Help building new rig.

[Darquandier]

Hello peeps!
I intend to buy some computer stuff after cashing in Christmas, but I'm a bit at a loss concerning the motherboard and graphical card.

I am a big video game player and love nice HD graphics but I am not a big tinkerer, so I do not intend to OC anything.

I'm reaching for a nice value MB, intended for my purposes, mainly good performance but if possible around 100€.

At the moment I'm hesitating between ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (€ 150) and the ASUS P8Z68-V LX (€ 100) and I'm having a really hard time seeing what I'm losing by going the budget version ?

Here's the rest of the future setup, so if anyone can help me choose the missing piece, or if you see any correction, or have any nice advice ?
Prices are in euros, but usually thanks to the magic of taxes, you just need to change the currency sign to turn them into dollars

CPU Intel Core i7 - 2600k - € 270
RAM CORSAIR Vengeance - 8Go - € 65
SSD OCZ Technology Vertex 3 - 120 Go - € 170 (for a nice system disk, already have nice HDDs)
VentiRad NOCTUA NH-U12P SE2 - € 60 (is it really necessary ?)
GC Asus GeForce ENGTX580 DCII 2DIS 1536MD5 - € 450 (or should I go for a 570 instead at around € 300)
Screen Iiyama ProLite B2712HDS-B1 - € 275
Casing FRACTAL DESIGN Define R3 USB 3.0 Black Pearl - € 100

 

[lehtv]

Answer these please http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121

Could you also link to the online shop you're buying from?

In general you will not want a 2600K for gaming, 2500K is just as good (although the 2600K is 100MHz higher clocked at stock - easy to rectify with a slight OC). Although you say you don't want to OC, 2500K is still good because it allows you to do that if you change your mind later, and it's really easy. Some games really benefit from CPU overclocking, e.g. Skyrim gets nearly 1:1 FPS increase with clock speed increase.

P8Z68-V Pro at just 150 eur is fantastic. However, if you have no need for dual-GPU, you could just go with P8Z68-V LE if significantly cheaper. LX is a kinda their lowest end Z68. Also check Asrock's and Gigabyte's offerings.

Buy an aftermarket cooler only when you decide to OC.

GTX 580 is a bad deal at the moment, newer GPUs which will use less power, cost less and perform better are only some months away.

You did not list a PSU.

 

[mfenn]

I agree with Lehtv.

In addition, if you are "having a really hard time seeing what I'm losing by going the budget version ?", then that means that the differences don't really matter for you. If you needed a feature of the pro, you would be able to point to it and say, "I need that". If you can't, odds are you don't.