Hey guys, my CPU (Q6600) is dead and I figure that instead of looking around for another one which will probably die soon anyway, I might as well upgrade my whole system. I'm looking for upper mid-range components and the system will be used mainly for gaming and ordinary daily tasks like web browsing. I've already bought an Asus GTX 570 DCII and I've decided on an i5 2500k (seems like this gen's Q6600). I'm also happy to use my existing case (Antec 900), PSU (Corsiar TX 750w), CPU cooler (Spire Thermax Eclipse II), hard drive and DVD writer. What I really need advice on is the mobo and, to a lesser extent, the ram. As far as ram goes I can get a good dead on two 4Gb Kingston HyperX 1600MHz sticks. As far as the motherboard goes I'm thinking of getting the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 However, I am completely out of the loop when it comes to mobos, so I would really appreciate any advice you can give. I'm looking for something which is cost effective (I can get the Gigabyte for around £75, which seems like a cracking deal, but I am willing to spend more, maybe up to around £140, if it's really worth the extra moolah), but it would be nice if it could be somewhat futureproof. I wouldn't mind being able to SLI at some point down the road, and I'd like it to be a decent little overclocker as I'll probably try to get my 2500k up to at least 4.5GHz. So yeah, am I looking at the right mobo, the right ram, and what do you think of my overall system upgrade?
Something like a MSI GD53 p67 or a Z68A-GD55/45 should do all you need mate. In general the p67 chipset overclock a tad better but since you're only wanting to go to 4.5ghz it doesn't really come into it. I had an Asus board before my msi one and had nothing but problems with it. I decided to go with MSI because I heard the bios wasn't as good on the gigabyte boards and couldn't be happier. I have speced up a few rings for friends with the msi boards and nobody has had a single problem with them. I think you are spending the correct amount. It's just like a q6600 rig was a few years ago.
Thanks for the advice. I've also heard great things about the Asus P8Z68 V Pro/Gen 3. Seems to have all the mod cons and decent build quality at a good price (~£150).
