Budget 31-40k Upgrade Plan : Mobo + CPU + RAM

mach9

mach9

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So having recently sold off my E8400 based rig which served me well since '08 .. it's time to move on. As usual, the holy trinity must be bought in tandem :lol: so i need a few inputs from all the gurus here.

What i have in mind?
Core i5 3570K
Asus Maximus V Gene or Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (single stick for now).. or a suitable Gskill model.

What i need advice on?
Mobo : Which of the two listed boards will best suit a single powerful GPU rig? I have no intention to go SLI (for now). Given the expected life for my upgrade is a 3-4year timeline i want a no nonsense capable performer. I don't need or crave to overclock massive amount's but i'd appreciate some headroom to push a bit if needed.

RAM : On my old rig i made it a point to read up a bit and specifically chose the Crucial Ballistix Tracers which easily did 4-4-4-12 and were a rock solid kit known to be preferentially binned by Crucial. With DDR3, i'm afraid i've been out of the loop on the advances. So i really don't know what would be the best pick between Corsair & Gskill. I'm a huge fan of Corsair's support & RMA so it's one factor tilting me in their favor. However I also loved the reliability i had with Crucials sticks but unfortunately, they don't have a decent setup (if at all ) in mumbai/india for RMA from what i know. Gskill is an unknown for me.

My plans for the memory are to start off with a single 8GB stick and then work it up over time.. so keep in mind i'd prefer something that can be put together to offer a great set when i decided to go 8x4.

Apart from that, there's not much else i need. My existing HDD will do till i go with SSD, trying to hold out till the $ situation improves along with wider technology adoption.

By the way, i intend to buy the stuff in the coming days.. & I'm trying to keep my budget below the 30-32k mark for the 3 buys.. so if anyone is also upgrading & would wanna work out a group purchase with the best rates from a dealer in mumbai, let me know!

cheers!
 
@mach9 Since you've decided you're going to overclock then go for following setup-
Intel i5 3570K-15k
Asus P8Z77 V-PRO-17k
Gskill RipjawsX 8GBX1 1600mhz-3.7k
The reason you'd go for Gskill RipjawsX is that Corsair Vengeance Size is bigger compared to Ripjaws and it will create spacing problems between cooler and motherboard so best to go with smaller and same performing RipjawsX.
For motherboard you can also settle for Asus P8Z77-V-15k as it is equally good and you can save some cash from it.
Hope this helps.:)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jakob said:
mach9 Since you've decided you're going to overclock then go for following setup-
Intel i5 3570K-15k
Asus P8Z77 V-PRO-17k
Gskill RipjawsX 8GBX1 1600mhz-3.7k
The reason you'd go for Gskill RipjawsX is that Corsair Vengeance Size is bigger compared to Ripjaws and it will create spacing problems between cooler and motherboard so best to go with smaller and same performing RipjawsX.
For motherboard you can also settle for Asus P8Z77-V-15k as it is equally good and you can save some cash from it.
Hope this helps.:)
Click to expand...

Jakob, firstly, thanks.

However i will not overclock 24x7. It's usually dependent on the gameplay etc.. and it's quite rare that i even feel i need to do it. In general, I've never been a fan of OC'ing.

I did consider this potential config but it will comfortably exceed my budget i guess :) Also i intend to use the Corsair Closed Loop H80/H100 on the cooling duties so i don't think the Corsairs shud have any issues? Till then the stock cooler should be ok? The reason i mentioned the Maximus V Gene is because i'm open to picking up a used one too.. so that shud keep the cost down.

There are also so many kits out for 8GB sticks.. any idea whats the best 1600 module i can pick? again there seem to be primary variations only with the CAS latencies on them. Worth the difference?

too many questions there i think :p
 
If you don't want to OC then you'd get Intel i5 3550+Gigabyte B75 D3H-18.5k it'll save you a lot of cash which you can use elsewhere.Other then Gskill RipjawsX 1600mhz you can go for Gskill Aires 1600mhz but there won't be much difference between lesser latancy rams and RipjawsX so better stick to that.The Asus P8Z77-V or PRO has more connectors than Maximus V ZENE so go for Z77-V.If you're not going to run 24X7 overclock rig then i think you'd think about Non-Overclocking Rig if you don't think it's matching your requirements then go for Ocing rig.
mach9 said:
Jakob, firstly, thanks.

However i will not overclock 24x7. It's usually dependent on the gameplay etc.. and it's quite rare that i even feel i need to do it. In general, I've never been a fan of OC'ing.

I did consider this potential config but it will comfortably exceed my budget i guess :) Also i intend to use the Corsair Closed Loop H80/H100 on the cooling duties so i don't think the Corsairs shud have any issues? Till then the stock cooler should be ok? The reason i mentioned the Maximus V Gene is because i'm open to picking up a used one too.. so that shud keep the cost down.

There are also so many kits out for 8GB sticks.. any idea whats the best 1600 module i can pick? again there seem to be primary variations only with the CAS latencies on them. Worth the difference?

too many questions there i think :p
Click to expand...
 
For the mobo's i basically want to stick with Asus. I've never had any issues with them at all & their support (arguably most crucial) for drivers etc have been the best of the big manufacturers.

While the 3570K might be more expensive, I'd rather take it and have the ability to OC should i need it, rather than have a locked Proccy. So that's why i did'nt keep an alternate choice for the CPU.

Basically Asus has a huge lineup of the Z77 boards. the V-Pro and the Gene are more or less at the same price point the difference of course majorly being the form factor. The Gene also has just 4 fan headers which is what made me stop short.

The V trades quite a bit of the features for the price i think.. but i will keep it as an option!

regarding the memory, Gskill also had the Sniper range till recently.. how are they different to the Ripjaws?
 
mach9 said:
There are also so many kits out for 8GB sticks.. any idea whats the best 1600 module i can pick? again there seem to be primary variations only with the CAS latencies on them. Worth the difference?
Click to expand...

Actually with the better Integrated Memory Controller, Intel Ivy-Bridge and Sandy-Bridge processors are much less dependent on RAM modules with extremely high operating frequencies and excessively tight latency.

In-fact seeing that you are getting a pure bred Ivy-Bridge build fortify yourself with a ~1866MHz RAM kit (dual-channel preferable) and start clocking the processor as high as you can. Options you can look at --

For more on how to choose RAM modules for current generation Intel mid-range offerings -- Choosing the Best DDR3 SDRAM for Ivy Bridge - X-bit labs / AnandTech - Sandy Bridge Memory Scaling: Choosing the Best DDR3 / Does DDR3 Memory Speed Really Matter with Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge?

Our investigation of the correlation between the performance of Ivy Bridge platforms and their memory subsystem parameters suggests a lack of significant differences from Intel’s earlier platforms. The Ivy Bridge memory controller is largely the same as the Sandy Bridge one and delivers similar performance at the same settings. So, the influence of system memory settings on practical tasks is rather low.

By changing the memory clock rate alone, you can see a performance boost of 5-10% while applications that need large amounts of data (such as games) may get up to 20-30% faster! So, choosing the right kind of memory for you LGA1155 platform is important. We must note, however, that such benefits can only be achieved after a twofold increase in clock rate whereas a single 266MHz step up leads to a mere 2-3% increase in speed.

So, the rational approach to choosing system memory is in looking for the optimal frequency/price ratio. Modules up to DDR3-2133 SDRAM may be recommended for Ivy Bridge platforms, but not faster ones. Up to that frequency, the price remains reasonable while the performance in everyday applications grows up. Faster memory modules are considerably more expensive without providing tangible performance benefits.
Click to expand...

Sandy Bridge's improved memory controller has all but eliminated the need for extreme memory bandwidth, at least for this architecture. It's only when you get down to DDR3-1333 that you see a minor performance penalty. The sweet spot appears to be at DDR3-1600, where you will see a minor performance increase over DDR3-1333 with only a slight increase in cost. The performance increase gained by going up to DDR3-1866 or DDR3-2133 isn't nearly as pronounced.

We also found that memory bandwidth does scale with CPU clock speed; however, it still doesn't translate into any meaningful real-world performance. The sweet spot still appears to be DDR3-1600. All of the extra performance gained by overclocking almost certainly comes from the CPU overclock itself and not from the extra memory bandwidth.

Finally, although the effects of low latency memory can be seen in our bandwidth tests, they don't show any real world advantage over their higher latency (ahem, cheaper) counterparts.
Click to expand...

Hope this helps, Cheerio!
 
Thanks! Those 2 quotes are a bit contradictory though ;) while Anandtech says 1600 appears to be the sweetspot with any incremental gains going to 2133 being inconsequential for the value.. the other thinks 2133 should be whats needed! lol.

So now i have to get down to getting the best deals for a 3570K and some RAM!

lastly.. what would be the biggest pro cons of the Maximus V Gene vs the V-Pro?? In the sense that what would be the deciding factors to tilt the favor for one over the other?
 
mach9 said:
Thanks! Those 2 quotes are a bit contradictory though ;) while Anandtech says 1600 appears to be the sweetspot with any incremental gains going to 2133 being inconsequential for the value.. the other thinks 2133 should be whats needed!

lastly.. what would be the biggest pro cons of the Maximus V Gene vs the V-Pro?? In the sense that what would be the deciding factors to tilt the favor for one over the other?
Click to expand...

That is because the first quote is from the article examining Ivy-Bridge IMC (Xbits Lab article) whilst the latter is about Sandy-Bridge IMC (Anandtech article). Basically ~1600MHz -->2133MHz is the playground area, now it is your call which RAM module kit you want to get, anything over these frequencies is wastage of money on negligible gains in synthetic benchmarks only and has no impact on real-world operations.

Depending on your upgrade path and future expansion, the ASUS P8Z77 V-PRO is a better deal, simply because it has a better connector spread, full-ATX layout and has more space to play around with.

The ASUS MAXIMUS V GENE has the advantage of more headroom for over-clocking and better quality components used for that particular aim in mind. It is severely crippled from the point of view of expandability; lack of PCI connectors, cramped mATX layout (makes large graphics cards a nightmare) and the general proximity of existing connectors.

Now I leave it to you, whether you are okay with slightly more conservative clocks with better layout and component options OR you can sacrifice certain components for the highest clocks.

This is my opinion, in the end it is your choice. Cheerio!
 
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