Hello,
I need help making a good reasonasble choice looking for new MB for my system. I saw a lot of reviews and tests and in fact know a lot now but still not sure what I need. Please read to the end to see the... "whole story" and help me with advise if you can
1) What I have:
i5 2500K
SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro
Asus GF560GTX448cores (which takes 3 slots at MB)
Corsair Hydro Series H100
2) What I want:
I want to overclock i5 2500K to its possible max. The target is 5Ghz for constant stable use. Memory will run at 2133 or higher if possible.
3) Now to the point:
I do not have money for Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z right now (and I do not need most of the additional things it has) and at first I was looking at Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3. I do not need additional PCI-e slots and will use only 1 SSD as a main drive. This MB has "honest" 10 phases of power supply and seems to be the best in my case. The problem that I see is that I'll have to install SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro in the last PCI-e slot and it will be right close to the video card that takes 3 MB slots as I already mentioned. Maybe not good - I'm abs. not sure. From one side such video cards are made to work in SLI being really close to each other but from another side the hi-end audio card may be affected by the video card that is so close to it. Also, while this is not principal, this MB understands Intel's grahic card that is inside the CPU and features Virtu... I do not believe in both and do not need them... can swicth off this in BIOS as I understand.
From the other side comes Asus P8P67 Pro that maybe can work the same as Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3... in my case. It does not have anything connected with Intel's graphics and from this point of view ma be better than Asus P8Z68-V Pro just because its "honest" 6 phases work together with additional 2 phases which are dedicated to the Intel's grahics in the Asus P8Z68-V Pro. It has funny Bluetooth adapter on-board which is useless in most cases but something is "wrong" with nearly any card layout It can be also switched off as I understand. On that card both my video card and sound card could be installed "freely" with a lot of space between them.
4) Now to the end:
So... If you tell me for example that Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 is much better choice in my case (for stable overclocking) I could even forget about the SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro if it is not good to install it so close to the video card and use the on-board sound for games.
OR
If you tell me that, while Asus P8P67 Pro is a really old and "weaker" MB, it can still give me the same good results I'd be able to keep my sound card and even save some $$$ just because it is cheaper now.
In fact I can't make a correct choice by myself in such situation.
Thanks in advance
P.S. I understand that overclocking results differ from one CPU to another and I look only for Asus MBs.
I need help making a good reasonasble choice looking for new MB for my system. I saw a lot of reviews and tests and in fact know a lot now but still not sure what I need. Please read to the end to see the... "whole story" and help me with advise if you can
1) What I have:
i5 2500K
SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro
Asus GF560GTX448cores (which takes 3 slots at MB)
Corsair Hydro Series H100
2) What I want:
I want to overclock i5 2500K to its possible max. The target is 5Ghz for constant stable use. Memory will run at 2133 or higher if possible.
3) Now to the point:
I do not have money for Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z right now (and I do not need most of the additional things it has) and at first I was looking at Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3. I do not need additional PCI-e slots and will use only 1 SSD as a main drive. This MB has "honest" 10 phases of power supply and seems to be the best in my case. The problem that I see is that I'll have to install SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro in the last PCI-e slot and it will be right close to the video card that takes 3 MB slots as I already mentioned. Maybe not good - I'm abs. not sure. From one side such video cards are made to work in SLI being really close to each other but from another side the hi-end audio card may be affected by the video card that is so close to it. Also, while this is not principal, this MB understands Intel's grahic card that is inside the CPU and features Virtu... I do not believe in both and do not need them... can swicth off this in BIOS as I understand.
From the other side comes Asus P8P67 Pro that maybe can work the same as Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3... in my case. It does not have anything connected with Intel's graphics and from this point of view ma be better than Asus P8Z68-V Pro just because its "honest" 6 phases work together with additional 2 phases which are dedicated to the Intel's grahics in the Asus P8Z68-V Pro. It has funny Bluetooth adapter on-board which is useless in most cases but something is "wrong" with nearly any card layout It can be also switched off as I understand. On that card both my video card and sound card could be installed "freely" with a lot of space between them.
4) Now to the end:
So... If you tell me for example that Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3 is much better choice in my case (for stable overclocking) I could even forget about the SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro if it is not good to install it so close to the video card and use the on-board sound for games.
OR
If you tell me that, while Asus P8P67 Pro is a really old and "weaker" MB, it can still give me the same good results I'd be able to keep my sound card and even save some $$$ just because it is cheaper now.
In fact I can't make a correct choice by myself in such situation.
Thanks in advance
P.S. I understand that overclocking results differ from one CPU to another and I look only for Asus MBs.