Computer I'm building...

[Clay Pigeon]

hyper 212 plus or evo are the kings of budget socket 1155 air cooling.

NH-D14 for high end air cooling of socket 1155.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835608018

The reason I'm recommending against socket 2011 is that the performance per dollar just isn't there. i5 2500k is the best value for gaming. Hyperthreading hurts performance on some games and offers negligible benefits on most others. i7 2600k or 2700k are basically just a 2500k with a little more cache, hyperthreading and a base clock that is either 100MHz (2600k) or 200MHz (2700k) higher than the 2500k.

Take your same budget and put more $$$ in your gpu with the money you save by going socket 1155 instead of 2011. Get a 580 3GB or a 7970 3GB instead of the 570. Kepler (nvidia's next gen gpu) is supposedly going to come out in the next few months, and is already sampling with board makers, but TSMC (the foundry that is fabbing both nvidia's and AMD's high end graphics) sold lots of its capacity to a new client, apple, so supplies may be a bit constrained.

So yeah, spend a bit less on the cpu+mobo by going from 2011 to 1155, and then spend more on the gpu. Pocket the rest, or maybe get a bigger ssd or a faster mechanical HDD for your games.

[Soltan]

I have the Noctua NH-D14 on my i7-2600k. It keeps it very cool with my OC. It's in a Silverstone Fortress FT02 case (high air flow but quiet case).

[Mortis462]

Antec is 8.4" deep but it also has the side fan. Does yours have a side fan or no? Also, that processor is half the cost of the current one I'm looking at. Is there something better for my budget or is that really worth it?

My case does have a side fan but it's not really close to where the CPU cooler sits. This is my case just so you can take a look to see where the fan sits: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811146062

I am going to have to agree with Al and Clay that the best budget minded CPU is the i5 2500k. However I am going to stick by my original suggestion of the i7 2600 or 2600K. Here is my reasoning. The main one being the lack of hyperthreading. Multi-threading and leveraging hyperthreading is where everything is heading. I like to think of this as future proofing. I also am assuming that you are looking at the new computer for more than just gaming based off of your original choice of CPU. As the i7 is already half the price of the original CPU we're doing pretty good price wise and and the i5 is only $70-100 cheaper than the i7 it's kind of a wash, as you can already take a big step up in GPU with the savings if you want to.

This is just one guys humble opinion on what to do, if I were building a new system the i5's would not even be on my radar, but this is just again my personal opinion and how I use a computer.

[BigBiker05]

What are your guys' opinions on mother boards? I see that difference gens have different rating MoBos going from $70 for the cheapest version to upwards of $400 or so to have the same version followed by x's or 'extreme'.

Yeah, mortis, looks like that antec will have room for a large cooler.

And lastly, all this CPU talk made me completely scratch my build. Good thing two of the parts I want are on backorder at newegg.

[Boss Llama]

I like Asus and EVGA products, though have had some success with Intel models as well. A good motherboard is the heart of your system, and everything else runs through it, so it's worth getting a good one. The most high-end, expensive, hyped ones are generally less reliable than the ones a step or two down, but you definitely don't want to go cheap on them.

Make sure it has the connections you want (PCI-E version, USB version, SATA version), can handle the amount of RAM you want (and in what speeds, and how many sticks), and is the appropriate socket for your CPU. If you're planning on doing SLI or X-Fire, be sure it's compatible. A good mobo will come with cables, connectors, standoffs, etc to make your life easier.

When looking at reviews on a storefront, you can pretty much ignore negative reviews where people talk about how they overclocked it and something went wrong - that is 99% user error, and no reflection on the product. Instead, look for reviews that talk about compatibility, connections, ease of installation, stability, etc.

[BigBiker05]

I like Asus and EVGA products, though have had some success with Intel models as well. A good motherboard is the heart of your system, and everything else runs through it, so it's worth getting a good one. The most high-end, expensive, hyped ones are generally less reliable than the ones a step or two down, but you definitely don't want to go cheap on them.

Make sure it has the connections you want (PCI-E version, USB version, SATA version), can handle the amount of RAM you want (and in what speeds, and how many sticks), and is the appropriate socket for your CPU. If you're planning on doing SLI or X-Fire, be sure it's compatible. A good mobo will come with cables, connectors, standoffs, etc to make your life easier.

When looking at reviews on a storefront, you can pretty much ignore negative reviews where people talk about how they overclocked it and something went wrong - that is 99% user error, and no reflection on the product. Instead, look for reviews that talk about compatibility, connections, ease of installation, stability, etc.

I know all that, but what I was asking, for example, the MoBo I have picked up. That gen has 3 variations. Each all appear exactly identical, same speeds, dimensions, slots, etc. The difference is they say is the quality, like gold this, and gold that for faster speeds. So is all that really worth the money?

[Clay Pigeon]

Well for the asrock 1155 mobos, the gen3s use the b3 chipset revision.

[Mortis462]

I'm a fan of EVGA and MSI mother boards. I have an EVGA board currently and have no complaints, 3 years and still running strong with nary an issue. The system I just built for a guy at work we used and MSI board and I have to say I am very impressed with it, awesome BIOS good parts and build quality seems outstanding. Here is the one we used: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130574 I'm impressed enough to recommend this one, it would make my top 3, if not my top choice if I were building a system.

I like to check Hard OCP and Tom's hardware for reviews on things, might want to snoop around there a bit for specific models you are thinking about.

I have built one system with an ASRock board and I had issues with it, the one I used had a terrible BIOS with hardly any options to tweak anything. Other being I had trouble with voltage stability enough so that I got rid of the board. I personally would not buy another one. Though in all fairness this was about the time that the brand came on the market and I did buy a cheap board.

[Boss Llama]

If you're still meaning the differences in the X79 mobo, the three versions of that are three different form factors - ATX, EATX, and XLATX. If there's a different specific board you have in mind, I missed it.

Versions/generations are likely to have other differences like BIOS hidden somewhere in the description, $70 to $400 sounds like too big a range for nothing but some gold plating. Do you have links to them?

Suffice to say, gold plating isn't something I would spend my money on unless it happened to come free with something else I wanted. Gold's benefit is that it is corrosion proof. It's actually a worse electrical conductor than copper. Gold might be great for a long-term server environment or something, but if there's significant corrosion going on inside your case at home, something bigger is wrong.

[Clay Pigeon]

z68 and p67 allow for overclocking. z68 allows (via virtu) transcoding while connecting your monitor to your discrete video card. Or you could connect your monitor to the integrated gpu and virtu will pass through your discrete's output to it when gaming, but you will lose some 3d performance as virtualization isn't as good as native. p67 does not allow transcoding using the cpu's integrated transcoding feature, and doesn't allow using the integrated video at all.

H67 and lower do not allow overclocking, but allow for transcoding if using the integrated gpu. No transcoding while using discrete.

I went with a z68 mobo and connected to my discrete gpu. In hindsight a p67 mobo would probably have been fine given that I've done zero transcoding.

[Soltan]

I'm using a P67 as I have zero use for the extra features of the Z68.

[BigBiker05]

If you're still meaning the differences in the X79 mobo, the three versions of that are three different form factors - ATX, EATX, and XLATX. If there's a different specific board you have in mind, I missed it.

This is what I'm seeing as the differences (as well as minor changes like USB ports or pci sockets). So I no idea what form factors are.

Now something interesting, I'm an EVGA fanboy. I have a MoBo running strong over half a decade later and an 8800gtx that ran for about 5 years. Frosti on the other hand won't buy EVGA, he had two bad MoBos and an 8800gtx with bad compound that friend his ram sticks. He prefers ASUS. The only ASUS MoBo I've had fried after 3 months.

[Boss Llama]

Form Factor

TL;DR version is that it's the size of the mobo, and the pattern of screws used. ATX is the standard one, with 95% of others being larger or smaller versions of it.

I'm half-way inbetween on ASUS/EVGA - I use ASUS motherboards, and EVGA GPUs. Also, Corsair PSUs and WD Hard Drives. RAM I'm flexible, though prefer Corsair and G.Skill.

[BigBiker05]

I might need some help here:

[Boss Llama]

Lol, quite a combination of stuff in that pic

Gotta use the SLI bridge to connect the Pop Tart and the wireless NIC! That'll make the LED fan spin fast enough to generate power for the second CPU