1155 mobo, i5 3570k, 8gb ddr3?

[al9984]

This is mostly just a sounding board of my thoughts, but advice would be welcome...


I'm planning an upgrade of my main gaming PC.

I'll be keeping my 560ti (no point upgrading that yet as it'll be at least £250 for anything more powerful) and PSU (1500w) so it's just the motherboard, CPU and ram I need...

Currently running a Q6600 (running at 3 GHz with a freezer 7 pro) on an Asus P5QC with 8 GB of ddr2

wanting to upgrade to the 1155 family so I've pretty much set on the i5 3570k was i7s are out of my budget and as the other i5s aren't really that much cheaper getting the unlocked one is pretty much a no brainer for me.

Motherboard-

The question now is... which of the vast selection of motherboards should I go for... my budget for the 3 components its £350-400 (could possibly go to £450 but only for a really good reason)

I've looked at the £70-140 Z77 boards offered from Asus, Gigabyte, Msi and Asrock and to be honest they all seem pretty much the same for "unique features" etc. all have 1 pci-e 3 x16 and the other (if there are any) are only running at x8 or x4. Same # of Sata give or take two and so on....

As I am only planning to use one GPU (560ti), I only need the one pci-e 3 x16. One 120 GB SSD system drive (possibly get another and raid 0 it) and one 1.5 HDD for storage so won't need masses of ports. Don't need too many fan connectors as I'll probably be using a controller anyway. They all seem to have Virtu MVP (looks like something at least worth playing with) and UEFI so that won't be swaying me.

I'm mainly looking at the Asus p8z77-v range (inc lx, lk and le) as I've Asus motherboards for the past 10 years of upgrades and they're behaving well (although I am open to another brand)

So the main question is do I spend £75 on the low end (p8z77-v lx) or the £130 (p8z77-v)? or one in between? are the added ports, slots, features etc of the £30-50 more expensive models worth it? or should I not eat for a month or 2 and get the £300 maximus extreme? (Or similar pricier motherboard)

DDR3-
now onto the DDR3 - this also will be a price vs. performance thing - do I go for 8gb 1333mhz for £35ish (as realistically I'll only need 8gb for gaming for the foreseeable future) or do I go for 16gb or 32gb and have fun with virtual ram disks? Is the extra £££ for 1600, 1800, 2133 etc worth it? Should I pay more for CL7 or just stick with CL9-11? And if I get my 8 or 16 in 2 or 4 DIMMs? would there be any real performance difference?

CPU-
as I say earlier the i5 3570k is a no brainer (unless you have good reason to go for another?) and I'm planning on cooling it with the Arctic cooling Freezer i30 (£25-30 320w of cooling goodness) as I've been very happy with the freezer 7 pro rev.2 I'm using on my q6600 and the reviews are mostly good. but again I'm open to suggestions.

Case-
Now I'm thinking of a new case - main wants being extra expansion slots and lots of fan bays so my cooling options are opening right up. I've found 2 cases that are looking pretty good within the -£150 range...

Xigmatek - ELYSIUM
http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=122
Akasa - Venom Toxic
http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=product/product.detail.tpl&no=181&type=Chassis&type_sub=Full ATX&model=AK-TOX-01BK

Both have 10 expansion slots (hard to get for under £150) and enough fan bays (120mm+) to keep me happy and they even come with a few fans included.

With an "extras" budget of £150-200 I should have enough left to buy any more fans I need, and I might treat myself to a couple of cables and maybe even some light to tart up my case.

Final thing that I really do need advice on is the age old question of ... "onboard vs. soundcard?"

I know this question has been answered 100s of times in 100s of forums for since the first motherboard with onboard as released but as I've only got Logitech 2.1 speakers and some £15 headphones I don't think I need a state of the art studio quality soundcard. The only reason I'd consider getting a new soundcard to go with this new build is if the performance boost was worth the £30-50 min that low end pci-e cards cost.

I do have a Sound Blaster Audigy pci card I bought a about 5 years back, would that offer and performance increase? (assuming the motherboard I go for has a pci slot)


so after all that my build looks something like...


P8Z77-V
i5 3570k
8GB 1600MHz DDR3
GTX 560ti
1500w PSU

 

[Kanped]

The Akasa case seems solid (it's ripped off from other designs but who cares) and is extremely cheap on scan at the minute;

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/akas...wer-with-mesh-side-window-w-o-psu-promotion-p

The one thing about the expansion slots; I don't know of any motherboard that will fit the case that has space for 10 expansion cards. I think they're just there for the sake of it.

IMO, onboard sound should be absolutely fine. TBH, I really don't see the point in sound cards; the only thing they could really have is an amp (so if it's too quiet, get one) and a cross-over (so if you have a sub-woofer, get one).

The CPU is indeed a no-brainer; 3570k all the way.

Most people on here seem to recommend the MSI G45; http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-dvi-d-hdmi-atx

The price is good and you will get 2 x16 PCIe slots, so if you want to SLI in the future, you can.

RAM; any of the big names will be good. Corsair Vengeance, probably. You don't need more than 8GB.

 

[CPMFW]

i´d go for something like this...

 

[al9984]

@ CPMFW -

that all looks good - glad to see the 3570k is your choise.

why have you gone for 16gb ddr3 instead of just 8? and why 1600mhz over 1800+?

why that motherboard? whats that got/not got that say the £40+ cheaper msi z77a-gd45 has/n't? why go for msi over? do they have a unique feature that's not pretty much the same as all the other brands?

and why go for the Noctua cooler which is twice the price and from what I've read in reviews they're good but ott for my little build and only slighty better cool than the ones alot cheaper.

 

[al9984]

@ Kanped -

main reason for the 10 expansion slots for me would be for usb, firewire back plates (just in case i ever needed more than the 6-12 posts on most back panels ) and for fan type things (i've already got an Lian li BS-09B and BS-08B) both of which don't use mobo slots and so by using the 3 free ones i'll have all pci/pcie slots (except those covered by the GPU fan/sink)

the g45 looks good and looks like one of the few (inc ga-55 but not the ga-65) to have two x16 slots to actually be x16 when both are used... but i'd probably go for the ga-55 as the 45 doesn't support sli (one crossfire) according to the manual. But I'm more likly to use the extra x16 slot for a x4 or x8 card in the future (been eyeing up the OCZ RevoDrive for awhile) and having 2 560ti sli'd probably wouldn;t be as good as a £50 extra 660ti (or even 670)

and again I ask... why MSI over the other brands? I've downloaded the manuals of quite a few of the mobos in this price range (and couple extreme ones to lust over) and as far as i can tell all the features etc are pretty much the same with the possible exception of the asrock "No-K OC Technology" but as i'm getting a k cpu is doesn't matter.

possibly a good reason to go for a popular board with you guys on here (apart from the fact you know what you're talking about... mostly ) is that I'm more liking to find posts re. overclocking with exact info on setting.

 

[Kanped]

From what I've seen, the more knowledgeable someone is, the less likely they are to recommend any kind of OCZ product, especially SSDs. They have a disturbingly high rate of failure. Most tend to go for Kingston or Corsair but Intel, Samsung and Mushkin are also worth checking out.

As for the MoBo, there's no real reason to go for one brand over another other than price and looks if the features you're actually going to be using are more or less identical. Any component can fail but anyone on here that has an MSI board is very happy with it and they tend to be slightly cheaper, so that's what usually gets recommended but you should be fine if you know what features you want.

 

[seumasbeathan]

CMPFW Has got it spot on, The board is a great one and you really do not need more than 8gb 1600mhz

 

[Yeren]

WTF is a 1500w PSU needed for on such a small build

EDIT:in the nicest possible way OFC

 

[seumasbeathan]

Oh wow didn't notice that :L Yeah 1500w is massive and I mean MASSIVE overkill, 650w is all you need for even crossfire 560's

 

[Kanped]

I wondered about that but if he already has it, might as well. Isn't going to hurt anything... actually; what exactly is it?

 

[AverageNinja]

@ CPMFW -

that all looks good - glad to see the 3570k is your choise.

why have you gone for 16gb ddr3 instead of just 8? and why 1600mhz over 1800+?

He has gone for 8gb ddr3. Read carefully. And you won't see any improvements for home users above 1600mhz.

 

[Master&Puppet]

1. Actually you can get 7950s for under £250 now which will smoke a 560 - especially if you tinker with OCing gpus. Food for thought but back to the OP:

2. You definitely don't need a 1500w psu. A decent, branded PSU with over 400w on the 12v rail will be perfect for any i5 single card build.

3. Going for the 3570K is the perfect choice. The 3770K just adds hyper threading which won't be utilized by games and you really only need to get i7s when you are doing a moderate amount or more of production (video/picture/music/engineering etc). Paying for the i7 is therefore literally a waste.

4. You can easily get what you need for £350:

I've included 2133MHz RAM there because it was such a good deal but you only need 1600MHZ. There's only benchmark/synthetic performance to be gained going any higher than that but certainly no real world performance because games these days are graphics limited first and I've only managed to max out my i5 once and that when I was actually trying too (had over 14,000 troops on the battlefield in Shogun 2).

I've put the G45 in that list because it is on a deal, there is probably a good argument for getting a GD55 or GD65 for the extra power phases however if you want to only hit 4.5GHz then the g45 is sweet. Aria do have a GD65 on an awesome deal at the moment. That would still fit into your £350 budget however your overclock would be limited by your cooler before the motherboard.

5.Yes there is a pointlessly large choice of motherboards for z77 out there. I say pointless because as long as you don't get the basic models (like the g43 which doesn't give you voltage control although that will still be enough for about 4.2-4.4GHz) they basically all perform identically. Take a read through this. I can sum it up by saying that we tend to recommend MSI because they perform as well as any other board but have better energy efficiency, great reliability and are very well priced too. There is an argument for getting another manufacturer if you like the colour scheme since the boards perform very equally even if MSI noses ahead.

I had an ASUS before working with the MSI boards I have (I've got a GD55 and 65 both of which are awesome) and loved it. I'm actually really fond of the Maximus Gene V if you fancy an m-atx build. It's a stonking little board.

6. I think all the boards come with Virtu. Reviews have shown that is totally hit and miss. Some games benefit, others get worse. Best to assume that the CPU and GPU will be doing all the work and tinker to see if MVP will give you more if you want (but most of us haven't bothered).

7. RAM wise - as you've said 8gb is plenty. I'd get 1600MHz because it is so reasonably priced these days but likely as not you won't see any difference in game play between 1333 or 2666. Frequency is more important than timings for performance and it is best to get 1.5v RAM unless you know what you are doing. It's usually better to get your RAM in as fewer sticks as possible - less chance of error and there is always the possibility that filling all four slots will limit your CPU overclock (although the Ivy Bridge memory controller is really sound).
There are several of us on here who use RAMdisks (including myself). The advice we'd give is that RAMdisking games does give a decent performance boost in certain texture heavy games but these gains can be diminishing because once a file is accessed, it is cached in RAM and accessed from there anyway. That means that the only performance gain is to be had by accessing files you haven't yet cached and the longer your gaming session lasts, the less often this happens. Sure loading times will be faster but an SSD isn't exactly slow!
RAMdisk if you are a really competitive gamer or just fancy having some fun with it. Otherwise just get an SSD.
As for the choice of SSD - I'd choose a Crucial M4, Intel 520 or Samsung 830 in that order. OCZ have had terrible issues with reliability, I own a Mushkin Chronos (and it's currently in RMA) so I'm not in a position to recommend them either.

8. You can of course do better than the Artic freezer cooler but remember that even the stock cooler will get you to 4.2 so I'd guess you'll get into the 4.2-4.4 range. Probably best to try it before you buy another because you might well be happy with the clock you get. To get above 4.5GHz you'll need full custom watercooling (my watercooling gets my 3570K to 4.8GHz with heat stress temps just under 80C).

9. I'm not sure why you want to get 10 expansion slots? I have a 10 expansion slot case and I run crossfire. Even with 2 GPUs I really only need 6 or 7. Because you are only going to have one GPU airflow doesn't really need a be a massive worry to be honest. I think you would be fine in a case half that price like this. However cases in particular are a very personal choice so get what you want!

10. I'd just stick with the onboard sound unless you are really into sound quality - most of us do and it seems just great to me. Again, you can always invest in one if you want better quality at a later date.

Hope that helps!

M&P

 

[Kanped]

Well, that case is only £16 cheaper than the Akasa (it's on offer with Scan at the minute; I think £84 for a full tower is pretty hard to beat) and is a good bit smaller. I think the extra £16 is worth it if you want to go for watercooling in the future, or for other expansions, more cooling options etc. but absolutely that Aerocool case will serve the purpose, especially if you prefer having smaller case and aren't thinking you'll need the extra space in the future.

 

[Master&Puppet]

Ah sorry, you meantioned about finding cases for under £150 with 10 slots was hard so I meant half of that

I did notice the watercooling option on that case (if not the price!) and yea - it never hurts to have that.

 

[al9984]

the 1500w PSU was some I bought a few years back when if i'm honst a) I didn't know better (and my 600w had blown up) b) I have a good paying job and credit card. and c) it was fairly cheap (less than £150 i think) would more then do the job (bearing in mind my 600w may have blown up due to over use as at the time i only had the one pc and it was full of HDD and i had 2 7600 sli'd) and like a case a upgrade proof investment.

 

[seumasbeathan]

What make is the psu?

 

[al9984]

without opening my case I want to say Xclio

 

[Kanped]

Looked up XClio...

"Great Power series comes with several features that make it become the most impressive power supply of the industry"

As far as I can tell, they're made by CWT (same as Antec but also a lot of Corsair PSUs) and use Fuhjyyu caps, which is bad. It's probably worth changing.

 

[Master&Puppet]

Maybe, but he is going to be pulling less than 500w on the 12v rail from it so it really should be fine.

 

[CPMFW]

@ CPMFW -

that all looks good - glad to see the 3570k is your choise.

why have you gone for 16gb ddr3 instead of just 8? and why 1600mhz over 1800+?

why that motherboard? whats that got/not got that say the £40+ cheaper msi z77a-gd45 has/n't? why go for msi over? do they have a unique feature that's not pretty much the same as all the other brands?

and why go for the Noctua cooler which is twice the price and from what I've read in reviews they're good but ott for my little build and only slighty better cool than the ones alot cheaper.

i didn´t go for 16gb i took the 1600mhz because there is no real benefit from using faster ones + they´re cheaper
the gd65 will overclock better (power phases)... the gd45 is also a good board
many people on the forum seem to like it

from what i know the nh-d14 is the best air cooler on the market