New build

[Pethegreat]

I got a job just in time for black Monday sales which means I am looking at new build. I am going to reuse my P280 case, sound card, 650w seasonic PSU, hard drives, optical drives, and SSD I have in the mail.

These are the parts I am looking at right now:

Asus Z77 board: Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

i5 3570k: Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K

8gb kit: Newegg.com - PNY XLR8 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model MD8192KD3-1600-X9

7950: Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100352-2L Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

I picked the motherboard because it has a PCI slot and supports PS/2. Any suggestions would need to have both for me to consider.

I plan on overclocking hence the k version. I plan on doing air cooling, but I am not set on specific heatsink. I like the Prolimatech Genesis heatsink because I can get it open box for $55 and reviews I have read put it up there with Noctura and Phanteks for performance. I would need to buy fans for it though.

Newegg.com - Open Box: Prolimatech PRO-GNSS Genesis CPU Cooler

I thought about the GTX670 and 7970, but I can't justifiy an extra $100 on a video card that will only show a difference above 1080p. I don't have any intention of doing SLI or crossfire.

[kow_ciller]

Pretty much the best Z77 budget board: Newegg.com - ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Aside from that, I'd stay away from an Open box heatsink simply because there is a good chance that some of the mounting hardware might be missing.

The rest of the stuff looks pretty good.

[Supa]

That's actually the motherboard I replaced my EVGA motherboard with, mainly for the PCI 3.0 (just wanted to see if there was a little bit of a difference, and there was).

If it doesn't have a CMOS/reset on the motherboard, than the motherboard isn't worth buying.

[MrFancypants]

Looks good. Especially the GPU seems to be a good choice because it is equipped with a very good fan. The standard fans that come with Radeons are crap most of the time. Here is a comparison (in German, but the table explains itself).

There are very cheap PS2 to USB adapters in case any other boards without PS2 may be interesting for you.

[Pethegreat]

I am going to take the recommendation on the asrock board. I picked up an asrock board to replace my DFI board with a bad SATA controller last year. It has a better feature set than the DFI at a $60 lower price point. I would be willing to drop and extra $20 on a board if I could get better features than the asrock board.

Leaning towards the Phantech heatsink because of the dual 140mm fans. I would like to mount it vertically rather than horizontally because of the dual top mounted exhaust fans in my case. Is this possible?