Gaming Rig Upgrade

[npsimp]

I'm upgrading my HTPC to handle some serious gaming. I'm a PC gaming enthusiast, but no expert.

Regarding the components below, what I'm wondering is:

* Do they mesh? (do the components compliment each other, or do one or more stand too far, or below, the rest)
* Is there a recognized leader in RAM? I Google, but get very mixed results. Maybe it's just preference/experience.
* Is a stock fan good enough for the CPU for gaming (not planning to OC... for now)

ASUS P8Z77-V Pro LGA1155
Intel Core i5 3570K
Patriot Viper 8GB 2X4GB DDR3
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670

Thank you very much to anyone who provides feedback. Very much appreciated.

 

[iyzik]

I can vouch for that Motherboard it is absolutely amazing, ASUS makes the best mobos IMO. As for the CPU I had on of those also and it is very good, plenty for a GTX 670 so yes they mesh. As for RAM it's not SUPER important what company you buy it from but in general G.SKILL is the best followed by Corsair. And the GTX 670 is an amazing card but you might want to consider an opposite AMD card depending completely on what games you want to play. This generation the performances is very close between 670 and 7970, 7970 ghz and 680...etc they trade blows in a lot of games. If you want Frosbite 2 then go for NVIDIA, if you want the new Metro and Crysis in 2013 you might want to take a look at what red team has to offer.

EDIT: almost forgot the fan, personally I have a Noctua NH-D14 for my i7 and it is very nice. Good for massive overclocking and keeps it very cool with no OC.

 

[npsimp]

Thank you very much Iyzik for the reply.

I'm on the fence with maybe moving down to the P8Z77 Lk instead of the Pro - the extra wireless and OC features aren't quite for me. ASUS's own website comparisson tool doesn't have details on the Pro, so that doesn't help.

Moving to Corsair Vengeance memory instead.

I read lot's of good things on the GTX 670. The games I'm playing are Skyrim, The Witcher 2, and going to get Dishonored. Using a 6870 right now and have a couple small issues with Skyrim - seems NVidia is better from what I've read. And Witcher 2 keeps crashing.

Also, since I'm playing on a TV, res won't be higher that 1080. Again - thanks for the input.

 

[npsimp]

Best answer selected by npsimp.

 

[pauls3743]

Just thought I'd point out, any P67, Z68 or Z77 board will allow easy overclocking of a K series processor. If you really don't want to overclock then downgrade to a H77 motherboard and a non-K processor. Like you said, you don't plan to OC, just yet, but you will have that capability when the time comes.

 

[npsimp]

So I went with something similar to what I originally intended:

ASUS P8Z77-V Lk (instead of the Pro)
Intel Core i5 3570K
G.SKILL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3 (instead of Patriot Viper)
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 (instead of Gigabyte)

Super happy with the results so far - Windows scored graphic capability at 8.1. Cudos to Windows 8 btw for not a single hiccup with all these new components - first boot after hardware install took 30 seconds. I just loaded ASUS chipset and NVidia drivers after booting and was off and running. So pumped to be running Skyrim on ultra with all settings maxed out!

Was a nice surprise getting Assassin's Creed 3 free with the EVGA purchase - didn't even notice that while checking out.

Thanks again for the replies.