Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

[Deafty]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

Ram seems good to go,. I would prefer the Cl8 timings but they cost twice as much,.sacrifices need to be made,.

GPU will be the GTX 570 SOC edition, due to the hand picking process of the cpu as well as a bonus factory oc.
Looking at getting this for 250 euro!(new)

[Deafty]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

I now ask for some assistance,

I will need to benchtest my setup.

I will install 1 stick of the corsair vengeance cl9 ram
Install CPU 2500k (with stock cooler for now) reccomendations for decent aftermarket cooler needed.
Connect Corsair 650watt Tx PSU
Connect monitor.
Power up and attempt to post.

Set bios to optimized defaults.

The next steps i ask for help with please,.what is the order of preference here?
my goal is to confirm the motherboard is in sound condition.
I have a HDD with windows already installed or is it better to attempt clean install of win 7 on ssd at this point??

Thanks.

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

I waited until I bought my ssd before I upgraded from win2k to win7-x64 on my systems. I pre-formatted my ssd to use all available space so that the win7 recovery partition would be a folder in the boot disk, rather than a separate hidden partition. The height of the tall heat sinks will probably be an issue with many/most air cooled cpu coolers. For about $100 you can buy a better all in one water cooled setup, but the lower priced Corsair or Antec water coolers should be fine for moderate overclocks. You might find that fan noise might be an issue, so you might need to upgrade the stock water cooled fans with better fans with higher static air pressure that perform well at somewhat lower fan speeds.

Your GTX 570 should be good for several years. No-one knows just when newer pci-e 3.0 video cards will exceed the bandwidth limitations of pci-e 2.0 motherboards. My GTX 460 SLI setup runs at similar speeds on my older pci-e 1.x system as the same cards do with modern systems.

Check the overclocking guides in http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...56-1366-a.html for your 1155 motherboard. You might find some suggested settings for an initial stock setup. Others will have to suggest basic settings, as I don't have first hand experience with newer systems.

Good luck with your new system.

[Deafty]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

Thanks Prof Jim,

I have read your Win7 SSD install, very informative.
I thought those all in 1 water coolers were a waste of time,...but are they a solution for lack of space or for better cooling for $?
I wonder if you have any other links/help in regards to basic mainboard benchtest procedures.?

Thanks.


If I end up with a bad mobo I will be buying the Gigabyte Z68 UD4.

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

Yep, there's a lot of very useful information in the new ssd/win7 install thread. I had no problems following the excellent suggestions posted by forum members.

Read the water cooling reviews for the Corsair and Antec units, they're made by the same company and there are some minor differences between these two brands. From what I've seen, these relatively inexpensive kits offer the same cooling performance as the top tier air cooled solutions. Using one of the air cooled solutions will often prevent you from using all four memory slots if the heat spreader height is more than about 35mm. I will probably go with one of the water cooling kits if/when I upgrade to an Ivy Bridge cpu and motherboard. Check out the highly rated Noctua air cooled options, they're very high quality units, but some are totally put off by the fan color.

This is the procedure I would use if I were building a new system:

1. Install only one memory module.
2. Load optimized bios settings.
3. Boot into the bios and let it sit for 30 minutes to ensure that the system is stable.
4. Update to the latest bios version.
5. Power off the system, unplug the power supply and press/hold the front panel on/off switch for 10 seconds.
6. Install the second memory module. You might need to make some minor bios tweaks.
7. Boot using an Memtest86+ (version 4.x) bootable usb or optical drive.
8. Run 10 or more full test loops, the default setting is to run tests #1 - #8.
9. If there are no errors, run Memtest86+ test #5 for 10 loops by pressing: c 1 3 5 enter 0 (zero key)
10. Install the operating system.
11. Run IBT (IntelBurnTest) or Linx x64 for ONLY 5 full loops using all available memory.
12. Run each of the Prime95 tests (Blend, Small FFT and Large FFT) for at least 6 - 8 hours each, one at a time.
13. Run the most demanding video game that you have for several hours.

If there are no errors in all these tests, your system is reasonably stable.

Right now, the Z68 board that would best fit my needs is in the http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...tml#post412011 thread, post #12. I want an extra pci-e (i.e 3rd) slot for possibly installing a high performance pci-e ssd card.

With a non-Gigabyte motherboard, you might have to post your results and questions in the Motherboards forum, otherwise one of the nasty forum moderators might have a hissy fit.
Yes, I resemble this remark.

[Deafty]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

Thanks Prof Jim,

excellent clear instructions.

That Pci-e SSD was something that slipped my mind,. but it is unlikey I'll be able to afford one prior to ugrading mobo and cpu later.
I have from my last build always waited around a year after initial release of new components before buying hence ending up on this platform.
I too would prefer Ivy Bridge but it appears the release price is too high for me.

Will post new thread later quoting your instructions for intial setup.
if mobo is indeed problamatic you'll find a new thread in the gigabyte forum! (ga z68 ud4 mobo!)

Cheers

And now you've go me into this water cooling concept,...Aggh

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

And now you've go me into this water cooling concept,...Aggh

Aw quit yer complaining, you asked and you got my 3 cents worth of advice.
Besides, it's your money, not mine!
I could sell you my old 7600GT video card real cheap, then you'd have plenty of money for the higher cost extras.

[Deafty]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.



I read those reviews ,tanks will contemplate.
As for your GPU,. Thanks for the offer.

[wazza300]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

how are you getting along with this?

[Deafty]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

Hi Wazza,

Foums appeared to be down for me over here in Germany.

Curently waiting on deliveries.

So far I have received the Asus Board. But will return this as I found a great deal on my prefered choice of the Gigabyte z68 UD4 (non B3) rev 1.0

Bought windows 7 Home premium or 40 Euro! after not taking Microsofts reccomendation of spending 12o Euro!

I will now be starting a new thread "GA Z68 UD4 rev1.0 Install and Test procedures"
Here I will list full build specs with build, Bios and test sequences (with questions).

I will need some further purchase advice in regards to:
a possible 1Tb HDD
possible USB 3.0 connectivity to the front of my case.
PSU suitable for SLI and O/C with cable management features
CPU cooler for my O/C.

Thanks.

[profJim]

Re: Gigabyte motherboard decision, best suited for overclocking, Purchase reccomendations please.

Hard drive prices are still quite high, see http://forums.tweaktown.com/storage-...-flooding.html. Last July I bought a Samsung HD204UI 2TB sata2 drive for $80. Current price is $180. Prices over the next 3 - 9 months should slowly drop closer to former price levels. I've had excellent results with Western Digital Black drives.

A 750 - 850 watt power supply will be fine. You might be able to get by with a 650 watt psu for an overclocked SLI setup. I prefer Seasonic made power supplies. Some Antec and XFX power supplies are made by Seasonic. Corsair AX or HX models are their top of the line models, and their TX models have somewhat lower prices and efficiency, and good performance . Power supplies made by SuperFlower in the past year are top of the line also. Kingwin is the only brand in the U.S. that I'm aware of that are made by SuperFlower. Before you buy any power supply check to see how well it performs by reading reviews from the following web sites:

• JonnyGuru
• HardwareSecrets
• HardOCP
• PCPER
• TechPowerUp

A web search using: usb 3.0 front panel connector
should provide links to front panel kits.

Good luck with your new build.