Mobo Selection

[Ranger]

Guys - Need a little help here. I have been out of touch and am returning to gaming after 8-9 years. I used to game during Socket 370 days. I am planning to have some fun and have decided to buy the below config for primarily for gaming. Watching movies and internet surfing are secondary usage. I request you guys to help me if I am selecting the right mobo. I understand that Z77 chipset has to be coupled with IVY to get better performance. I ahve selected ASRock however few of my friends are suggesting MSI alternatives. The other alternatives are MSI Z77 Mpower, MSI Z77-G45 & MSI Z77A-GD65. I liked Mpower as its newly released however its around 2.5K costly with almost same features. The only advantage MSI has that it offers a replacement warranty whereas ASRock does not. I am also open to other boards with preferably lesser cost. I do want onboard graphics as I might go for a GFX card later. (you see I have a tight budget and home minister keeps fighting for every increase on spend on this kind of stuff. Aaah, I miss college days!!)

Note: I will be using this rig with an Panasonic LCD 32 inch on HDMI. Hence monitor cost is not added. Pls also feel free to suggest any improvements keeping the overall cost around 55-60K.

Component	Description	Price
Motherboard	ASRock Z77 Extreme 6	12757
Processor	Intel 3.4 GHz FCLGA1155 Core i5 3570K Processor	14705
GFX	Sapphire AMD HD 7770 OC Edition 1 GB GDDR5	10600
RAM	Corsair vengeance DDR3 1600 Mhz 8 GB*2	6000
HDD	WD Caviar Green 1TB	4500
Cabinet	NZXT Phantom 410	5500
PSU	Seasonic S12II 620 Watts	5000
Optical Drive	Sony/Asus/Liteon/LG	1200
Keyboard Mouse	Logitech Wireless	2000
Total		62262

 

[N@m@n]

go for asrock z77 extreme 4 u will save 2k which u can use for gfx

psu of 620w is overkill go for 520w save 1k and upgrade hdd as wd green is not good u should go 4 seagate barracuda or wd blue at least

ram is again more than required 2* 4gb is more than enough so save 3k and upgrade gfx

for gfx look for hd 7850

note u can always increase ram and also crossfire gpu later when u feel the need

 

[rohit32407]

If you are going to crossfire or SLi in the future then keep your PSU as 620w atleast. Also if your primary purpose is gaming then you should atleast go for a 7850 or better a 7870. If you don't have enough money as of now then you can wait for a month or two and buy the GPU later but atleast go for a 7850 IMO.

I completely agree with rest of the suggestions from N@M@N regarding RAM and HDD. Caviar green is not at all good. You can use a green drive for data dumping but not so much for regular processing. 16 GB RAM at present is a serious overkill for gaming. 8 GB is more than enough.

 

[Ranger]

Thanks Naman & Rohit.

@Naman - Extreme 4 does not have onboard graphics. I might also wanna run few VMs on this system and hence kept RAM as 16 GB. I actually will be upgrading it to 32 gig within 5-6 months. Agreed with your point on HDD.
@Rohit - You are right. My idead was to have at least oboard graphics if I am not able to go for a good GFX now. I definitely want to go for a good GFX. Therefore had kep PSU as 620 W.

One question that I had asked in my original post. Do guys see an issue with warranty type that ASRock offers as compared to MSI. I live in Trivandrum and many people here still dont know what ASRock is! The local vendor seems to be providing good support for MSI. There have been few cases where one of my colleague's MSI mobo got damaged after 2 yrs and the local vendor helped it replaced. Hence I am stuck with thought of looking for an MSI alternative around same cost. The mpower seems to have wifi and bluetooth as well apart from being millitary class III.

What u guys say?

 

[rohit32407]

AFAIK on intel chipsets the integrated graphics are inside the processor and both of the motherboards support that.

I too don't have any experience with ASROCK so can't really give you any feedback there.

 

[Ranger]

Well, I think I got my query answered from a recent thread between vkl & sumonpathak. Thanx all! One more question to everyone in this forum. How good are Patriot Viper RAM and Patriot Pyro SSD? I am planning to buy these from US as one of my colleagues is travelling back soon. Are these good enough to not expect any issues (as there will be no warranty in India) and are these good VFM?

 

[sumonpathak]

they got good reviews..so go ahead