Need advice on i5 build, please help :0)

markymoo · 5 Nov 2011 at 13:27

Currently I have the following:-

C2Duo E6750 (over clocked to 3.4ghz)
4GB Ram (4 x 1gb Corsair XMS2)
Asus P5NE-SLI motherboard
MSI GTX460 graphics card (over clocked with MSI tool, not sure to what, think 800mhz and 1000hz memory, could be wrong)
Samsung 1TB F3 harddrive
Creative Extreme Music sound card
Hiper Type R 570w PSU

I currently game at 1680x1050 using a Samsung TFT

Ok so the above is my current build and apart from the occasional graphics upgrade (last done for 'bangs for bucks' going from 8800gt to my gtx460 only 5 months ago)
I hadn't realised but prob had my board and CPU for around 4 years now and have been reluctant to upgrade in the past. Just being happy with turning shadows down in games, but now with the current crop (mainly BF3) other settings are now having to be dropped to medium whilst gaming online.
Most games can still play on high, so could hold out a little longer, but from the small bit I've read the i5 2500k seems to be a massive leap and one of those times where there's a big bang for buck (like with the q6600)

So I am thinking of just replacing the big 3 and getting CPU, Motherboard and Memory. Also CPU cooler and possibly a SSD
Looking it seems as though the i7 for gaming isn't worth the extra outlay so I am looking at the i5 2500k and hope to over clock to around 4.4ghz, will only be using one graphics card (always prefer to stick to one good card rather than waste cash on sli)

SO I want to know your thoughts given my brief outline on which Motherboard, Memory and cooler would be best for my needs?
The motherboard is obviously crucial to get right as is the most hassle to swap, and is the one I'm most swamped with, trying to compare. I have got a Arctic Pro on my CPU and they are cheap so wonder if they are still good for CPU i5? And memory also not sure, heard ripsaws are good but then I have had memory fail in past and made use of Corsairs lifetime warrinty.

So thanks for reading and hope ya can help out with Motherboard, Memory and CPU cooler,

Thanks,
Mark

RJC · 5 Nov 2011 at 13:52

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Sub Total : £296.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £61.23
Total : £367.36

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 10:22

RJC said:
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Sub Total : £296.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £61.23
Total : £367.36

The Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
is £127.99, so must have gone up almost 20 notes. But reading it, looks nice. Like the fact I can charge my iPad and iPhone with the PC even off, also Gigabyte having UK centre for any RMA is massive bonus.

That genesis Kingston memory, seems to be the same as what Overclockers use in their gaming bundles (mb, memory,CPU). Is this good for overclocking compared to say the ripjaw or corsair offerings? Just not sure on kingstons warranty but Corsair is lifetime and twice had sticks failed and they sent out new ones no quibbles.

Not read bout coolers yet, heard the H60 water-cooling one was decent option, but problems fitting in case if your PSU is at the top, which mine is also only clocking to around 4.4ghz so nothing too serious.

Was thinking SSD may go with the M4 Crusial 128gb, heard to many scare stories with the OCZ failing.

Thanks for input though, near enough get exactly what ya put, n liking that motherboard, even though not the cheapest, sounds like some good features.

RJC · 6 Nov 2011 at 10:37

Its this board below:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-368-gi&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

review: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,review-32228-19.html

Your looking at this one, which was on special offer last week at £119 ~

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-360-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Kingstone memory has a lifetime warranty as well, not used there warranty so cant mention on time scale ect.

The Gelid got a good reviews, review below was Rev 1, there is a Rev 2 out now.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/01/20/gelid-tranquillo-cpu-cooler-review/4

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 11:37

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £127.99
(£106.66) £127.99
(£106.66)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
* Sub Total : £394.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £80.89
* Total : £485.36

Just need to decide on my memory now, is there much difference with frequency, unsure between.
Kingston Grey 1600hz - the ones you suggested
Corsair (xms or dominator) 1600hz - lifetime warranty
G.skill Ripjaw 2133hz - 20 pound more, but will they be noticeably faster and how reliable are they!??

Thanks and hope to get my last bit of info before the buy-it-now :0)

RJC · 6 Nov 2011 at 11:50

Save the money and go with 1600 mhz ram, the extra speed I believe make very little if not none on sandy bridge setups.

The Kingston also has a lifetime warranty.

fowler002 · 6 Nov 2011 at 12:08

oh and talking about bang for bucks you may want to think about replacing the psu otherwise you risk that going bang, this could take other bits with it and cost you big bucks replacing them.

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 12:55

fowler002 said:
oh and talking about bang for bucks you may want to think about replacing the psu otherwise you risk that going bang, this could take other bits with it and cost you big bucks replacing them.

That due to age of my PSU or past experiences with this model?
Also which would you recommend then?
Jeez this is starting to add up now ;0)

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 13:01

RJC said:
Its this board below:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-368-gi&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

review: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,review-32228-19.html

Your looking at this one, which was on special offer last week at £119 ~

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-360-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Kingstone memory has a lifetime warranty as well, not used there warranty so cant mention on time scale ect.

The Gelid got a good reviews, review below was Rev 1, there is a Rev 2 out now.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/01/20/gelid-tranquillo-cpu-cooler-review/4

Ahh thank, think the one I put difference seems to be it has B3 at the end and looks black instead of blue. does this mean it's the latest revision of motherboard so less problems and that the blue one is revision 1 or 2?

The cooler looks good yeah, how big is it, in regards to if it means you have to have low profile memory in the first few slots of memory?
Got a Arctic Cooler 64 on my C2Duo and the fins are very close to the memory.

Thanks guys, unto now been great help and almost there :0)

RJC · 6 Nov 2011 at 13:18

Looking at the gigabyte website the board with the B3 is a older revision board, link below shows the comparison between the boards, 2 are the same model.

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=3978,3850,3979

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 13:28

RJC said:
Looking at the gigabyte website the board with the B3 is a older revision board, link below shows the comparison between the boards, 2 are the same model.

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=3978,3850,3979

Ahh Yeah, seems that way. The B3 is rev 1.0 and the one without B3 is revision 1.3 and comes with hdmi port.
Strange how older model had B3 and also costs more on here. Manufacturers like to confuse consumers.

Now to find out if I do indeed need to replace my CPU and if so what with.

Lol only started off looking at SSD on my day off, now almost full system ;0)

**EDIT** ahh just noticed one at £109 is UD3 (rev1.3) and the other is UD3P (rev1.0) so going to see what the "P" stands for. As the version relates to the certain model I'm guessing.
UD3 is now on it's 3rd revision (1.3) and UD3P is on it's first revision (1.0)

So much reading lol

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 14:07

Ok so the differences between

GA Z68XP UD3
&
GA Z68XP UD3P (B3 apparently means just Build 3 of the Z68XP range but in the comparison you linked, clearly shows no hdmi and seems older, very confusing)

All features same apart from:

UD3 has mSATA (blue, size 304x244)

UD3P No mSATA, but has 12 phase, Dual power and 2 extra USB 2.0 slots (14 instead of 12) (black, size 244x244)

According to
http://hu.gigabyte.com/microsites/56/data/mb-z68-models.html

But Overclockers and Gigabyte say the size is full Atx for both.

Still think they make it too confusing, but seems the more expensive board has a few things for more consistent power, other than that, not much difference.

fowler002 · 6 Nov 2011 at 14:24

other than the £20 price and colour difference I've not been able to figure out the differences between the ud3 and ud3p.

I've not had personal experience with the psu but have read lots of horror stories of it blowing up, you've been lucky.

antec, corsair, seasonic(ocuk have the xfx which uses psu made by seasonic, corsair also use them for some of their models as well), enermax(the lepa g series is made by enermax) are the ones to get.

wattage depends on of you plan on upgrading your graphics card/sli, 550w will be sufficient for your current spec and even if you were to upgrade to 560ti(think might be enough for 570 as well) but might be better to go with 650w for some 'headroom'(will even be enough for 460sli or even 560ti sli).

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 15:04

fowler002 said:
other than the £20 price and colour difference I've not been able to figure out the differences between the ud3 and ud3p.

I've not had personal experience with the psu but have read lots of horror stories of it blowing up, you've been lucky.

antec, corsair, seasonic(ocuk have the xfx which uses psu made by seasonic, corsair also use them for some of their models as well), enermax(the lepa g series is made by enermax) are the ones to get.

wattage depends on of you plan on upgrading your graphics card/sli, 550w will be sufficient for your current spec and even if you were to upgrade to 560ti(think might be enough for 570 as well) but might be better to go with 650w for some 'headroom'(will even be enough for 460sli or even 560ti sli).

Yeah not sure how long I have had it. Think around 5 years back when I had a 6600gt. Had no problems as of yet so yeah may be lucky. Though a family members who got at same time did pop around 2 months ago.
I too heard horror stories about it taking other things with it do the newer PSU or motherboards protect from this?
I do have a powersurge plug protector, not sure if that helps stop it.
PSU quite expensive chunk to add on to order but if needs be. I won't be doing sli but guess 650 is best as a minimum as will use the charging facility for my iPad or phone when pc is on.

markymoo · 6 Nov 2011 at 15:41

Antec TruePower New Modular 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply [0-761345-0-7600-9]

This be ok? Read the few reviews on here, one said bout some noise when pc turned off, but others mentioned it had won a PSU Roundup, it's yet again more money and another 70 notes but if it's needed better then having a pop!?

Or any other suggestions as again quite a lot of different ones. There's also an OCZ 650w enthusiast that says it's got surge protection built in at £80 but not modular.