Advice needed - £250

mattbrown91 · 13 Nov 2011 at 11:21

Motherboard and CPU combination for overclocking.

I'm thinking:
Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H Intel Z68
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz

I'll be looking for a decent overclock but not too much. Already got DDR3 RAM.

Cheers.

Surveyor · 13 Nov 2011 at 11:54

You can't overclock the i5-2300.

Well you may be able to a bit using the turbo multiplier but that's not the same overclocking potential as an unlocked chip.

For a decent overclock you want an i5-2500K and a P67 or Z68 motherboard to go with it.

Do you have low voltage (~1.5V) DDR3 RAM?

The stock Intel cooler will get you to around 4GHz with the i5-2500K, any higher than that and you need an aftermarket cooler.

mattbrown91 · 13 Nov 2011 at 15:43

Oh right! Thanks for letting me know, shows how far out of touch I am.

So is overclocking now predominantly done using the multiplier rather than the FSB now?
Yeah, I've got some XMS3 1.5v.

Any particular board you'd recommend? I only went with that one because I've heard a fair few people using the gigabyte boards.

Surveyor · 13 Nov 2011 at 19:58

MSI currently have a 20% cash back offer on certain boards purchased by 21 November.

MSI Z68A-GD55-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

SLI and CrossFire compatible and around £100 after the cash back.

MSI Z68A-G43-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

CrossFire compatible but the second x16 slot only works at x4 speed so only really suitable for a single graphics card.

Around £76 after the cash back.

trickynickyuk · 13 Nov 2011 at 21:23

if you can go over you might want to look at this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-080-OE&groupid=43&catid=2053&subcat= it looks a sweet deal and it is also overclocked for you

mattbrown91 · 13 Nov 2011 at 22:37

I went for it, hope I'm not disappointed.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £134.99 1 £134.99
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £70.82 1 £70.82
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual-Channel (CMX4GX3M2A1333C8) £24.99 1 £24.99
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £14.99 1 £14.99
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day): £0.00
VAT: £49.16
Order Total: £294.95

Surveyor · 13 Nov 2011 at 23:54

I thought you already had some XMS3?

Personally I'd have gone for the retail processor as it's only £6 more and has a 3 year warranty instead of 1 year.

fowler002 · 14 Nov 2011 at 01:17

mattbrown91 said:
I went for it, hope I'm not disappointed.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £134.99 1 £134.99
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £70.82 1 £70.82
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual-Channel (CMX4GX3M2A1333C8) £24.99 1 £24.99
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £14.99 1 £14.99
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day): £0.00
VAT: £49.16
Order Total: £294.95

if you can I'd suggest changing the cooler to the gelid tranquilo.

mattbrown91 · 14 Nov 2011 at 12:44

Surveyor said:
I thought you already had some XMS3?

Yeah I have, I just got another 4 gig of the stuff

Surveyor said:
Personally I'd have gone for the retail processor as it's only £6 more and has a 3 year warranty instead of 1 year.

Good point, just hope I don't live to regret it.