Upgrade advice needed for Sandy Bridge build

[Frank31uk]

Firstly I am new to Hexus so would like to say hi.

Ok, I have decided to take the plunge and upgrade my PC to a Sandy Bridge build. It`s been many years since I have upgraded and im out of touch on alot of the new components these days.
I have spent two good days exploring whats on offer and have read countless reviews on hardware and I still find myself asking the same questions to myself. So im going to take your advice on this forum from now on because my head is spinning.
So if you could take some time to check out my current specs and take into account I will be upgrading four components for this build. That is mainboard, processor,HS+fan and memory.
Im holding off on the GFX card until I have the money to upgrade that...may even go Crossfire seeing the HD4870 has come down some what in price now. Hmm.

So anyway here is a breakdown of what I am looking at and what Ive already purchased :-

Processor
i5 2500k

Bought new for £108. Bargain! waiting for it to arrive now. I plan to OC.

Heatsink+fan
Hyper 212+

Ordered this for £16. Also waiting on this to arrive. Countless good reviews and great price.

Mainboard
Asus P8P67 B3

Im thinking this vanilla board will have all the features I need. B3 tells me the Sata issue is resolved on this board now. Anyone experienced anything bad with this chipset ??

Memory
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL7(7-8-7-24) 1.6V
or
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 i5 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V

Soooo undecided on the memory. I want to Overclock the chip to 4.5Ghz and nothing more. I have read that SB works best with 1.5v memory but fine with 1.65v. Would it be necessary to undervolt the memory to 1.5v ? if so would the memory be stable.


Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[planet436]

Sandy bridge memory is rated at 1.5V. 1.6V ram or higher should work but Asus SB boards are notoriously finicky with ram so I'd play it safe with the former.

Ram speed is irrelevant for real world performance, so cheap 1.5V ram is all you need. Further, with a 4.5 OC you will only be changing the cpu multiplier. Recommendations include

2x2GB: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(...-9-9-9-24-150v.

Also, do you have a retail W7 disc? If it's oem then it's not valid for a major upgrade.

[CooperXS]

1.5V is JEDEC standard for DDR3 RAM. They all will work on those volts - may not be up to the specified speed though but they will.
As overclocking the CPU is doen by increasing it's multiplier the other system's clocks are unaffected so even the 1333MHz RAM would do just fine but of those two kits I'd go with GSkill cause of lower latencies.
For the rest looks pretty solid

[Frank31uk]

I do have the W7 retail version so hopefully no issue with activation. Great point though! didnt give that a thought.

Im leaning towards the 1333Mhz G-Skill memory and have just seen this on Ebuyer (quick find code 226283):
G-Skill 4GB DDR3 1333MHz Ripjaws Memory Module CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V

Cheaper also in comparison to the 1600 ripjaws and 1.5v. What do you think ?

One last thing while on the subject of Ram. Will I have any issue with the Hyper212+ touching the Ripjaws? although they do recommend using the A2:B2 memory slots in the manual for the P8P67 board in which case I would have clearence I guess ? any idea`s on that.

Thanks for your comments guys

[Frank31uk]

Just noticed the Ebuyer G-Skill is one stick of 4MB. Would that matter?

[planet436]

That ram looks fine.

You won't have issues with clearance using A2,B2 if the slots are positioned the same as they are on the p8p67-pro. Even if you put them in A1,B1 then you can simply shift the fan up a few mm on the 212+ to clear the heatsinks.

To be honest I don't know what the performance difference is between 1x4GB and 2x2GB (though suspect it is small to negligible). With the price of ram as it is could you spare the extra £32 for 2x4 GB?

[Frank31uk]

Thanks Planet436 for your response. I have infact now found a pair of Ripjaws that could take advantage of the Dual Memory mode although like yourself I have no idea how much difference it would make with two sticks compared to one.

All I need to make sure of is I can OC my Sandy without worrying about the memory getting to hot. Thats what threw me to the Ripjaws is the fact it has a heatsink which isnt to big as to interfere with my hyper. But as you said using A2:B2 would work fine in this instance.

So now I have updated to this :-

Processor
i5 2500k
(ordered)

Heatsink+fan
Hyper 212+
(ordered)

Mainboard
Asus P8P67 B3
(Ebuyer quickfind code: 260771)

Memory
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333Mhz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL8 (8-8-8-21) 1.5V
(Ebuyer quickfind code:264746)

I cant afford to go for 8GB because I am on a very tight budget right now with getting married in ten weeks,lol. Just want to get bang for buck parts and hit some higher performance outta my PC. I could always upgrade with another two sticks later aswell as GFX card.

[Pob255]

One issue with the Asus P8P67 the vanilla board, the 2nd pci-e x16 slot is only actually a x4 slot so if you have any plans for crossfire/sli this is not a good choice
You want the Pro or EVO version.

For ram try this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/264747 the timings are listed on the gskill site as even lower http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=351 1600mhz at cas7/8 is going to be very good.

edit; although the one youw listed would be my 2nd choice.

the BIOSTAR TR67XE is supposed to be quite good as a cheap option http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255158
review here http://www.benchtec.co.uk/forums/thr...67XE-B3-Review

[Frank31uk]

Thanks Pob for the heads up on Crossfire. Providing I stick with the vanilla board I would have to sell my HD4870 and replace with one beast GFX card instead ;P.

Thanks for mentioning the Ripjaws-X although I feel I am happy to stick now with the G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333Mhz Ripjaws.

Wow I never thought finding memory would be so difficult. Maybe I am just fussy, lol!

Also I have found a vanilla P8P67 new for £90 inc P&P so it`s gonna be hard to beat it at that price I think.

Thanks for your help guys

[Pob255]

not really there's something rather borked with the ebuyer site filtering on memory.

[Frank31uk]

So this is it...

Processor
i5 2500k

Heatsink+Fan
Hyper 212+

Mainboard
Asus P8P67 B3
(Ebuyer quickfind code: 260771)

Memory
G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333Mhz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL8 (8-8-8-21) 1.5V
(Ebuyer quickfind code:264746)

Does everyone agree that this ok. If so I can order these parts tonight. Cheers.

[planet436]

Yep that's a nice build. I'd eventually look into getting a SSD as a boot drive at some point in the future.

[CooperXS]

I would probably opt for a Z68 chipset board like this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/267504 (267504)

as it offers both GPU and CPU overclocking and video output off CPU's built in GPU which will make a discrete GPU upgrade path easier allowing to sell old card before getting new one

[Frank31uk]

I will eventually get an SSD when they drop a tad more in price. My Velociraptor still performs quite well atm.

The Z68 board you mentioned Cooper is nice but I dont think personally I would need all the added features it has on offer. I would also have to buy my new GFX before I sell my 4870. Infact my friend wants to buy it from me so he can Crossfire with his 4870 later down the line. Handy! lol.

I keep looking at the Ripjaws-X now after reading some reviews. All Pob`s fault, lol.

Thanks again for your comments guys. I think I just need to make my mind up on the memory still. Doh!

[Pob255]

Well they are a chunk faster but all told there's not the much difference in performance gain over the 1333mhz cas8 ripjaws
esp as fsb overclocking doesn't really exist on sandybridge on older i5 1156 or i7 1366 it would make more sense and have more use in overclocking.

[Blackmage]

The lower the RAM voltage the better.. Intel recommends 1.5v for 24/7 usage and 1.575 as max vDimm.