[ThunderBoltLSD]

Hiya...

Having recently made my own PC from scratch (with a little help from the forums), I've been asked to put one together for a family member. Being my first time round I based the PC on a pre-built one from Chillblast, dropping the graphics card to a less powerful model to save a few bob. I'm hoping to add SSD as soon as I can afford it. A little more shopping around could have saved more when buying the bits, but as a 1st ever project I didn't do TOO bad.

Back to the matter in hand.

She called round today with the case, and for reasons yet to be explained TWO different motherboards. She and her fella had been on the Chillblast site, couldn't decide so got both with the intention of returning/selling one later.

So the bits here so far are:

• Fractal Define Mini case
• Asus P8Z77-M Micro ATX Motherboard
• Asus P8Z68-M Pro Motherboard
• Gainward 560Ti Graphics
• Samsung 830 128Gig SSD
• 1Terra Samsung HDD

Adding RAM, PSU and cooling is easily enough sorted, but I'm looking for advice on which Motherboard I'd be best using and with which CPU to get.

CPU contenders then...

• i5 2500K
• i5 3570k
• i5 2550k

Now... From what I can make out, the 2550 is a bit of a dud, in that it's design went off the rails, onboard graphics failed and so it gives a wee bit more grunt to compensate?!? Although I may well [probably] have that wrong. And from a VERY quick search seems to be a similar price as the 3570. This confuses me already... Heheh.

I believe the 2500 is a good Overclocker, but there's no plans to go over say 4.0 or 4.2 max.

Her main use of her PC will be some image work and a fair amount of video. Both editing and encoding as she'd recently had twins and had a video camera sugically attached to her arm ever since!

Obviously it'd be a nice bonus to keep the spend down but if the extra is actually worth it, then fair play... Price differences by the way between the two motherboards was just shy of £40 and the 2500k (again with a VERY quick search) was about £25 - £30 less than the others.

I do hope I've got this right as I'd love to get everything ordered or even bought over the weekend. I'm lucky enough to live about £0 mins drive from Scan so that's a bonus.

Cheers all!

[ThunderBoltLSD]

Just one more thing. Is there any point to going the 3570 route if not using PCI-e 3?

Thanks again.

[ncmoody]

Why a Gainward 560Ti Graphics ? both boards have built-in GPU

I would not like to choose between the boards - so probably the cheaper.

Buy the best CPU you can afford.

[LJx]

I would go 3570 regardless and probably Z77 just so they have the latest stuff. The Ivy bridge processors do have a bit better performance per clock cycle than Sandy bridge but I heard are a little bit more difficult to cool, at 4.2-4.5 that shouldn't be an issue. They also use a fair bit less power

[ThunderBoltLSD]

Thanks for the suggestions there...

Originally Posted by ncmoody

Why a Gainward 560Ti Graphics ? both boards have built-in GPU.

Well to be honest, she's already bought that. As she's intending on doing loads of kiddy flicks for friends and family, it seems a fair decision as the Lucid (I think that's what it's called) graphics switching makes a better, quicker and less power consuming job of it. Her other half, I suspect will be having a dabble on a few games. Nothing outrageous, but a little more than Chess. Heheh.
Willing (and ready) to be corrected!

Originally Posted by LJx

I would go 3570 regardless and probably Z77 just so they have the latest stuff. The Ivy bridge processors do have a bit better performance per clock cycle than Sandy bridge but I heard are a little bit more difficult to cool, at 4.2-4.5 that shouldn't be an issue. They also use a fair bit less power

I must admit, I'm begining to lean towards the 3570, but not sure just yet. From the limited reviews on either of the above boards both seem to have equal capability to run along with an ivy apart from the PCIE3 which is by the by after getting a none PCIE 3 card. The Z68 seems to be a bit better received as well. However, I'm assuming that's because it's older, so more people are likely to have it.



Any thoughts or comments - even telling offs - are appreciated.

Thanks again!

[LJx]

With regards to motherboards I would just pick one you like and has the features you want, the differnece between Z68 and Z77 chipsets is minimal, PCIe3 and USB3 is about it. The only reason to get either of them is overclocking. Most of the expensive motherboards are geared towards multiple graphics cards, and i don't think the motherboard choice will affect system performance in any meaningful way unless you are doing that

[ThunderBoltLSD]

Thanks LJx...

As you say, overclocking and gaming aren't going to be a huge factor so I'll probably opt for the z77 as it's the cheaper of the 2. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't wasting any potential of either CPU or motherboard by choosing the "wrong" combination. The cooler has had some good feedback so the possible 4 - 4.5 should be OK from what you've said.

I've been rifling through google for head to head tests of the motherboards and every result for P8Z77 M seems to come up with the Pro version. Which serves up more confusionto an already half melted head. Heheh!

So... Unless I hear otherwise, I'll get the rest of the gear ordered on Monday (left my wallet in the van) and get my act together playing component Lego as soon as it's all here.

Really appreciate your help. Cheers!

[twist]

What about an i7 2600k for image/video editing and rendering its better than i5 from everything Ive seen. Gaming not so much.

[ThunderBoltLSD]

Hiya Twist.

I did suggest that, but they already have the graphics card so the budget would be a tad overstretched. And my inquisitive [nosey] nature means it can't go back as I've undone the packaging!

[twist]

Fair enough. Budgets a are a real pain, im trying to work to one but it seems to go up all the time.