Another build, i5-2500k

[fffblackmage]

#2- he wants room to upgrade. he wants 2 slots for video cards + an additional slot for a revo style SSD. One more additional slot for a wireless card. Suggestions for motherboard??

ASRock P67 Extreme4 ($153)

 

[dpodblood]

My 2 cents below.

Alright, let me know how this looks!

$295.32 - ASUS VW266H
$99.99 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black The caveat with this is that it is designed more for silence than cooling performance. The Antec 300, and Coolermaster HAF-912 are also good choices.
$75.53 - Antec Earthwatts 650W 80Plus I would go with the modular XFX someone else mentioned. It's a rebadged seasonic, and is overall tough to beat.
$125.42 - Gigabyte P67A-UD3
Looks good if you aren't planning on SLI. Personally I would go with the Asrock P67 extreme4.
$219.99 - Intel Core i5 2500K Perfect.
$24.12 - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Perfect. You don't need an expensive cooler for SB chips.

$79.52 - Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 8GB 2X4GB 1333 9-9-9-24 (-$15 MIR) Looks Good.
$214.79 - OCZ Vertex 2 SSD 120GB Looks Good.
$79.99 - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB, 7200rpm, 64MB cache Looks good.
$349.00 - EVGA GeForce GTX 570 Superclocked Fermi 797MHZ 1280MB Looks good, but you might be able to save a few bucks and overclock the regular version yourself.

$1,563.67

 

[zCypher]

ASRock P67 Extreme4 ($153)

Awesome deal. I've never had Ass Rock myself, how do they compare to MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Biostar? Is there any downside to going with this board instead of an Asus?

about the case, he's considering the 300. i'll mention the cooler master. I have the cmII 690 myself and I'm happy with it.

is the xfx "fully" modular? he's being a stickler about it being fully modular, he's willing to pay more for it. ive already given him various 650-850w examples of good PSUs.

I tried pitching the hyper 212+, he really wants to get taht stupid spire cooler based on the frosty site. what else can I say about it? what if he overclocks? is the 212 good for it?

 

[dpodblood]

AsRock is a sub brand of ASUS, so there should be nothing to worry about quality wise.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

is the xfx "fully" modular? he's being a stickler about it being fully modular, he's willing to pay more for it. ive already given him various 650-850w examples of good PSUs.

I tried pitching the hyper 212+, he really wants to get taht stupid spire cooler based on the frosty site. what else can I say about it? what if he overclocks? is the 212 good for it?

Why does he want fully modular, just because? Being able to remove every single cable is pretty pointless as you have to use the 24 and 2/4 pin connections reguardless. Makes no sense. The XFX is modular where it matters. I'd say the cooler is fine, if that's what he desires. Course if he cares about noise I'd get something else...

 

[zCypher]

Thanks dpodblood. I thought that was the case but I wasn't sure.
Patrick Wolf, IMO the XFX is nice. I'll find out more on this front.

I have a sorta related question. As he was at some point considering a revo style SSD drive, he mentioned something about issues when installing Win7 on a drive like that. I've never heard of that, but then again I've never had an SSD (soon..!!).

Is a revo drive a bad idea?

 

[dpodblood]

Thanks dpodblood. I thought that was the case but I wasn't sure.
Patrick Wolf, IMO the XFX is nice. I'll find out more on this front.

I have a sorta related question. As he was at some point considering a revo style SSD drive, he mentioned something about issues when installing Win7 on a drive like that. I've never heard of that, but then again I've never had an SSD (soon..!!).

Is a revo drive a bad idea?

Why use a revo drive over a conventional SSD?

 

[zCypher]

Why use a revo drive over a conventional SSD?

I was under the impression that it would be significantly faster. Is this not the case?
Any idea what the real world difference would be between a vertex 2 and revo?
I have a feeling you are going to say the revo isn't worth the cost

 

[mnewsham]

I was under the impression that it would be significantly faster. Is this not the case?
Any idea what the real world difference would be between a vertex 2 and revo?
I have a feeling you are going to say the revo isn't worth the cost

With some Motherboards the REVO drive wont work right, but with the right board it CAN be a significant increase in performance. With 75,000 IOPS and 540MB/s Read 480MB/s writes (about 80% increase in speed of a normal SSD and 50% more IOPS) Whether or not you use programs that will use this extra performance though is the question.

 

[zCypher]

With some Motherboards the REVO drive wont work right, but with the right board it CAN be a significant increase in performance. With 75,000 IOPS and 540MB/s Read 480MB/s writes (about 80% increase in speed of a normal SSD and 50% more IOPS) Whether or not you use programs that will use this extra performance though is the question.

Alright, this helps clear it up a bit. Thanks.
He seems apprehensive about potential issues, it will probably be fine to start with a Vertex 2, given that it will already be a huge upgrade over a traditional spindle drive.

 

[mfenn]

Awesome deal. I've never had Ass Rock myself, how do they compare to MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, Biostar? Is there any downside to going with this board instead of an Asus?

ASRocks are good boards. They save money by having less marketing and distribution costs, but the quality is top notch. Even the Anandtech mobo editor prefers it to the ridiculous boards!

is the xfx "fully" modular? he's being a stickler about it being fully modular, he's willing to pay more for it. ive already given him various 650-850w examples of good PSUs.

Tell your friend that he is being an idiot (seriously). Fully modular is beyond pointless because you're always going to need the ATX, ATX12V, and PCIe connectors.

I tried pitching the hyper 212+, he really wants to get taht stupid spire cooler based on the frosty site. what else can I say about it? what if he overclocks? is the 212 good for it?

I'll put it this way: they stock Sandy Bridge cooler is worth 4.4GHz overclock. The Hyper 212+ will take you to the moon when strapped to a Sandy Bridge. (How's that for imagery? )

Alright, this helps clear it up a bit. Thanks.
He seems apprehensive about potential issues, it will probably be fine to start with a Vertex 2, given that it will already be a huge upgrade over a traditional spindle drive.

Yeah, the PCIe SSDs are faster, but not worth the hassle IMHO. Going from HDD to SSD is like going from standing still to Warp 5. Going from a SATA SSD to a PCIe SSD is like going from Warp 5 to Warp 6.

 

[zCypher]

Good to hear about the Asrocks. It's a good thing too cause that board has amazing value compared to the other ones we've looked at so far. I'll bring up the PSU point again, maybe I misunderstood.

I'll bring up the fan again. I really despise this "spire" thing, for no good reason. I just feel compelled to hate on it. I mean it's called SPIRE, wtf is that? Sounds like something out of Starcraft.

Stop with the overclocking awesomeness of the 2500k. My E5200 is good, my E5200 is good, my E5200 is good! :|

On the note of SSDs, I don't think I can hold out much longer (for myself, not for this build).

 

[endlessmike133]

would you really trust a motherboard called Ass Rock? go with ASUS or Gigabyte

 

[mnewsham]

would you really trust a motherboard called Ass Rock? go with ASUS or Gigabyte

ASRock and Asus are the same company.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

ASRock Inc. is a manufacturer of motherboards, netbooks, and HTPCs, based in Taiwan and chaired by Ted Hsu, one of the co-founders of parent company Asus. ASRock was originally spun off from Asus in 2002 in order to compete with companies like ECS and Foxconn for the commodity OEM market. Since then, however, ASRock has also gained momentum in the DIY sector and plans for moving the company upstream began in 2007 following a successful IPO on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

ASRock has garnered a reputation for good value (cost/performance) with tech websites, including awards and recommendations for some products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASRock

And it's As Rock, not Ass Rock.

 

[Zargon]

asrock is solid but I'd go gigabyte over it it is cheaper and has everything you need

 

[zCypher]

Ass Rock... sounds painful.
So really, it's a tossup between ASRock and Gigabyte then.

I just finished putting together a budget build for me mum, X3 445 3.1 with 4gb gskills on the biostar 880 board. Unlocked the 4th core and let Prime95 run for a bit over an hour, so far so good.

 

[mnewsham]

Asrock has uefi vs standard bios on gigabyte.

 

[zCypher]

Asrock has uefi vs standard bios on gigabyte.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the benefit of uefi?

 

[mnewsham]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the benefit of uefi?

User Extensible Firmware Interface is a GUI (graphical user interface) for your BIOS and allows for a more user friendly BIOS environment.

 

[zCypher]

User Extensible Firmware Interface is a GUI (graphical user interface) for your BIOS and allows for a more user friendly BIOS environment.

I've been pretty happy with the interface of my MSI, Asus and now Biostar boards. Would UEFI seal the deal for you?

Spoke with him again, here's the updated list:

$219.99 - i5-2500k
$369.97 - EVGA GTX 570 SuperClocked (lifetime warranty)
$84.73 - WD Caviar Black 1TB (79.99 deal is over)
$214.79 - OCZ Vertex 2 120GB
$24.12 - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
$63.51 - Microsoft Sidewinder X6
$339.99 - BenQ M2700HD (says he read bad reviews on the asus)
$53.99 - Antec 300
$129.99 - XFX Black Edition 750W
$108.99 - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 1.5v (i've suggested a cheaper gskill at $77)
$159.99 - ASRock P67 Extreme4

I'm trying to get a better monitor, for some reason I hate BenQ. Any other suggestions on that front? Looks like we've won for the Case, PSU and HSF. TY!

 

[fffblackmage]

User Extensible Firmware Interface is a GUI (graphical user interface) for your BIOS and allows for a more user friendly BIOS environment.

Actually, UEFI is meant to replace BIOS. I thought there was an Anandtech article about it, but I can't seem to find it.... D=

 

[tynopik]

$339.99 - BenQ M2700HD (says he read bad reviews on the asus)

that's no higher resolution than your original Samsung E2320X

if you aren't going to aim for a higher resolution, I would just stick with that

 

[tynopik]

Asrock has uefi vs standard bios on gigabyte.

from the front-page article on anandtech, it sounds like gigabyte HAS UEFI, it's just the UI isn't finished yet so it still looks like a standard BIOS, but hopefully future updates will provide the new gui

 

[mnewsham]

from the front-page article on anandtech, it sounds like gigabyte HAS UEFI, it's just the UI isn't finished yet so it still looks like a standard BIOS, but hopefully future updates will provide the new gui

Gigabyte is talking about it, but I wouldn't go and assume they will provide UEFI to all of the existing MB with a BIOS update, not saying they wont, but if UEFI is a big feature for you, I wouldn't count on it happening and would buy one I KNOW will support it.