Mobo Bundle

[Ectomar]

Hey there, I'm thinking of upgrading my current system and this mobo combo at my usual local retailer is on sale and I'm wondering if the components work well together as there is a couple of things I'm unsure of.

Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

Patriot Gamer 2 DDR3 1600 2x4gb
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220558

i5-2500k
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

The Mobo sounds like its a decent board for some mild oc'ing and gaming. However the memory is rated at 1.65v and the mobo says it only supports 1.5v, is this an issue?

Also I am not sure how to tell if my current PSU ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002 ) will power this combo for now...

If the mobo isnt a great one, I'm going to look at an ASUS P8Z68 board of some level with different ram ( completely different setup lol) or are there any solid recommendations for setups?

 

[o1die]

If the patriot series is on sale (less than 1.5v ram) then you can probably run it at 1.5v and 1333 setting in manual mode, which is what Intel recommends. Otherwise, select some different ram. I use patriot and gskill 1.5v 1333 ram in two of my systems. Both run well. The newegg reviews are decent for your board, so I would use it if your case takes atx boards.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Thanks o1die. The more people that get the word on the memory the happier I will be. I have heard from to many people that have had problems with the higher voltage memory (anything above 1.5v ±5%) on our Intel® Core™ processors.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Ectomar]

If the patriot series is on sale (less than 1.5v ram) then you can probably run it at 1.5v and 1333 setting in manual mode, which is what Intel recommends. Otherwise, select some different ram. I use patriot and gskill 1.5v 1333 ram in two of my systems. Both run well. The newegg reviews are decent for your board, so I would use it if your case takes atx boards.

Are you suggesting only 1333 Ram with the i5 then?

 

[o1die]

No. Not if the 1600 is the same price. Most 1600 will run fine at 1333, and several models run at 1.5v. As I stated earlier, it's usually ok to run 1.65v ram at 1.5v at a slower speed, so the choice is yours based on price and reviews. I go by newegg reviews on most items. Just stick to cl9 ram, not the more exotic high end stuff with lower timings.

 

[Ectomar]

Well, from what I've been reading and looking up, I've pretty much decided to change mobo makers, and ram.

RAM g.skill Ripjaw X series 4X4GB
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231426

ASUS P8Z68V-GEN3
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131792

Overall it comes out more and doesnt really matter because the bundle sale earlier is over now anyhow. I would rather the better products for a bit more anyday! I really dont want to get burnt on the RAM tho as my current setup is being underclocked because the board/cpu combo cannot handle the full spec RAM which is my bad when I built my first ever system 3 years ago.

Thanks for sticking with the questions so far!

Food for thought, I'll be taking advantage of the SRT tech hooking up this SSD (but at a price of 169.99 after a $20 mail in rebate at my local store) ...
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706