Finish What You Start

[misterlarry]

My parents always told me that and with that being said, here's the situation. Within the last two weeks I have upgraded the machine in my signature with a new GPU, SSD, Hybrid HD, and Windows 7 (about $610). Naturally I'm enjoying the new feel of the rig but now the bottlenecks are getting to me and I'm left wondering "what would it be like if I had finished the upgrade?

I'm thinking about adding the following components and just want to know if anyone sees any inherent issues with my choices. Naturally, I'm trying to do it without breaking the bank, so if you can tell me how to get the same bang for my buck with less money, then I would really appreciate hearing about it.

Mobo: Newegg.com - ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Ram: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9Q-16GAB

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

I do some gaming, OCing, and web surfing and that is about it, but would like to have the option to upgrade the CPU and possibly add a 2nd GPU at a later date (much later date). Will my current power supply (circa 2008) work with the new mobo? I think I'll need a new power supply before I can SLI (again... later date).

Anyways folks, I would appreciate any input that the community might have. Thanks a lot in advance.

[stoanee]

You should be good with that psu. Once you finish your build you could plug it in via a "kill-a-watt" meter or similar, stress it and see what you are pulling from the wall. If you are not close to your max psu output then carry on. If you go sli you will probably have to upgrade psu. The "baby bear" in my system drop down was pulling about 600 watts from the wall with cpu & gpu folding and killed an older 750 watt PC Power & Cooling psu.

[EmptyMellon]

Only a suggestion; since you are looking to upgrade, why not wait till the end of April and you can get your hands on the new Ivy Bridge proc's and hopefully Z77 boards as well. Or get the Z68s at a discount, unless the release date has been moved.

[misterlarry]

Thanks for the input. I think that the Z68 chip will give me a good deal of future proofing and I like to use things with a little bit of a track record. I may have already made a noob mistake though and I wonder if anyone can tell me how badly I may have fouled up.

I ordered the ram listed above last night because I had a 15% promo code for it. Now I realize that this particular model of ram has not been "tested" with the mobo that I want to order. Other G.Skill Ares ram of the same speed and timings has been tested and works fine.

What are my chances that I will have no issues with this combination of ram and mobo? Thanks everyone.

[misterlarry]

So I stuck an i5 2550K and the Asrock Z68 and G.Skill ram in tonight. What a smokin' hot difference. Still waiting on my Corsair H80 to come in and then we'll get to crankin' up the OC. Wow... so this is what modern computing feels like.