which one of these boards?

doggystyle

doggystyle

doggystyle

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The main difference between those two Gigabyte board is that the Z77X board can run both main PCIE slots at x8 speed, has two eSATA ports on the back panel and also supports SLI (alongside Crossfire). In contrast, the cheaper Z77-D3H can only run the second main PCIE port at x4 speed and doesn't support SLI. As hyperst says, both boards are full-ATX size.

As for RAM, the prices of each of the kits vary week-to-week, for £30 the kingston kit was great value, but this week I would go for this kit.
 
If you can tell use the make and model number of the motherboard you were looking at then we can tell you how it compares to the boards already mentioned.
 
go for the ud3h board,ive seen it hit 5ghz+ on air,very stable board its also down to your cpu too whether you get a good ocer or not but the board is very capable
 
It's a decent price, but those massive heatsinks will greatly restrict you choice of CPU coolers.

Instead I would go with this kit for only a couple of quid more.

For buying RAM for a sandy bridge system you are generally look for:

- DDR3
- 1600MHz frequency
- 1.5V operating voltage
- a low profile heatsink
- CL9 or less timings
- a good brand with a good warranty service (like corsair, crucial, kingston etc.)
- as low a price as possible
 
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i was going to go with the stock cooler. i assumed thw bigger more aggressive heatsinks ment it would run cooler. are they just for show?
thanks for the info too
 
The big heatsinks allow you to run the CPU at lower temperatures, they are quieter than the stock ones and they allow you to significantly overclock the CPU while keeping the temperatures safe.

CPUs like the i5 2500K (and Ivy bridge i5 most likely) are begging to be overclocked. The i5 2500K which is 3.3GHz at stock can be easily pushed to 4.5GHz using a relativly cheap CPU cooler like this one.
 
It is very easy to do these days, especially with the unlocked CPU multipliers of the K-series CPUs. This means you don't have to worry about balancing the memory frequency - you just need to increase the CPU multiplier, add volts and test for stability. Rinse and repeat until you get a stable overclock at the frequency you want, you reach the maximum load temperature you are willing to go up to or get close to 1.38V core voltage.

There are quite a few Sandy Bridge overclocking guides out there, which are more detailed than this - but that is generally the procedure. Ivy bridge overclocking should be very similar - though the safe voltages will likely be a bit different (since they are using a smaller process).
 
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