Just my $0.02, long story short, if you have the money and want to buy it, dont listen to anyone, buy what you want and be happy with no regrets. Id definately say ANY quad core is better all around then my dual core, but for gaming.ONLY and some College work, i saved the money on the processor and went with the higher graphics card.įor RAM, i barely use 33% while on HIGH settings and prolonged 4+hrs on BF3 (running Trillian, Origin, Vent and about 5-6tabs on Chrome) so 16GB looks cool but is overkill IMO. I load levels faster with my SSD then his HDD, but other then that, we are same FPS in all games. reason i say this is my i3-2100 with 8GB 1333, 6850 and a Vertex3 SSD is identical to my friends 2600k 16gb 1600 ram, 4870 1GB, with a WD Scorpion Black drive. Like everyone and benchmarks have always shown the slight few FPS you get on a 2600k over a 2500k is VERY VERY minimal and NOT at all noticeable to the naked eye.

(Unsurprisingly, all five have their apparent Z77-based successors on the shelves.) Biggest surprise - the P8Z68 V-LX is not one of them (despite the P8Z77 V-LX being available).

While browsing on MicroCenter's Web storefront yesterday, I checked the 'closeout' category (a safe indicator as to what products had their chop called) and five ATX LGA1155 motherboards are on the block (one each from Gigabyte and BIOSTAR and three from ASUS) - all five are based on Z68. In both cases, Z77 is a safe bet (even if PCI-E 3.0 isn't on the menu) simply to avoid obsolescence - not to mention a general lack of price premium compared to Z68. Anything else calls for i5-2500K (available now). Therefore, lower-overclocks (4.5 GHz or less) combined with high-frequency RAM point toward i5-3570K (Ivy Bridge) - due next week.

RAM - higher-frequencies (if you are looking that way) call out for Ivy Bridge (which can actually use them - Sandy Bridge, even the i5-K and i7-K, actually underclock RAM faster than DDR3-1333) however, IB hits the heat wall faster than SB (if you are looking for greater than 4.5 GHz). While gaming gains beyond 8 GB are small-to-miniscule (and are more in only certain games as opposed to across the category - multiplatform titles and ports are therefore the least likely to show any gains) they can be found (PC-exclusive titles and some MMOs). Surprisingly, these categories have some of the smallest gains from HTT (the one go-to technology that i7-k has that i5-k lacks). Gaming (and desktop virtualization) gain most from more RAM (more so virtualization than gaming - however, the gains in gaming are definitely to be had).

8gb vs 16gb ram reddit