Gigabyte Z68AP-D3-B3 question

Fantastic, just the answer I was hoping for to be honest. How does it rate compared to the Asus (P8Z68V-LX), MSI (Z68S-G43) and ASRock (Pro3 Gen3) offerings at that price point as a single GPU gaming board for an i5 2500k computer?
 
Fantastic, just the answer I was hoping for to be honest. How does it rate compared to the Asus (P8Z68V-LX), MSI (Z68S-G43) and ASRock (Pro3 Gen3) offerings at that price point as a single GPU gaming board for an i5 2500k computer?

Brilliant,

UK 3 year warranty based in Milton Keynes,


Ivybridge ready as well - http://www.gigabyte.us/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1048


I would select it over a ASUS or ASrock equivalent all day every day, the MSI is ok too but more money.
 
Gigabyte it is then. Finally decided to take the plunge so shall order:

i5 2500k
Z68AP-D3-B3
8GB Corsair Vengence (blue)

Does that seem like a decent setup until I've got time to upgrade my graphics card, which will be woefully lacking?
 
All drives are SATA yep. How much would I be looking at for a decent aftermarket cooler? I have a Freezer 7 Pro (original edition unfortunately) on my current computer and it works very well indeed, although I've never used the reference cooler before.

Coming from an E6600, AB9 Pro and 2GB DDR2. Served me well enough these past few years (got the E6600 when it was first released) but since having my PC back (been away for 18 months so it's had no use) the time has finally come to upgrade. The HD4870 will have to last me until I can afford to upgrade it, but it'll do.
 
Ok, thanks again. What do you think of the Gelid Tranquillo? I've seen it mentioned in a couple of reviews as a decent competitor to the 212 Evo, but can only easily find reviews of it on an earlier i5.
 
Ok, thanks again. What do you think of the Gelid Tranquillo? I've seen it mentioned in a couple of reviews as a decent competitor to the 212 Evo, but can only easily find reviews of it on an earlier i5.

its good too, just a bit bored of suggesting it, there might be something interesting on offer when the weekly deals change soon.
 
Fair enough. I think that's likely the one I'll go with - mounting looks good and the reviews are positive. Nothing too exciting in the offers this week, apart from a 64GB Crucial M4 at £70. Oh so tempting, but no, I have more important things to get.
 
Think I'm going to go with the Corsair A50. I'm not planning a big overclock, so can't really justify spending extra. I had it setup on another store for £275 (£280 with shipping) with the retail CPU and XMS3 ram, but can do it OcUK for £300 if I go with the cooler and Ballistix Sport ram.

Is there anything wrong with Ballistix sport? I realise the timings are 9-9-9-27 rather than 9-9-9-24 but is there a real world difference?
 
I can see what you mean. How likely is interference with heatspreaders if I got Ballistix Elite instead? 8-8-8-24 timings and same price, just with big 'ol spreaders.

Edit: Ignore that - only 4GB. Wondered why it was cheap.
 
That's what I was thinking. My concern with the Kingston ram is that it apparently needs 1.65V to get 1600MHz/9-9-9-27, whereas the Crucial only needs 1.5V. Is that the case or am I reading wrong?
 
It does say that, it also has a XMP profile to load in the BIOS which sorts the speed/timings out for you and I have seen people run it at 1600MHz with a lower voltage, but I have also seen a few Sandybridge OC guides that say 1.65v is fine.
 
Hmm, think I'll probably go with the Crucial ram. I'd rather keep voltages as low as possible, keep the temps down and so on. If I get held back by ram in overclocking performance then I can always get something new after all. Looks aren't a big thing for me either - my case does have a window, but it faces a wall.

Edit: Ordered the following:

i5 2500k OEM - £150
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 - £85
8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport - £30
Corsair A50 - £20

Came to just under £300 including delivery, so right at the budget I'd set myself.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom