Need opinion on asrock z68 pro3-m and gskill sniper rig

  Hi folks,

I am planning on buying a new rig for a little overclocking and seek
your advice.

The plan :
i5 2500k
as rock z68 pro3-M
gskill sniper 1600 CL9 2x4GB low voltage
graphics: I am not really into gaming, think a HD 6790 would be
sufficient.

Do you think the ASRock MB is overkill?
Do you think 2x2GB CL8 would be a better fit?

Thank you for your wisdom,

Sam

 the Blue wrote:

The HD 6790 is kind-of a gaming card.  It is on the same tier as the
HD 6770, here:
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3067-7.html

The HD 6790 also looks long.  The Powercolor at Newegg has the
PCI-E power connector coming out the end, also.  Might be a tight
fit in your case if it is Micro ATX.  I just put a HD 6770 in a friend's
Micro ATX case.  It was shorter, and the power connector comes
out the side.  It didn't vent through the back, though...

Why not try the integrated graphics first?  
 

There are not a whole lot of choices for a Micro ATX board.  You're
the one that has to be happy with expansion capability.  Seems
like a decent choice to me.  I just wish they weren't made in China.
It is also a narrow board, meaning there is no third row of screws
to support the edge of the board like I prefer.  Be careful plugging
stuff in!


Perhaps you missed this?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/8

I just bought the ATX Asrock Z68 Pro 3.  It had 2 PCI slots that I needed.
No problems with the build, but Windows 7 SP1 didn't have a LAN
driver.  I think the Win7 installer asks, so you should specify this
driver, at least, so it can update and get the other drivers itself.

 I haven't had a chance to overclock it yet, but I bought the Coolermaster
Hyper 212 Plus.  It seems decent, but the fan was loud-- about 2000 RPM.
I used a Zalman resistor to slow it down.   I found them on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120753182575

I have 4 x 4GB Zalman Black DDR3 1600 and they are tall.  I had to raise
the fan a bit on the Coolermaster.  At first I didn't know the plastic fan
holder slid up and was bummed!  I see the GSkill Sniper looks tall, also.
I would have picked some shorter ones, had I known.



 

  That's the best piece of advice I got on the Internet for a long time,
thank you very much.
I bought the coolermaster elite 360 case, which fits an ATX
motherboard but is nevertheless quite small.
To solve the tall computer memory issue I will buy a corsair H60 or
antec 620 watercooling system as my case does not allow coolers bigger
than 135mm.
Regarding the graphic card, I will exactly follow your advice. First
try integrated graphics, see what it can do, and if necessary go for a
HD 6670 or 6850.

See you around,

Sam

 That's the best piece of advice I got on the Internet for a long time,
thank you very much.
I bought the coolermaster elite 360 case, which fits an ATX
motherboard but is nevertheless quite small.
To solve the tall computer memory issue I will buy a corsair H60 or
antec 620 watercooling system as my case does not allow coolers bigger
than 135mm.
Regarding the graphic card, I will exactly follow your advice. First
try integrated graphics, see what it can do, and if necessary go for a
HD 6670 or 6850.

See you around,

Sam

 
For the record, and I know this message is quite old, the memory is not
branded Zalman but Mushkin.  I regret any inconvenience this may have
caused.