Micro ATX Board and Other Components for Gaming Rig

Absincog

Honorable
Jan 20, 2013
4
0
10,510
I am looking to build a mid-range ($1,000-$1,200), compact gaming rig on a micro-ATX platform. Looking for a board with the Z77 chipset. Plan to run an HD 7950 or GTX 670 connected via HDMI for A/V so the on-board audio doesn't matter; and will likely NOT SLI/Crossfire. Plan on an i5 (3570K) or i7 (3770K) processor, and will likely do some moderate overclocking of the CPU. Will likely splurge on a mid-size (~256 GB) SSD; haven't decided which one yet, maybe Samsung 840.

I have been reading up on a few candidate boards - Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3, Asus MAXIMUS V Gene, Asrock Z77 Extreme 4M.

Here is what I'm asking:
- Board recommendation (based on actual experience) - the ones I've listed or others; I'm not opposed to taking a different path
- Memory recommendation (again, based on actual experience, preferably with the board you recommend)
- Case recommendation - I think I like the Lian Li PC-V354 based on prior experience with their products, but would consider something in a similar form factor (note: I plan to put the PC in a living room media center cabinet).

Input welcome - appreciate responses based on actual experience with the product(s) you recommend. Thanks.
 
if your going to use wifi on the system and use a pci wifi card you may want to go with the asus mb as the gigbyte pci slot going to be blocked with a 2x card. the asus bios is simple. the sniper is more of a gaming over clock mb.
for ram i look into low profile ram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148661
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0070066DI/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=njchess-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0070066DI
if the case can then use evo 212.
 

Absincog

Honorable
Jan 20, 2013
4
0
10,510


Thanks for your response. Can you elaborate on what evo 212 is? I didn't understand that part. Thanks.