My New Upgrades Today Need Help Asap

[Moddy]

Hey guys I need some advice and some help from you experts.

Basically I am a gamer, and I have noticed my system suffer from time to time while recording footage with bandicam or fraps and ect.

My current setup is as follows:

CPU: Phenom X4 970 BE 3.5 Ghz Quad Core Stock Clocks.
Mobo: ASUS M4A77D AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
Ram: 4x1gb sticks of Gskill DDR2 5-5-5-15 total of 4gb
Case: LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case


Okay first off I do have all my parts I want to upgrade to. I am keeping my current video card, hardrive, ssd and power supply.

I am replacing the parts listed above with-

CPU: 2500k -(Saving 100 dollars cause I heard it overclocks the same as 2600k and I dont need HT)
Mobo- Asus Maximus Extreme Gene-Z - Micro Atx board thats cheap and awesome!
Ram: Corsair Dominator GT 2x2GB 1866 mhz w/ fan cooler
Case: Cooler master Haf 922 blue edition.

I will be using the stock cooler till I can afford a h100 and do a push/pull system, I heard that I may need to mount the pull fans on top of the case which doesn't bother me, but some confrimation would be nice.

Will that ram play well with that motherboard? I heard this board can auto clock your ram and cpu in less that 2 mins in the mouse driven bios, I am hoping that is true I don't know to overclock.

Is this a good case to invest money in? My budget is 600.00 and this all comes in at newegg.com at 605.22 with shipping.

I am pairing my new setup with a 6970 and a 640 gb hdd and a 40gb ssd.

I also do plan to do crossfire 6970s with this board.

Will I see a big performance gain?

Please help me decide I am ordering these parts today.

[Zkeya]

You don't need to get RAM higher than 1600Mhz. Get the Vengeance Kit (4 or 8GB). I somewhat dislike m-ATX motherboards and I'd get a ATX board for Xfire. Your PSU is powerful enough to support Xfire though? (I think another thread like that an hour or two ago :/)

You will see a big performance gain! And the case is probably good! HAF series are pretty good (unless you dislike the design!) and have good airflow!

[Moddy]

The M-atx desicion was brought on by the budget I am on and all the features the board presents at a very affordable price. Also it has built in X-fi sound card and the lan controller has software to tell your applications how much latency to use. Therefore I have no legacy or pci cards left to install so I don't need any expansion besides the crossfire. I did some research and crossfire runs 8x 8x on this board which seems to be okay. For the ram I was a bit confused, I do plan on doing a h100 corsair push pull system in the haf 922 and going with the air flow pro and the corsair link when it becomes available and the corsair airflow pro is only compatible with corsair dominator gt memory.

[Zkeya]

RAM doesn't need extra cooling. The problem with m-ATX mobos is that they get "crowded" if you go for SLI/Xfire. Cards would be on top of each other, so they'll produce more heat. Unless you use audiophile quality headphones you won't notice any difference with the X-fi soundcard. Can't comment on the LAN controller software.
(most motherboards run SLI/Xfire at 8x/8x unless they support tri-SLI). And I think there are ATX motherboards with a lot of features for the same price as the Micro Maximus.

[Moddy]

so the 8x 8x is standard? Or do I need to find something more for 16x 16x when running crossfire? Will it not do well?

[Zkeya]

Most graphics cards don't even use 16x. 8x/8x will be fine. (8x/8x is standard on M/Bs that don't support tri-SLI)

[Jakexe]

I'd suggest getting a ASUS Z68 or P67 full ATX mobo. I'm assuming you're on a tight budget and unless you plan to be moving your rig around for LAN's etc, the extra price for a maximus isn't worth it.

[Moddy]

How about this?

GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128506