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Mobo selection for new build
I'm going to be building a new gaming PC in a few weeks and I'm almost done selecting all the parts, but I'm stuck on the motherboard selection. I've been looking at Z68 boards and can't decide which board to pick up. I've always had a tendency to go overboard and end up with more than I actually need. Here's the rest of the config:
Processor: I5-2500K
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer mid tower (already have)
PSU: Seasonic X650 Gold (already have)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
Video Card: Looking at a Radeon 6950 (staying with a single card build)
Storage 1: Crucial M4 64GB
Storage 2: Crucial M4 256GB
Storage 3: TBD once HDD prices and inventory come back to reality
Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD Burner (already have)
OS: Win 7 (already have)
As I said, I've been looking at Z68 boards, and I've always leaned towards ASUS mobo's in the past. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Comments
ASUS makes fine boards but Gigabyte and MSI uses the same components and are cheaper. And frankly is ASUS quality control not what it used to be 10 years ago so they are similar there too.
Check all 3 brands, get the cheapest with the specs you want.
This one is a bargain to mention one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128523
The case and power supply are both good for a fairly high end single GPU gaming system, so there wouldn't be any real sense in replacing those. You probably already knew that, but I mention it because some people come in with power supplies that are completely awful. Actually, two years ago, that power supply was the best on the market, and while it's not that anymore, it's still excellent by today's standards. Optical drives are basically either good or failing (or completely dead), so that shouldn't be a problem, either.
Some other points that I'd like to make:
First, don't get too caught up in memory brand names, but do check prices at the time of purchase. If the memory you want is $45 for 8 GB, then sure, buy it. If it's $70, then you can get something just as good for much cheaper.
Next, why do you want a Z68 motherboard rather than a cheaper P67 motherboard? As you're buying a discrete card, it presumably isn't because you want to use the awful Intel integrated graphics. Since you're getting a big SSD, Intel's "smart response technology" would be useless to you, as the big SSD offers all of the advantages of an SSD, while SRT only offers some. If you do a lot of video transcoding that you need done quickly, then Z68 makes sense, but that's a very narrow niche. For video decoding, i.e., watching videos, you'd rather use AMD's UVD3 in the video card. If you don't need any of the three things that Z68 offers and P67 doesn't, then the chipsets are otherwise identical. They're actually the same silicon, except that for P67, Intel artificially disables those few things.
I'd also question why you're getting two SSDs. Good SSDs are so fast that even if the OS and several programs want to read and/or write to the SSD all at once, it still isn't likely to be a meaningful bottleneck for consumer use unless one of those programs is a synthetic storage benchmark. If you're thinking of having them both available to read and write in parallel as was sometimes done with hard drives in the past, then that is pointless for most consumer use with SSDs.
Finally, you should be warned that if you change out all your hardware, the same old Windows license might not still work. If you've already bought a new Windows 7 license for the mostly new computer, then that isn't a problem for you.
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In Asus line, a P8P67 or P8Z68-V is the model that you might want to look at if you're looking to overclock the processor in a single GPU gaming system. Those are the lowest models that offer plenty of power for the motherboard not to be a meaningful factor that inhibits overclocking, unless you're looking to go nuts and fry the processor. An LE or LX on the end means a lower end model that goes lighter on power circuitry, which is fine for stock speeds and perhaps a modest overclock, but isn't what you want if you have ideas about pushing the processor to 4.5 GHz or so. The P8P67 isn't appropriate for multiple video cards, but the P8P67 Pro or P8Z68-V are. Having Pro or Evo or whatever on the end adds more features that most people don't have any use for.
In Gigabyte's line, the equivalent is anything ending in -UD3P. -UD4 or higher adds more features that most people won't need. -UD3 or -D3 or -UD2 or whatever is lower end stuff.
MSI doesn't have such an abrupt cutoff in their lineup between what can take a large overclock and what can't.
Quiz, no real technical reason for me wanting a Z68 board other than I've never worked on one yet. I've worked on P67's before and just thought I'd use this build as an excuse to try out a Z68 board.
The thought behind the 2 SSD's is to put the OS on the 64GB and use the 256GB as my primary storage drive for now. The cost of a 1TB HDD is just absurd right now and I don't have any spares from my other systems that I can free up at the moment. I suppose I could skip the 64GB and just use the 256GB for everything right now as this system will only be used for gaming.
The copy of Windows 7 I have is still shrink wrapped and hasn't been used yet.
I did just see this combo deal on Newegg:
http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?submit=ChangeItem
I5-2500K CPU & ASUS P8Z68-V Pro for $384.98
Seems like a good deal to me, but as I mentioned in the OP, I do have a tendency to go overboard and get more than I reasonably need. Thoughts?
Im similar to you i ALWAYS blow more cash than i need because i go overboard, this time though i grabbed a rig of Ebay as i needed something in a hurry but will be needing to upgrade the board in the new year as i grab upgrades for it
wish i had more to offer in this thread but will be following out of interest as ill be making a similar decision soon lol
Star Wars The Old Republic sponsored member of Game Strats online gaming team and PvP Guide Writer for the PvP Community