42 replies to this topic

[defroad]

And those 2 extra SATA III ports are from Marvel controller which sucks btw and can't be paired with any SATA III good SSD IMHO..

I plan on getting a SSD and standard hhd. That would leave me no extra SATA drive slots available for 6Gb/s. However the board does have an additional 3Gb/s connectors. Thanks for the advice.

choice: P8Z68-V

now on to the video card, ram and powersupply

[Speedway]

If you're planning on populating all the RAM slots of the board, It would put a heavy stress on the memory controller which would be a bad thing since you won't be able to run your RAMs at it's specified settings = waste of money. AFAIK there aren't 16GB RAM now, only 8GB. If you're planning on sticking with SB, I suggest you get 2x8GB and leave it as is. If you want to get 32GB of RAM, I think you should've considered the Sandy Bridge-E/X79 platform.

To maximize overclocking potential of the SB/IB boards, do not use more than 2 DIMMs. Using 4 modules results in more power consumption, and thus resulting in relatively low overclocking.

Um, although OCing can be slightly easier with only 2 DIMMs populated, it doesn't mean that you can't OC with 4 sticks of RAM installed I have 4x4GB of Mushkin Enhanced Redline 2133MHz 9-11-10-28 and can run all 4 of them OCed, with my 2600K OCed over 5.4GHz, all while tightening the timings to 9-10-9-28

My point OP - you can easily OC on SB with all 4 DIMMs populated

[vandreadstriker]

What are you going to use it for? Photoshop/Game/CAD? Please tell us so we can recommend a suitable GPU.
Also, please list the things you currently have and also your old rig. You might be able to recycle some parts and save money
For Now:
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB - $129.99 (Free 8GB Corsair Voyager)
GPU: Sapphire 7850 - $249.99 (Free Dirt3 Coupon)
PSU: Corsair TX650V2 - $89.99 ($74.99 after MIR + 15% discount until 4/8)

[d6bmg]

^^ All of them are very good selection.

[defroad]

What are you going to use it for? Photoshop/Game/CAD? Please tell us so we can recommend a suitable GPU.
Also, please list the things you currently have and also your old rig. You might be able to recycle some parts and save money
For Now:
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB - $129.99 (Free 8GB Corsair Voyager)
GPU: Sapphire 7850 - $249.99 (Free Dirt3 Coupon)
PSU: Corsair TX650V2 - $89.99 ($74.99 after MIR + 15% discount until 4/8)

I am lame...gaming wise Starcraft2 and MMO nothing special or taxing on the unit, however I do will be working form home on this unit and I do IT (last machine I built was 5 years ago) I will be doing some light VM work. I will also be coverting all of my personal dvds (100's of them) over to digtial as running out of room and this is becoming my best choice. I way to embarressed to admit what GPU i am currently useing. Video cards are what i have upgraded the most often and I would rather spend a bit more on the core part of the system and start with a bit cheaper card and upgrade later. I most likely will not upgrade the CPU/PSU, i may add more RAM, however I am planing to start at 16GB (2x 8GB).


Ram:
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233246 $129
Crucial Ballistix sport 16GB: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820148545 $134

only big difference i can see is the Cas LatencyPSU: why not go with a 750w unit?

PSU
OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341049 $99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341018 - $89

Video cards: i love this site for just raw data ... http://www.videocard...h_end_gpus.html
why go with a Radeon card which is made by AMD over a Geforce card?

I like the GeForce GTX 560 Ti right now at about $200 or maybe the GeForce GTX 480 at $249 - i would love a 2GB of RAM card, however they are out of price range

MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti - not to bad either http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127608 - $269

I know this is alot to look at...thanks in advance for any advice

[wevsspot]

Um, although OCing can be slightly easier with only 2 DIMMs populated, it doesn't mean that you can't OC with 4 sticks of RAM installed I have 4x4GB of Mushkin Enhanced Redline 2133MHz 9-11-10-28 and can run all 4 of them OCed, with my 2600K OCed over 5.4GHz, all while tightening the timings to 9-10-9-28

My point OP - you can easily OC on SB with all 4 DIMMs populated

^ This +1

My Gigabyte Z68 happily runs four dimms of DDR3 1866 or DDR3 2133 at specified timings and voltages, all four dimms populated and a reasonable 4.7Ghz o/c on the cpu 24/7. No issues whatsoever.

Speaking of the Gigabyte board the GA-Z68XP-UD4 is solid for a tad over $200 dollars. 16-phase power, 8 SATA ports, Gen 3 PCIe slots, Marvell 9172 controller in addition to the Z68 SATA ports, decent onboard sound etc.

[vandreadstriker]

I am lame...gaming wise Starcraft2 and MMO nothing special or taxing on the unit, however I do will be working form home on this unit and I do IT (last machine I built was 5 years ago) I will be doing some light VM work. I will also be coverting all of my personal dvds (100's of them) over to digtial as running out of room and this is becoming my best choice. I way to embarressed to admit what GPU i am currently useing. Video cards are what i have upgraded the most often and I would rather spend a bit more on the core part of the system and start with a bit cheaper card and upgrade later. I most likely will not upgrade the CPU/PSU, i may add more RAM, however I am planing to start at 16GB (2x 8GB).


Ram:
CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820233246 $129
Crucial Ballistix sport 16GB: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820148545 $134

only big difference i can see is the Cas LatencyPSU: why not go with a 750w unit?

PSU
OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341049 $99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341018 - $89

Video cards: i love this site for just raw data ... http://www.videocard...h_end_gpus.html
why go with a Radeon card which is made by AMD over a Geforce card?

I like the GeForce GTX 560 Ti right now at about $200 or maybe the GeForce GTX 480 at $249 - i would love a 2GB of RAM card, however they are out of price range

MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti - not to bad either http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127608 - $269

I know this is alot to look at...thanks in advance for any advice

Well if you have the money, there's no harm in getting the Crucial one. But honestly, better save your money and try to tighten the timings yourself. Plus you get a free 8GB Voyager, what's not to love about that?

GPU Wise, 3 things: Price, Performance, Efficiency.
The 7850s are priced very closely with to GTX560Ti, Matches the performance of GTX570s, runs cooler and consume way less power then the 560Ti.

[Mikesnow]

depending on your budget, i'd reccomend waiting on the IB which will be out so very soon, they are pretty awesome cpus, if your trying to future proof, wait for IB tbh, it's not just a die shtink to 22nm, it's also a new architeture to a tri-gate transistor. If you must start buying things now start with an ssd like a 256gb ssd they are around 350 now, or if thats a bit high at least a 128gb which you can find in the 150 range. It will be worth it in the long run, a 64 fills really fast, and since you'll be transcoding vids it be nice to do it all on the ssd first then move it later to your plater drives, or to have room for a few games on the ssd, you'll like the improved load times i bet.

As for the MB all those are great boards, but really your just paying for a bunch of stuff you'll likely never use, personally i'd stay away from any pro, deluxe, etc it's just a price hike for nuthing really. I think I paid 120 bucks for my p8p67rev3.0 last year, you can get a p8z68-v for 120 now and just use the intel graphics if your not going for hardcore gaming tbh, and axe the graphics card all together.

I like your idea of fill ram slots, specially with transcoding, you can setup your ram into a ram drive, or ram cache which will blow away the speed of an ssd with 16gb ram you could do a 8gb ram cache or with 32 16gb ram cache.

if you must get a vid card I would go with an nvidia, you might pay a little more, but you know it will work on a game when it launches, not have to wait months for optimized drivers. and many transcoding softwares use cuda to offload to the gpu, but not all use amd's version of this.

Just my .2 cents, at the end just get whatever makes you happy tbh, if your not happy about what your buying then your just throwing money away.

[defroad]

depending on your budget, i'd reccomend waiting on the IB which will be out so very soon, they are pretty awesome cpus, if your trying to future proof, wait for IB tbh, it's not just a die shtink to 22nm, it's also a new architeture to a tri-gate transistor. If you must start buying things now start with an ssd like a 256gb ssd they are around 350 now, or if thats a bit high at least a 128gb which you can find in the 150 range. It will be worth it in the long run, a 64 fills really fast, and since you'll be transcoding vids it be nice to do it all on the ssd first then move it later to your plater drives, or to have room for a few games on the ssd, you'll like the improved load times i bet.

As for the MB all those are great boards, but really your just paying for a bunch of stuff you'll likely never use, personally i'd stay away from any pro, deluxe, etc it's just a price hike for nuthing really. I think I paid 120 bucks for my p8p67rev3.0 last year, you can get a p8z68-v for 120 now and just use the intel graphics if your not going for hardcore gaming tbh, and axe the graphics card all together.

I like your idea of fill ram slots, specially with transcoding, you can setup your ram into a ram drive, or ram cache which will blow away the speed of an ssd with 16gb ram you could do a 8gb ram cache or with 32 16gb ram cache.

if you must get a vid card I would go with an nvidia, you might pay a little more, but you know it will work on a game when it launches, not have to wait months for optimized drivers. and many transcoding softwares use cuda to offload to the gpu, but not all use amd's version of this.

Just my .2 cents, at the end just get whatever makes you happy tbh, if your not happy about what your buying then your just throwing money away.

I would love to wait on the Ivy bridge....however my machine got fried in a storm and I really need it back. I think i might lose my mind if cannot play my MMO and use my own pc to work from. I am working from the wife's laptop and the IB release date is not solidly set. Even if it is released on time, when will MBs and chips really be available? The IB is suppose to use LGA 2011 socket type however everyone is saying it will not take full advantage of the chip and you will still need a new board. How much longer will you have to wait until you can really use it and how much more will it cost?

I will most likely get at least 120gb ssd, either a intel or ocz one. i have used both brands of video cards in the past with success.

My current computer is basicaly an antique and a SB setup will be like driving a high end sports car that will last me 5 years at least....

Edited by defroad, 07 April 2012 - 10:22 AM.

[d6bmg]

Among the listed PSUs, go with OCZ ZS 750W.
You may also look at Corsair TX750V2.

Edited by d6bmg, 07 April 2012 - 10:39 AM.

[Tjj226_Angel]

I would love to wait on the Ivy bridge....however my machine got fried in a storm and I really need it back. I think i might lose my mind if cannot play my MMO and use my own pc to work from. I am working from the wife's laptop and the IB release date is not solidly set. Even if it is released on time, when will MBs and chips really be available? The IB is suppose to use LGA 2011 socket type however everyone is saying it will not take full advantage of the chip and you will still need a new board. How much longer will you have to wait until you can really use it and how much more will it cost?

I will most likely get at least 120gb ssd, either a intel or ocz one. i have used both brands of video cards in the past with success.

My current computer is basicaly an antique and a SB setup will be like driving a high end sports car that will last me 5 years at least....

You could always pull a douche move and find out neweggs return policy on CPUs, and just get the mobo and CPU to tie you over until IB

[Mikesnow]

I would love to wait on the Ivy bridge....however my machine got fried in a storm and I really need it back. I think i might lose my mind if cannot play my MMO and use my own pc to work from. I am working from the wife's laptop and the IB release date is not solidly set. Even if it is released on time, when will MBs and chips really be available? The IB is suppose to use LGA 2011 socket type however everyone is saying it will not take full advantage of the chip and you will still need a new board. How much longer will you have to wait until you can really use it and how much more will it cost?

I will most likely get at least 120gb ssd, either a intel or ocz one. i have used both brands of video cards in the past with success.

My current computer is basicaly an antique and a SB setup will be like driving a high end sports car that will last me 5 years at least....

you can use an IB cpu in many current MB's p8p67, z68, etc it's just a bios update. The IB-E will be the lga2011 socket stuff but thats not untill nov, or later. so you can purchase an mb now and use IB cpu on it, they release at end of april, so prolly can get one soon there after. the z77 boards that are coming out now are for ib as well.