Upgrade Build i5 or i7 for Gaming w/ASRock P67 EXTREME 4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel P67

[lemonyx]

Need your opinions:
This will be a upgrade build for gaming using either the i5 Ivybridge or the i7 Sandybridge CPU's. I've read and heard that the i5 runs a little hotter than the i7 when OC'd but will the COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus be enough to keep it cool in case I do want to OC it a little?
Or should I get the i7 now with the PCI 2.0 and wait for the prices to drop and get the PCI 3.0 vid cards?


i5 3500K 3.4gb Ivybridge
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
ASRock P67 EXTREME 4 GEN3 LGA P67
SAPPHIRERadeon HD 7850 OC 2GB
Need help in choosing memory, any ideas?

TIA

[CCODEZ]

The COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus will be fine for either ivy or sandy, ivy will run slightly hotter at the same clocks, but you can underclock ivy roughly 300mhz and get the same perclock performace *at a lower voltage to boot*. i wouldnt bother with the i7's unless you want either bragging rights, or like to run lots of treaded programs to take advantage of the hyper threading. As most games don't take this advantage then its pretty pointless. I use an i5 2500K running at 4.6 which is more than capable *if not just as fast as* of running games at high specs. If it wasn't for my GFX card that is *working on an upgrade to a GTX 670 *.

Of course you can get the ivy now with pci-e 3.0 support incase the next gen cards actually flood the bandwidth *or if you go tri/quad sli-xfire*

[CCODEZ]

oh... and as for memory, 1600mhz is the slowest you want to go to avoid bottlenecks. It's debated all over whether faster clocks or better latencys make much difference, but if you go for 1600 at about 9-9-9-24 (say the corsair vengance models, I have the arctic white which mine run great at 1866@10-10-10-24 2T 1.5v) you should have yourself a capable gaming system (8Gb minimum, its cheap as so why not).

[Rookie1986]

If you looking to get the 3570k then wouldn't a Z77 motherboard be a better choice to take advantage of all of the new tech your gaining by going with an Ivy Bridge CPU?

What sort of budget do you have for the new build and what components do you already own?

Rookie

[snootyjim]

Moved to Review my Build forum, cheers for the pointer

[lemonyx]

Thanks guys for all the help.


CPU i5 3570k ivy bridge
MB ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
Video SAPPHIRERadeon HD 7850 OC 2GB PCI 3.0 ??
thinking about going this route for the price/features, What do you think??


Will be using existing components - Hard Drives, Blu-ray r/w, keyboard, mouse and hopefully the Gatway case.

thanks for all the input

[Newblet]

Thanks guys for all the help.


CPU i5 3570k ivy bridge
MB ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M
Memory G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
Video SAPPHIRERadeon HD 7850 OC 2GB PCI 3.0 ??
thinking about going this route for the price/features, What do you think??


Will be using existing components - Hard Drives, Blu-ray r/w, keyboard, mouse and hopefully the Gatway case.

thanks for all the input

Looks good. I don't think the ASRock mobo has Intel turbo though, so you'll have to OC and stay at a constant clock, you don't need 16 GB RAM but if you have the money then eh, why not? You didn't mention the 212+ or 212 EVO, are you not getting it anymore?

[kalniel]

Looks good. I don't think the ASRock mobo has Intel turbo though

Sure it does.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

16GB of 1866MHZ DDR3 RAM for a Core i5 build?? Why??

[lemonyx]

16GB of 1866MHZ DDR3 RAM for a Core i5 build?? Why??

What would you recommend for memory speed using 16gb?

[dragossk]

To be honest, I think either the size and the speed is overkill. For the money saved, could easily grab an even faster GPU like the 7870 or stretch it to the 7950 which is what matters for gaming, more than memory.

If you really think the 1600mhz RAM is not enough, can always overclock it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What would you recommend for memory speed using 16gb?

8GB of 1600MHZ DDR3 RAM would be fine. TBH,the only CPUs which really benefit from high speed RAM are the AMD Llano CPUs due to their IGP which makes use of the additional bandwidth.

[dragossk]

Hm, yea...I forgot to answer the question directly, but pretty much what CAT-THE-FIFTH said for size and speed.

[lemonyx]

Thanks for all the input, guys. When it comes to memory, I'm lost
so this is what's on the shopping list:

CPU i5 3570k ivy bridge
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
MB ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Video SAPPHIRERadeon HD 7850 OC 2GB PCI 3.0 or
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB (leaning toward this one)
and a lot newer and bigger power supply


Will be using existing components - Hard Drives, Blu-ray r/w, keyboard, mouse and hopefully the Gateway case

[Willzzz]

Do you need advice on the PSU?

About 500w would be right, don't know if you would prefer a modular PSU for neater cables?

[Samwood]

The Ivybridge chips are aprox 7-9% faster than their Sandybridge counterparts, which if you do a bit of price hunting is less than the price difference.
+ PCI-e 3.0 support
+ Much lower power consumption
- Slightly higher temps

Higher temps will mean that your overclock will be around 100 or 200mhz, lower on the IB. Both will hit 4.5Ghz and at this level the IB chip will be equivalent to about a 4.9Ghz SB chip.