£400 gaming upgrade, is this spec ok?

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My motherboard has died in my current PC and I am considering upgrading to the following:

ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Performance Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

Corsair Vengeance RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R)

(sorry I don't know how to add the basket into the post :( )

I will be using a 120GB OCZ vertex SSD, Corsair H80 cooler, Graphics – EVGA GTX550 TI 1GB, Power supply – Thermaltake purepower 680 watt, Case – Thermaltake Tsunami dream from my current build.

The main use for the PC will be gaming and storing/editing family pictures/HD video's. I am not a serious gamer as you can tell from the 550Ti however I do like to try and get games looking as nice as possible and will either get another 550Ti for SLI or upgrade to a better card in the future. Are the upgrade components above a good choice? Will this keep me going for a good few years without needing an upgrade? I did a bit of reading up on other posts and from what I can tell the Z77 chipset is the best for gaming. Is this correct or is there a better chipset to go for? The only reason I picked the board is because I love the look and I thought the Z77 chipset was best. Are there better boards or is this one reasonable? The memory was also picked based on looks and cost, but looking at the spec's I think it should be ok for my build? Also I am not sure if I should be looking at an Ivybride chip instead of the sandy bridge? Am I right in thinking the sandybridge is the older one and ivy is the newer better performing chip? I am also looking to overclock the new CPU when I need a bit more from it as I did with my current QX6700, is the i7-2700K a good overclocker? Any advice or suggestions would be great. My budget is around £400.
 
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Thanks for the recommendations I noticed in both builds you have used the Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 board. Is this a better board than the ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Performance Intel Z77? I have always been a fan of the gigabyte boards in the past, but I love the look of the Fatal1ty board and that's prob one of the main reasons I have gone for it in this build. However I would rather go for a better performing/built board over looks so if the gigabyte is a better board I would prob go for it.

I also have a Corsair H80 Hydro cooler would this be good enough for OC'ing the i7-2700K

PS: How do you add the basket into your post like that?
 
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RJC

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The Gigabyte board is good value for money, the ASRock comes with a few bits extra but ideally you need to check if these are worth the extra over the Gigabyte.

If your using Chrome search for the Ocuk Basket add on.
 
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The Gigabyte board is good value for money, the ASRock comes with a few bits extra but ideally you need to check if these are worth the extra over the Gigabyte.

If your using Chrome search for the Ocuk Basket add on.

Ok thanks, I noticed that the ASRock board has things like the display for debugging and the power/reset switches on the board and also the CMOS reset on the back plate. All of which are handy I suppose but not really 100% necessary. I shall have a look for other differences and see if it is worth the extra money.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
Total : £42.89 (includes shipping : £8.25).




He's right... it works!
I wondered that too :)

Thanks RJC

That would explain why I cant do it then, I'm still using internet explorer lol.
 
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Soldato
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Is hyperthreading that important to you? Your nvidia GPU has CUDA support which I hope you use. It doesn't take advantage of SLI though, in all honesty you might be better off with just a better single GPU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel kit (PV316G160C9K) £59.99
Total : £386.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



I've used the i5K which drops the hyperthreading. However.....it does have a better IGP, the IGP can be used by Quicksync to speed up video encoding tasks (faster than CUDA) and also use the IGP to boost your 550Tis gaming performance.

Because the i5 3570K is a little cheaper I worked 16GB of RAM into the spec. This mobo is a little more but is tailored for overclockers. Voltage measuring points on the mobo, power on/off button onboard aswell. 3 year uk based warranty too which is nice. These are geeky little extras, you could consider the Z77-D3H which is cheaper and is tailored for single GPU setups but I cant see you liking the looks of it ;)

EDIT

I like the styling on your spec. When you reach 100 posts you get free P&P, with that you can swap the SB i7K into my spec if you wish for £400
 
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Got it working :D

You can save a little by going with 2 of these, memory speed offers very little performance gain on SB & IB setups.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-084-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1180

Yeah I got it working :D, thanks! That memory looks quite good too, is there any disadvantage going for that rather than the corsair stuff?

Is hyperthreading that important to you? Your nvidia GPU has CUDA support which I hope you use. It doesn't take advantage of SLI though, in all honesty you might be better off with just a better single GPU.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel kit (PV316G160C9K) £59.99
Total : £386.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



I've used the i5K which drops the hyperthreading. However.....it does have a better IGP, the IGP can be used by Quicksync to speed up video encoding tasks (faster than CUDA) and also use the IGP to boost your 550Tis gaming performance.

Because the i5 3570K is a little cheaper I worked 16GB of RAM into the spec. This mobo is a little more but is tailored for overclockers. Voltage measuring points on the mobo, power on/off button onboard aswell. 3 year uk based warranty too which is nice. These are geeky little extras, you could consider the Z77-D3H which is cheaper and is tailored for single GPU setups but I cant see you liking the looks of it ;)

EDIT

I like the styling on your spec. When you reach 100 posts you get free P&P, with that you can swap the SB i7K into my spec if you wish for £400

Thanks for the reply. Hyper threading probably wont benefit me, but I thought if I could afford it just now then why not. Unless the i5 3570K is a better CPU but without the hyper threading? The Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 looks like a nice board, I like the reset/on off switches on the board because my case has a door on it and its awkward to open the door to hit the power switch when the case is on its side. Also a bios reset switch is so much easier than a jumper. The voltage points is a nice idea but to be honest I would be nervous going near my motherboard with a metal probe while the power was on in case I damaged the board. Thanks for the suggestion though I shall compare the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 and ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Performance and see what the differences are between them. I recon the gigabyte board could look just as nice with the blue corsair memory, and I have used gigabyte boards in the past and have been happy with them.

Styling kind of had a lot to do with my spec, I have always fancied having a nice looking PC, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance/reliability for looks. I also should have said £400 is a rough budget I don't mind going over if it means I will get a better system.

edit:
After re-reading your post and the spec's on the motherboards, I have realised that you meant that the ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Performance board does not support SLI. Not that my graphics card doesn't support it, which I what I originally thought you meant. Now I have realised that I am not so tempted by the ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Performance board and I am leaning more towards the gigabyte board. I have also spotted this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-062-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261

Which looks nice and supports SLI. Is this a better board than the gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77?
 
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Soldato
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The GB mobo has a 3 year UK based warranty. It's also has a dual bios as a nice safety feature.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £71.99
Total : £398.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Think I'd use the Viper RAM as it's cheaper though, although this patriot RAM is faster and colour codes for £10 more. The Asus mobo you picked is nice, I never had any trouble with Asus kit, nice that it includes wi-fi.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £143.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £61.99
Total : £402.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



I do too like the styling of the Asrock but with my sensible hat on I would buy the GB UD3H mobo with the Viper RAM and buy a wifi dongle if needed.
 
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The GB mobo has a 3 year UK based warranty. It's also has a dual bios as a nice safety feature.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £71.99
Total : £398.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Think I'd use the Viper RAM as it's cheaper though, although this patriot RAM is faster and colour codes for £10 more. The Asus mobo you picked is nice, I never had any trouble with Asus kit, nice that it includes wi-fi.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £143.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £61.99
Total : £402.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



I do too like the styling of the Asrock but with my sensible hat on I would buy the GB UD3H mobo with the Viper RAM and buy a wifi dongle if needed.

Thanks for the spec, if I am being honest my head says go with a gigabyte board because I have always had gigabyte boards in the past, but the styling on the ASRock board is nice. Out of curiosity you said if you had your sensible hat on you would go for the gigabyte board, why would you use the gigabyte board instead of the Asrock or the Asus?

I also noticed that everybody who has added a spec has gone for the i5-3570K, is this because its a better CPU than the i7?

Thanks for the replies :D
 

RJC

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With you its going to be 50/50 depends how often you do the HD Videos and Photo work and if the software will utilise the hyperthreading cores.

With the Motherboard Gigabyte offers UK RMA, I use GB majority of the time.
 
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The UD3H is cheaper (the Z77X-D3H even cheaper still) has a dual BIOS as I said in my last post. This makes updating the BIOS safer and GB offer a good 3 year UK based warranty should anything go wrong.

The i5K i used is Ivybridge. Ivybridge does more clock for clock, consumes less power and has an improved IGP over sandybridge. They run a little warmer but that's to be expected and they still overclock well.

I mentioned how the Z77 mobos can make clever use of the improved IGP and you still have CUDA support to help compensate for the loss of Hyperthreading on the i5K. You would have to be doing a lot of video editing for example to see any benefit from hyperthreading. I figure you are better off with 16GB of RAM than 8GB and hyperthreading.
 
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Thanks for all the replies, I think I shall go for the gigabyte board and the i5 I don't really do a lot of video editing. I do more gaming than I do editing so the i7 is prob a waste.

Thanks for all the replies.
 
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