Final spec! (Hopefully...)

[Josh]

After months of browsing different forums and posting on many, also checking out loads of benchmarks, I think I have finally got an end spec. If you guys could take a look and just make sure everything is in order it would be much appreciated. It will be for gaming mostly but also in time a lot of video editing.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE

Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, NVIDIA® SLI™, ATI® CrossFireX™

Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

2nd Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 3 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 500MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£49)

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£9)

Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5)

Headsets (VOIP)
LOGITECH® PC HEADSET 860 - STEREO WITH IN-LINE VOLUME CONTROL (£8)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Just a few questions on my spec as well.
1) Does this case give excellent air flow? I don't really care about the aesthetics.
2) How would you rate this mobo over a p8p67 and is this easily sufficient for my needs? If it isn't what would you guys recommend?
3) It says the max required watts is 780, but this is an overclocked PC does it take that into account?
4) I care about sound quality, but will the high def 5.1 be enough? I only have a 2.1 setup anyway.
5) I have a 20mb internet speed, will this LAN card support up to that speed?
6) There will be no OS installed, but does that mean all my drivers will be fully up to date when i receive my pc?
7) Lastly the GTX 570 i think supports HDMI and DVI as does the screen I intend to get. Which cable would you advise me to get or does it make no difference to picture quality?

[LinearHD]

1) The airflow is good.

2) Unless you're concerned about power saving or SSD caching, the Z68 doesn't have much over the P67.

3) Go for a single GTX580. One powerhouse card > two lesser cards.

4) Yes, the onboard sound is clear and good quality.

5) Yes.

6) No, you will need to install your drivers after installing your OS.

7) There is no difference in quality but HDMI does carry sound. You said you're using speakers, so I would suggest getting DVI.

[Josh]

Cheers for clarifying on a lot of my answers, but I still stick by SLI GTX 570 as opposed to a single GTX 580. I look at the benchmarks and the SLI 570 blew the single 580 out the water and wasn't far behind the 580 SLI. I still don't understand thought whether or not it has taken an overclocked CPU into account, I don't want to order it and find it won't run at the max profile of 4.8 GHZ because it doesn't have enough power.

[LinearHD]

Ofcourse two 570's will beat a 580 lol, but a 580 will take so much less power and less noise and less driver issues and less game compatibility issues and so on... so either go for a 580 or notch up the PSU to a Corsair 1000W, 780W is a bit too close to the limit for me.

[Fear]

780W is a bit too close to the limit for me.

780W on a branded Corsair 850W PSU is absolutly fine.

[bg92]

Ofcourse two 570's will beat a 580 lol, but a 580 will take so much less power and less noise and less driver issues and less game compatibility issues and so on... so either go for a 580 or notch up the PSU to a Corsair 1000W, 780W is a bit too close to the limit for me.

No offence but a 1000w is overkill, the psu calculators overestimate by a fair amount he would probably even do with a tx750, but tx850 is a better option.

[LinearHD]

I stand corrected thanks for your help, +rep.

[Josh]

Cheers that has covered all my questions guys, I will order it in a few days then. Just 2 things though I must clarify is, does the Z68 only have the SSD cache and lower power consumption over the P67 or are there any other higher performance features? And finally I'm still uncertain on the sound card, I plan to get a very good headset and wondered should I actually get the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio? I head it is a very good card and tbh its not that expensive.

[Teaz]

mainly just that for the z68 but for anything else, it would be pretty much similar as its just based with overclocking features. you can compare them here in depth here on the asus website by clicking the socket 1155 then chose which you would like to compare. nothing really major. except more features to enhance overclocking or slots.

If you believe to have a good ear for sound then go ahead with the sound card but if not then you don't need to as i think its not really worth investing im low performing sound cards on todays modern mobos as the onboard sound are good. if you have an old pc then certainly go ahead with a cheap sound card but todays mobos, i think you will need to invest of a real good card to notice the difference.

[Josh]

Cheers, I decided to stick with the Z68, compared them on the site and it has more power phases.