New Ivy Bridge Build w/ Possible Watercooling

Hello guys. Looking for some input or suggestions on a new gaming rig.

Just a few general questions so post your opinions!

i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge?
Which Intel 1155 chipset? Z77 ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe, Pro, or Sabertooth? Move up or down?
Snag a 580 Ti or wait for a 680? Dual-mid end or single high?
Jump from my 4x2GB to 4x4GB?

Also, with respects to possibly watercooling my Corsair 600T. Your thoughts on this dual-loop setup.

Quote from MSEMCEE : Hello guys. Looking for some input or suggestions on a new gaming rig. Just a few general questions so post your opinions! i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge? Which Intel 1155 chipset? Z77 ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe, Pro, or Sabertooth? Move up or down? Snag a 580 Ti or wait for a 680? Dual-mid end or single high? Jump from my 4x2GB to 4x4GB? Also, with respects to possibly watercooling my Corsair 600T. Your thoughts on this dual-loop setup.

As usual, it depends on your budget and the games you want to play. Some considerations:

The cpu is rarely a bottleneck for games, so i5 should be fine.

The 580 does not support PCIe 3.0 but the 680 does.

If you want SLI and SSD caching, you have to go with Z77. H77 is out if you want to OC, and Z75 is out if you want SSD caching.

My opinion? Your video card use seems like overkill. I got a 560 Ti almost a year ago and play just about everything at full res (1080p) with very high settings across the board. The card handles all of it very well.

Quote from hbarnwheeler : As usual, it depends on your budget and the games you want to play. Some considerations: The cpu is rarely a bottleneck for games, so i5 should be fine. The 580 does not support PCIe 3.0 but the 680 does. If you want SLI and SSD caching, you have to go with Z77. H77 is out if you want to OC, and Z75 is out if you want SSD caching.

Going over my numbers I can't afford an i7, but can def. go with an i5. Maybe a 2550k or 2400k? I'd like to get a new Z77 motherboard as well.

Quote from kakomu : My opinion? Your video card use seems like overkill. I got a 560 Ti almost a year ago and play just about everything at full res (1080p) with very high settings across the board. The card handles all of it very well.

Looking at the prices, I don't think I can get an 580 Ti so a 680 is out of the question at the moment. A 560 Ti I can most certainly go for.

I hope to do some overclocking on both.

Do not forget the Microcenter 2500k bundles if you can get to a store. I think it is one of the best deals out there. Z68 offers a great value.

Quote from UnixAdmin : Do not forget the Microcenter 2500k bundles if you can get to a store. I think it is one of the best deals out there. Z68 offers a great value.

Gah, I know, and I would but I live in Upstate NY and there isn't one around.

I can get a 2550k for $200 but am wondering if I the waiting is even worth it.

Also remember that all of these parts are not out yet for the most part (CPU & MB & GPU \ wise) so there is not a ton to backup what people are saying here with hard numbers and benchmarks. The things we can say is about ram. I personally would make the jump to 4X4 modules. While 8gb will be plenty, you are building a really expensive top of the line machine here, so stopping at 8gb seems silly. Ram is cheap anyways.

Quote from LiquidRetro : Also remember that all of these parts are not out yet for the most part (CPU & MB & GPU \ wise) so there is not a ton to backup what people are saying here with hard numbers and benchmarks. The things we can say is about ram. I personally would make the jump to 4X4 modules. While 8gb will be plenty, you are building a really expensive top of the line machine here, so stopping at 8gb seems silly. Ram is cheap anyways.

Yeah I'm deciding I'm gonna wait and see what people say about the Z77 boards before I decide. Currently I'm still going with an i5 2550k for a little over $200 (or at $200 if I can get a deal).

I currently have a Sapphire 5850 and am wondering if it's even worth upgrading to a 560 Ti, unless I go to a 570 or 580.

Will most certainly jump to 16GB with the new build. Any suggestions?

1. mobo: consider Z68
2. graphic: at that price range, Radeon 7870 appears to be the better bang for the buck
3. ram: 8gb for i5 is probably sufficient if you are primarily using it for games, as long as games are still compatible with 32bit window system (i.e. 4GB ram limit). but then RAMs are cheap these days... as LiquidRetro pointed out

ya, no idea why you'd want 16gb of ram for gaming...

Quote from demn : ya, no idea why you'd want 16gb of ram for gaming...

Ya it's probably overkill but he is going all out, going to watercool which is pretty much unnecessary too, so this is an enthusiast build, rationality goes out the window a bit. RAM is cheap these days so it really wont add much expense and if he ever decides to edit lots of HD video or 3D modeling he will be set. Also with this much ram you can disable things such as the HD Cache, etc which does provide some performance improvements although they are minimal.