(PLEASE do not tl;dr!!) Hello my dear old friends from Guru3d! I have come here to seek advice every time I had a computer upgrade in mind, and every time the results were awesome. I am once again looking for help regarding an upgrade. This is what I currently have: CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4mhz, OC'ed at 3000mhz (on a ThermalRight Ultra 120 eXtreme Cooler) Mobo: Asus P5K Premium Wifi P35 Memory: 2x OCZ (DDR2-800) PC2-6400 (400Mhz) 2048MB, 4-4-4-15 2T 1:1 GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB PS: Corsair HX 620W OS: Windows 7 64bit SP1 I have a maximum budget of 1000$ (no need to top it if not necessary). As all of my past CPU, I would like to be able to have a decent yet not extreme OC that I can keep on all the time with no fear of killing the CPU. I'm also not looking to upgrade my graphic card whatsoever (like buying another one, etc.) This is what I currently have in mind: CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (343$) Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P LGA 1155 Intel Z68 (165$) Memory:CORSAIR DDR3-1600 - 4 x 4GB - Vengeance - 9-9-9-24 (106$) Heatsink: no idea what's good The only thing I am pretty sure right now is the CPU. I read very good things on the 2600K. Other than that, I'm kinna at a lost, having been out of the game for a while. I would like a good motherboard that will allow me to OC the CPU easily. I would like it if possible to be wifi so I could use with my wifi printer, but I guess i could just buy a wifi card for that. Also, should I still keep my sound card (Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer) or nowadays motherboards have very good sound too? Also, is 16GB of memory useless and 8GB would be enough? Memory don't seem to be very expensive anymore.. I think I read somewhere that Gigabytes Motherboard are not as good to OC, is it true? I would greatly appreciate if you could give me Newegg.ca links of your suggestions. Thanks A LOT!!
What do you use the PC for, other than gaming? A decent overclock can be achieved on pretty much any board. It's much more dependent on the particular chip you get and your cooling. You can test your old sound card when the system is built and listen if there's difference to onboard. If so, keep it. I would imagine it also has features that simple onboard sound lacks, though whether you need those, I don't know.
Well that's a pretty good setup,but as allways... The 2600K have Hyperthreading and is useful for pro apps. and tasks,for gaming it is better to go for 2500K an OC it. For gaming 16 gigs is beyond need,again good for more memory demanding tasks. I wouldnt go for Gigabyite,but instead for a cheaper,well featured Ascrock like mine(see rig) It is steel solid and very affordable and OC well. For OC you will need a good cooler,I own a H80 and its very solid. The X-fi is better than any on board,but I really don't like their drivers,I had an Audigy2 and sold it cause of it and choose to use on board.I just couldn't get the bass right. Those changes I recommend you could save you some cash to direct on something else hardware or not.
I dont use my computer for anything special like video editing or anything like that. I would just like a very good gaming computer. (I'm now thinking about buying a SSD drive for my OS and games.. but it's so damn expensive) I have an Asus VH226H running at a native 1920x1080 resolution. So is there not much differences between boards? I see boards at 120$ and boards at 350$, what are the differences between them?
@Mozaik After reading your post and some information about it, I settled on the 2500K. Now for the Mobo and Memory.. why is there such a big difference in Mobos price, from 120$ to 350$? I'm not looking for SLI ever. I'm more of a single GPU person. Looking at information on the H80... is it water cooling? I never did that and it looks a bit complicated, I think id prefer staying on air though..
After looking at Mobos, I'm thinking this one should be good. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157265 Thoughts?
The mobo is excellent,the Corsair is great and easy to set up,cause it is a closed loop water cooling. The difference between various MBs are usually in features that go beyond the usual need. So a 400 $ MB usually have more PCI lanes,more USB 3.0 ports,sata,a bit better power phases,etc. But the cheaper ones have probably all you need,the Asrock you mentioned is great,even for SLI. EDIT:go for Extreme3gen3 z68 all the way,I thought that you mentioned that on a quick look before. The z68 chipset is the best right now for SB.
Unnecessarily expensive. Over a cheaper motherboard, I don't see that offering anything you'd benefit from. http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/asrock-motherboard-z68pro3 http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/asrock-motherboard-z68extreme3gen3 http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/asus-motherboard-p8z68vle Since 2600K and 16GB RAM are a waste of money for gamers, get 2500K + 8GB RAM. Good CPU coolers: CM Hyper 212+, 212 evo, Scythe mugen 3, anything from Noctua.
Aight after reading your replies and more information on internet, that's what I've got as of now, please tell me what you think: CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (230$) Mobo: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel (150$) Memory:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (45$) Heatsink: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus, Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, COOLER MASTER Blade Master 120mm Case Fan (for push and pull) (65$) That put me at around 500$, so I added: SSD: Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 256GB SATA III SSD (395$)
I was thinking of trying to find information on that later, but since some of you seem to have this pretty same build: How hard/easy is it to OC the 2500K on a ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, generally speaking? Like I said, I'm looking at a decent "daily" yet not excessive OC, like 4.0 to 4.3Ghz.
