i'm wrong but I figure I'd rather pay 10$ more and get a 4gb vs 2 gb and plus the 4gb is factory OCed while the other isnt. For that price poitn should I still go 2gb?

Now Mr. Hdeezie80, interesting you'd suggest the ax240 ... Ive actually seen in the past couple of hours that the rs240 isn't all that good from multiple sources. Was wondering if the rx240 would fit in the haf-xm ? I'd go the ax240 route but the only place I can find that will ship it to Canada sells it for a whopping 399.99$ while the rs240 is 144.99 and the rx240 179.99.
I am also open to any suggestions concerning any other water cooling kit that would fit in this case...
If all else fails, Ill just grab a bigger case like the original haf-x and go with the rx240.

 

[hdeezie80]

Thank you for all the replies. As I can see all of you are in favour of the 3570k .. which baffles me but from what I've been seeing most people are. So Ill probably end up going the IB route.. even though I have my doubts. A friend of mine who uses water cooling has both 2500k and 3570k and he says he gets way better performance once overclocked from the 2500k :S

As far as the 4gb goes, I found a Canadian website that has this particular Overclocked gigabyte 4gb card on sale, so It basically costs 10$ more than a 2gb card ... now plz tell me if i'm wrong but I figure I'd rather pay 10$ more and get a 4gb vs 2 gb and plus the 4gb is factory OCed while the other isnt. For that price poitn should I still go 2gb?

Now Mr. Hdeezie80, interesting you'd suggest the ax240 ... Ive actually seen in the past couple of hours that the rs240 isn't all that good from multiple sources. Was wondering if the rx240 would fit in the haf-xm ? I'd go the ax240 route but the only place I can find that will ship it to Canada sells it for a whopping 399.99$ while the rs240 is 144.99 and the rx240 179.99.
I am also open to any suggestions concerning any other water cooling kit that would fit in this case...
If all else fails, Ill just grab a bigger case like the original haf-x and go with the rx240.

No I'm actually in the process of getting water cooling gear for my haf-xm, the AX will perform better than the RX at fan speeds over 1650 rpm so the RX will be a little bit quieter, its a huge radiator though so it definitely wont fit in the top of the haf-xm there is a rs 360 kit for $150 right here
link -> http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Triple-Radiator-Cooling-Updated/dp/B008PA1TPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359054620&sr=8-1&keywords=xspc+rs+360
+$20 to ship to canada. you would have to not use your top drive bay and mount the radiator under the top of your case but the rs is really slim so it shouldn't be too difficult, you may have to mount the fans on the bottom aswell so you'd have to do some planning before buying, the NZXT Switch 810 is a pretty good case for water cooling and its around the same price as the haf xm, I think it fits a 360 radiator on top not 100% sure though.

 

[krang]

No I'm actually in the process of getting water cooling gear for my haf-xm, the AX will perform better than the RX at fan speeds over 1650 rpm so the RX will be a little bit quieter, its a huge radiator though so it definitely wont fit in the top of the haf-xm there is a rs 360 kit for $150 right here
link -> http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Triple-Radiator-Cooling-Updated/dp/B008PA1TPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359054620&sr=8-1&keywords=xspc+rs+360
+$20 to ship to canada. you would have to not use your top drive bay and mount the radiator under the top of your case but the rs is really slim so it shouldn't be too difficult, you may have to mount the fans on the bottom aswell so you'd have to do some planning before buying, the NZXT Switch 810 is a pretty good case for water cooling and its around the same price as the haf xm, I think it fits a 360 radiator on top not 100% sure though.

The rebate on the gtx 680 4gb was until last night only, so now its back up at regular price. I will be going with the 2gb version and save close to 100$. With that being said, I have decided to reinvest that money in a bigge/better case for OCing and decided to go with the full tower haf-x version. Now with this case I should have plenty of room to put a larger radiator in it, so I chose to go with a rx360 to somewhat futureproof my water cooling system if I decided to later on cool the gpu with it.

I would still like to gather more opinions on the 2500k vs 3570k debacle though.

 

[hdeezie80]

Yeah go for a bigger case for sure. But on the CPU's it's to some extent luck of the draw, each batch of chips usually comes back with some sort of defect, some are better than others (k versions) so if you end up getting lucky and getting a top notch sandy bridge then you may be able to beat an ivybridge by 10-15% based solely on clock speed. Thing is that you have a better chance of getting a good chip with ivy bridge since the architecture and manufacturing process is better. Ivy's disadvantage is the heat they produce but with water cooling you should be able to get about the same oc on either chip, you picked a pretty good mother board as well which has a lot to do with overclocking potential, plus if you decide to sell your rig eventually and build a new one ivy bridge will catch a better price.

 

[krang]

Best answer selected by Krang.