Sandy Bridge build

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I'm looking at replacing my current computer (5 year old Core 2 Duo) with a brand new i5 2500K based system, and I'd like some opinions on the parts I'm looking at.

• PSU: Corsair TX-650 (650w)
  
• RAM: G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 RL 9-9-9-24(CL9D-8GBRL)
  
• CPU: Core i5 2500k
  
• Mobo: Asus P8P67 Pro
  
• HDD: Seagate SATAIII 1TB 7200RPM 32mb * 2
  
• Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2
  
• Case: Fractal Design, Define R3, Black Pearl
  

I hate to say it, but I picked the motherboard just because a magazine mentioned it, although reading up on it makes it out to be a pretty good board, and it's apparently reliable (good overclocker). As for the graphics card, I picked an Nvidia GTX570, but since Nvidia is releasing a 590 model anytime now, I'd like to wait until after that's been released to see how it affects the price of the 580, if it brings it down enough I could afford to get that instead of the 570.

Now, can anybody foresee any problems with this selection? and has anybody used these parts and can vouch for their quality (or alternatively tell me they're crap and steer me towards something better)

Edit: Swapped out the cooler and hard drives.

[Tekkerson]

I don't really have an opinion as of now to help you pick out. I'm just curious, why are you getting a new machine?

[Another Canuck]

I have the same mobo.... eeehhhh. Not sure I'd recommend it. The EFI is super buggy it's really not even funny.

I think I'd recommend you go with a Gigabyte board as they're the only brand that is staying with BIOS until they actually perfect their EFI. ASUS definitely pushed out their EFI before it was properly tested. Gigabyte will provide EFI updates for their boards once it's ready.

Some notable bugs:

- System won't resume from sleep if you overclock (more specifically, if you enable PLL Overvoltage, which you have to)

- System always takes for-freaking-ever to POST

- Random settings don't stick/reset on reboot

- Unpredictable system stability. Might boot with certain OC just fine one time, completely fails to POST the next

- And much, much more...

This isn't just based on my experience btw. This has all been confirmed by many others in various forums.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

haha, wow, ok. I've got a Gigabyte board in my current system and while there are some small issues it's been a good board overall. And it's good to hear that Gigabyte will be providing an EFI upgrade.

I don't really have an opinion as of now to help you pick out. I'm just curious, why are you getting a new machine?

While there's nothing wrong with it, it's 5 years old and starting to show it's age, it's having problems playing newer games and even some websites can slow it down a bit. I won't be getting rid of it, it'll find a new use somewhere.

[arrrgh]

Corsair RAM and PSUs are top notch, I've always had good luck with them. I would probably go with 2x4GB kit (like CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB kit) instead of 4x2GB. That way you'll have space for future updates and possibly avoid some stability issues by reducing the load on the mobo.

I have Asus P8P67 Pro and it's a brilliant motherboard, new BIOS is fantastic to use and after you have played with it there is no going back. Just make sure you get B3 revision chipset which fixes the SATA issues.

I haven't had or seen Fractal Design's cases personally but I have only heard good things about them.

[arrrgh]

Some notable bugs:

- System won't resume from sleep if you overclock (more specifically, if you enable PLL Overvoltage, which you have to)

- System always takes for-freaking-ever to POST

- Random settings don't stick/reset on reboot

- Unpredictable system stability. Might boot with certain OC just fine one time, completely fails to POST the next

- And much, much more...

This isn't just based on my experience btw. This has all been confirmed by many others in various forums.

First one isn't a BIOS issue, it's Intel side "problem" and has been known for a long time (it's not limited to Sandy Bridge). Personally I'm running stable at 4.5Gz without PLL overvoltage, you don't need it unless you shoot for the 5GHz barrier.

Rest are pretty much isolated issues (most were able to fix them by clearing CMOS as far as I can tell), if you search for Gigabyte issues you will find similar load of bugs (for reference see HardOCP review: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/27/gigabyte_p67aud4_motherboard_review/6). Brand new chipset, brand new issues.

[Another Canuck]

Corsair RAM and PSUs are top notch, I've always had good luck with them. I would probably go with 2x4GB kit (like CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB kit) instead of 4x2GB. That way you'll have space for future updates and possibly avoid some stability issues by reducing the load on the mobo.

I have Asus P8P67 Pro and it's a brilliant motherboard, new BIOS is fantastic to use and after you have played with it there is no going back. Just make sure you get B3 revision chipset which fixes the SATA issues.

I haven't had or seen Fractal Design's cases personally but I have only heard good things about them.

I will admit the EFI is very nice to work with and look at, but have not not been experiencing any bugs with it? Perhaps the B3 rev fixes more than just SATA issues.

Edit: Nvm. See above.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

So what stability issues would I be looking at with the RAM? the only 2x4 kit is $180, while the 4x2 is $115.

Edit: Upgradability would be nice, but by the time I need 16GB or so I'd think RAM prices would go down by a fair bit (and I upgrade very infrequently, I managed to skip AGP and DDR1 in between one system upgrade)

Edit 2: There's actually a problem with the cooler I picked, it's 160mm tall while the case allows for 165mms of clearance, and I don't know if that's counting the space behind the mobo, etc.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

I have the same mobo.... eeehhhh. Not sure I'd recommend it. The EFI is super buggy it's really not even funny.

I think I'd recommend you go with a Gigabyte board as they're the only brand that is staying with BIOS until they actually perfect their EFI. ASUS definitely pushed out their EFI before it was properly tested. Gigabyte will provide EFI updates for their boards once it's ready.

Some notable bugs:

- System won't resume from sleep if you overclock (more specifically, if you enable PLL Overvoltage, which you have to)

- System always takes for-freaking-ever to POST

- Random settings don't stick/reset on reboot

- Unpredictable system stability. Might boot with certain OC just fine one time, completely fails to POST the next

- And much, much more...

This isn't just based on my experience btw. This has all been confirmed by many others in various forums.

Asus is pretty good w/ their BIOS updates... have you updated?

what does "takes for-freaking-ever to POST" really mean? how many seconds does it take from the time you press the power button to the time it starts loading the OS?

that PSU is fine and all, but honestly, you should buy the "most watts" you can afford. you're talking about buying a 570, 580, 590... i wouldnt get anything under 700W. my 750W PSU can handle a 580, but not two. i'd love to have the option of buying 2 high-end cards one day, but i cant w/ this PSU.

[Lord Zog]

Some Asus board are slow at post.. P6X58-D Premium takes like 5-7 secs before it even shows the POST screens (E-Z memory is slow, even if you setup your own settings), and I know the P5W-DH would do this over a USB Emulation bug.. Once they are past post tho, they are great boards. Always a lot of options in the bios and very stable. Been an Asus fan for a long time.. Still have a setup with a P2B here working great. :) Thats a 13 year old board and still works great. :)

As for corsair, the PSU's and RAM from them are top notch. Just watch some of the PSU's, went through 2 AX-1200's as they had noisy caps..

[arrrgh]

If there's that much price difference, then it's probably not worth it. When I was shopping (in US) the price difference was around $10.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

...

that PSU is fine and all, but honestly, you should buy the "most watts" you can afford. you're talking about buying a 570, 580, 590... i wouldnt get anything under 700W. my 750W PSU can handle a 580, but not two. i'd love to have the option of buying 2 high-end cards one day, but i cant w/ this PSU.

I'm not looking at getting the 590, it's just a choice between the 570/580. And an SLI setup is doubtful, because of the time it'd take me to get another 570/580, and that the motherboard only really has 1 x16 socket (the second x16 socket is actually split between the other x1 sockets, plugging anything into them slows down the x16 socket). A 750w PSU is only like $30 more, so if I don't keep adding costs it's possible.

If there's that much price difference, then it's probably not worth it. When I was shopping (in US) the price difference was around $10.

I'd assume it's just supply, other brands are either radically cheaper or much more expensive (other 8GB kits from Corsair are 2x as much, etc.)

[chconline Veteran]

Yeah, you should be able to hit 4.5GHz easy for a 2500K.

Gigabyte boards are fine. I have a P67A-UD5 in my current system, and it's a solid board. It's much better than most Gigabyte boards in the past, and just in my personal opinion I think they've built a better ASUS board than ASUS themselves. Just saying. Of course after writing that my ASUS contact had a little chat with me :laugh:

Just off topic @ The_Decryptor: "Remember: 50% of the population is of below average intelligence." Average != median. :p

[Joseph Zollo]

I've been wanting to purchase a P8P67 but I haven't been able to find any sites that have them in stock (the fixed version).

[Salty Wagyu]

Specs look fine, may want to check the RAM is rated to run at 1.5v as this is best for Sandy Bridge. The older 1.65v modules work fine, but long term - probably not, I read in various forums that 1.65v this is too much for the memory controller to handle on the CPU.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Hmm, yeah that could be a problem. The only Corsair memory at 1.5v is a 4GB stick, and 2 of them cost more than a single 8GB kit. There's a 8GB kit of G.Skill RAM that's 1.5v and the same cost as the 8GB Corsair kit, but I've heard mixed things about them (Some things tell me it's awesome, some things tell me otherwise, etc.).

Although really at the end of the day, if it works I don't care. When I picked the memory for my current build I didn't even bother looking at the clocks :laugh:

[mrp04]

Buy a 2x4GB RAM kit instead of a 4x2GB RAM kit. It doesn't cost a whole lot more and makes it much cheaper to upgrade RAM later. If the Corsair one costs that much more, go with a different brand. I got my 2x4GB G.SKILL RAM kit for $110 and it is DDR3-1600 like the Corsair RAM you want to purchase.

Take a look at benchmarks for RAM overclocking on Sandy Bridge. You barely get any extra performance by going for faster RAM and faster timings since they don't have an FSB anymore. Anything over DDR3 1600 for a 2500K is overkill, and the 1600 doesn't get you a whole lot more performance over 1333.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The G.Skill kit is 2x4, and it's 1600Mhz.

[yxz]

http://www.mushkin.com/Memory/Silverline/996770.aspx ?

edit:

Edit 2: There's actually a problem with the cooler I picked, it's 160mm tall while the case allows for 165mms of clearance, and I don't know if that's counting the space behind the mobo, etc.

d14

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=70024475&postcount=6

http://forum.overclock3d.net/index.php?/topic/33322-fractal-design-define-r3-arctic-white-rig/page__view__findpost__p__391900

http://extrahardware.cnews.cz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8394&start=400#p227642

megahalem

http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/74-chassin-och-nataggregat/944477-fractal-design-define-r3/index17.html#post10749667

http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/16191482-post19.html

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The memory's ok, but I think the importing costs would hurt :laugh: (I'm in Australia)

And thanks for those links (Y), the cooler in those pictures is taller than the NH-U12P SE2 (only by 2mm though), so if the taller one fits then so should the shorter one.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I finally got the parts today, and christ this thing flies.

The first game I tested was Garry's Mod, with everything maxed out at 1920x1080 I hit the internal engine limit of 300fps and stayed there. JS scripts that used to take 10+ seconds to execute now complete in <500ms, etc.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Good to know (my i5 2500k build is in Purolator's hands right now)! Did you overclock, if so how much?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The software that comes with the mobo does automatic overcloking, so right away it had it running at 4.3Ghz.

There's also a calibration mode where it'll try out a whole bunch of settings to see what works, but I haven't tried that yet.

[Digitalx]

The software that comes with the mobo does automatic overcloking, so right away it had it running at 4.3Ghz.

There's also a calibration mode where it'll try out a whole bunch of settings to see what works, but I haven't tried that yet.

Not sure if you still got the cooler or how it fit, but got myself corsair H70 which seems to be good for entry level liquid cooling certainly if your overclocking too and seems to generally fit well with most cases that support a 120mm fan at the rear.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181013&Tpk=corsair%20H70

just a suggestion since it's good value for it's price and stuff and compares to the higher end air cooling solutions (huge ones) :)

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

I did get the cooler, and it ended up fitting fine.

I only put one fan on it at the moment, but it's still keeping the temps pretty good (40c idle), and I can't hear it over other noises in the room.

Also...