Yet another question on Motherboards.

[Azgraal]

Its me again with yet another doubt on what pieces to get. Im going to order them next week so this should be the last one ^^

As i was adding the price of every component so see how much ill be spending i tried to play around with some choices to see if i could spare a few euros not losing performance.

And then i looked at the MB i was choosing, Asus P8P67 WS Revolution Rev. B3.

Keeping in mind that i want my computer for gaming, software developing (and some other stuff that benefict from the 2600k hyperthreading); that im planning on overclocking the cpu as close to 5ghz as i can with a good cooling system, and that the max number of gpu im planning on having is two (either SLI or CFX, im still considering cards xD) what would be the best MB for me? the above mentioned WS Revolution or Asus P8Z68-V PRO Rev. B3?

Once again thanks for your advices.

[Cyanotical]

WS boards are designed for heavy work, so it is a solid choice, but one thing to keep in mind, you just cant overclock to 5ghz, not every chip is capable of maintaining stability at that speed

[Azgraal]

I mentioned 5ghz as a goal because i've seen a lot of people hitting that on 2600k (the cpu im getting) on systems with good coolings.

[Deleted]

Definatly choose a Z68 with lots of nice features you want and/or need. Something like the P8Z68-V PRO looks good.

[shoebox]

Every chip is unique, its not JUST about cooling, i know many people who cant get past 4.6ghz at 1.3 or 1.4 volts with very good cooling systems.

As for the boards, for your needs, P67 board will do fine. Z68 however is a newer series of boards, with more features, like SSD caching ect. aswell as i think some boards are equiped with PCI-E 3.0 for the new Ivy bridge cpu's comming out next year. (not 100% sure, if they have PCI-E 3.0).

[BicycleMafioso]

I mentioned 5ghz as a goal because i've seen a lot of people hitting that on 2600k (the cpu im getting) on systems with good coolings.

There will be no guarantees. It depends on the chip you're getting. No two i7-2600K clocks the same.
Some require higher voltages which results in speeds where they will simply not be able to achieve a reasonable thermal level.
Not even two chips produced in the same batch will perform the same.
Better steppings help, but you may be blocked as low as 4.5-4.6

[shoebox]

Definatly choose a Z68 with lots of nice features you want and/or need. Something like the P8Z68-V PRO looks good.

A Z68 is definitely a superior board with the added features, however, he is looking to reduce prices where he can, and a P67 board, will do everything he wants with the reduced price.

[Cyanotical]

I mentioned 5ghz as a goal because i've seen a lot of people hitting that on 2600k (the cpu im getting) on systems with good coolings.

it has to to with the quality of the chip, no two are the same, this is often referred to as "bin quality", in general the higher the bin, the higher you can clock, my 990 can go to 5ghz, but no higher, while others have gone as high as 5.3ghz with the same cooling, and others can't get higher then 4.8ghz, the same is true for the 2600k, i believe synthaxx is on his second 2600k and still can't clock to 5ghz

one thing to keep in mind, there are points where there is no reason to go beyond it, with cpu's that is around 4.5-4.7ghz, any faster and you won't notice any speed increase in your daily applications, it takes a benchmark program to show you the difference

[Azgraal]

Every chip is unique, its not JUST about cooling, i know many people who cant get past 4.6ghz at 1.3 or 1.4 volts with very good cooling systems.

As for the boards, for your needs, P68 board will do fine. Z68 however is a newer series of boards, with more features, like SSD caching ect. aswell as i think some boards are equiped with PCI-E 3.0 for the new Ivy bridge cpu's comming out next year. (not 100% sure, if they have PCI-E 3.0).

Living and learning i guess ^^ i knew that it differed from chip to chip, but i always thought it would be on a minimal margin.....
nonetheless if i could OC it to 4.6ghz i'd be pleased with it.

I think ill take a better look at z68 boards then, as they're around 60€ cheaper than the p67 WS.

Thanks a lot to everyone that responded

[shoebox]

If you wait for the i7 2700 chips, they are supposed to be high binned chips that can reach high overclocks, there actually no difference between the i7 2600 and the i7 2700 exept 3% in stock clocks, but they are supposed to be "premium chips" so you can expect good overclocks with them. there about 30 dollars more expensive then the current 2600k's on release.

[Azgraal]

If you wait for the i7 2700 chips, they are supposed to be high binned chips that can reach high overclocks, there actually no difference between the i7 2600 and the i7 2700 exept 3% in stock clocks, but they are supposed to be "premium chips" so you can expect good overclocks with them. there about 30 dollars more expensive then the current 2600k's on release.

30€ difference in a cpu is almost nothing so i might consider that. I've read before that the 2700k would be just 2600k that came higher clocked from stock, but didnt knew about the "premium" title. Any clue as to the release date? i could only find info on they being released first in china as a test before the end of the year, as a ground tester for the ivy bridge chips..

[shoebox]

"It appears that the i7-2700k will be available around Halloween" is a quote from an article on overclockers.com so mid to late October, not sure how accurate their sources are.

[Azgraal]

"It appears that the i7-2700k will be available around Halloween" is a quote from an article on overclockers.com so mid to late October, not sure how accurate their sources are.

Excellent. Anything before the end of the year is fine by me, so i might wait till they get released, read a couple reviews then make up my mind.

(sadly one can ever expect ivy bridge alog with ati 7xxx and nvidia 6xx around march, so i wont be able to get a set of those.. )

[shoebox]

haha yeah, everything always comes out spread around the year, so you cant do your whole build at once.

[Ghâzh]

Wouldn't read too much in to 2700k being a "premium" to be honest. Intel is alraedy reportedly binning 2500 and 2600 chips but you are still not that likely to get a good overclocker by buying a 2600k :P Something you'll notice when looking at the wide range of samples but it still comes down to luck being the biggest factor. And 2600k is only $100 more than 2500k, and that gets your hyper-threading, too.

[Azgraal]

Wouldn't read too much in to 2700k being a "premium" to be honest. Intel is alraedy reportedly binning 2500 and 2600 chips but you are still not that likely to get a good overclocker by buying a 2600k :P Something you'll notice when looking at the wide range of samples but it still comes down to luck being the biggest factor. And 2600k is only $100 more than 2500k, and that gets your hyper-threading, too.

Yeah between the 2500k and the 2600k i'd go for the 2600k for sure, as i will really put those virtual cores to good use.