Sandy Bridge i5 upgrade spec check

liamcrane

liamcrane

liamcrane

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Afternoon all

Pay day is here and i really want to finally get my i5 upgrade complete but im just not to sure only a couple of bits and would like some advice please.

My current setup is in my sig. The main use of my machine is mainly gaming and general web surfing, im not one of these people that has to game at ultra settings high is just fine for me. I have a 1080p 24" monitor already along with 2 64gb m4 ssd's and 1 mechnical 500gb drive. I would like my 2 ssd's on 6gbps ports but the mechnical drive and dvd drive are fine on standard 3gbps ports. I dont have any real intention of crossfire or sli pretty much a single card user really. I will be upgrading my 5850 once i have my i5 up and running but to what im not sure of yet :). I am going to sell off my current amd setup to help with the cost of the upgrade all be it im sure it wont be a lot

This is what i have come up with


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Silver (LGA 2011,1155,1156, LGA 1366, LGA775 and AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £69.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £49.99
Total : £456.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



or


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard REV 1 £84.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Silver (LGA 2011,1155,1156, LGA 1366, LGA775 and AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £69.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £49.99
Total : £396.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



last of all


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Silver (LGA 2011,1155,1156, LGA 1366, LGA775 and AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £69.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £49.99
Total : £401.34 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Its pretty much the board i cant decide on, i really like the look of the low profile ram, it matches my white theme and has a low voltage of 1.35 as well which is quite appealing. Ignore the delivery charge as it will be free :D

Hope someone can give me some advice regarding my possible selection

Thanks a mill

Liam
 
Quite like the 2nd spec, but the overclocking quality/ability of the board may not do justice to the Phanteks cooler, but then the overclock also depends on the CPU also.

What sort of OC were you hoping for?
 
The board on your first choice offers PCI-E 3.0. This means at a later stage if you wish to upgrade your cpu to Ivy Bridge and upgrade your GFX crad to the latest released then this will be an option.

The other 2 boards are now standard and nothing wrong with either but offer no "Future Proofing" unlike the Asrock.

Depends on how much you like to keep up with latest tech.
 
gregster said:
The board on your first choice offers PCI-E 3.0. This means at a later stage if you wish to upgrade your cpu to Ivy Bridge and upgrade your GFX crad to the latest released then this will be an option.

The other 2 boards are now standard and nothing wrong with either but offer no "Future Proofing" unlike the Asrock.

Depends on how much you like to keep up with latest tech.
Click to expand...

All three boards offer PCI-E3.0/Gen3 as the PCI-E lanes of the cheaper two are hardwired to the CPU socket and dont use "switches", so they get 16X PCI-E3.0 for the top PCI-E16X slot and only 4X for the second slot.
 
Ahhhh my bad. I looked at the boards and didn't see that as an option....ignore my post and sorry for the "Noobness"
 
Hi guys, thanks very much the both of you for your help.

Stulid, sorry mate i forgot to mention what kind of overclock i was looking for. Im thinking somewhere around the 4.2-4.5 ghz tops really. Coming from a PII 955 at 3.7ghz id be grateful for even reaching 4ghz :)

gregster, hi mate i see what you are saying regarding pci-e 3.0 will this actually make a big improvement on the the graphics card? If i am honest every board i have owned has been an asus and never ran into any issues so i may have been kinda lucky i dont know. I have heard mixed things regarding asrock some great some bad but i guess everyone is allowed an opinion of course and gigabyte seems to be the same, it doesnt have the looks of the asrock board im just not to sure at all, i see it has got rave reviews and is one of the best value z68 boards around.

I have had my current rig for over 2 years so im not one of these that upgrades very often perhaps maybe a graphics card but thats really it. Might sound silly but im not really interested in IB if im honest i think a 2500k will suit my needs pretty well for what i do i just wasn't sure if they would drop in price which im sure they wont :)
 
Last edited:
Hi idleman, i did look at this board as well im just trying to decide if i go for a cheaper board that overclocks ok or if i go for a higher end board that perhaps looks nicer and overclocks that little bit better

ahhh decisions decisions!!
 
liamcrane said:
Hi guys, thanks very much the both of you for your help.

Stulid, sorry mate i forgot to mention what kind of overclock i was looking for. Im thinking somewhere around the 4.2-4.5 ghz tops really. Coming from a PII 955 at 3.7ghz id be grateful for even reaching 4ghz :)
Click to expand...

Reviews,
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/10/11/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-review/1
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/gigabyte_z68ap-d3_review/1
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_ga_z68ap_d3_review,1.html
http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/

That Gigabyte board seems to do about what you after.
 
Hi Liam

From reading up on PCI-E 3 mate, the difference is minimal, so I would say no....I am a little biased though as I have the Asrock board so I try and sway peeps that way but in honesty, Stulid is much better at getting your needs accomodated than I ever will be.
 
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