Many questions regarding building a new rig

Hi, guys, im new to this forum but i have been watching tek syndicate for quite some time already.

I am going to build a new gaming PC very soon and when looking up for all the parts to get for my new computer, i ended up with many questions and i relly need some help to make some of my decisions!.

-What are the differences between all the motherboards i see out there. I can tell that a processor with high GHz would definitely run faster in some ways, but for motherboards, there are a wide range of them and the price differences are HUGE. may i know what are the differences between the different mobo and what am i actually paying for in the better mobo?

-My friend accidentally bought 2 sets of 'Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ ' (dont ask me how, its a long story) and cause of that, he is letting one go to me for 100 bucks! I see that this is a really high end ram. I have only bought cheap rams without considering much at all. That was what almost everyone suggests even when i say that i would like a very good gaming computer. So may i know, people who buy these rams, what do they buy it for and what are they good for? or do they just make my computer faster in general if i use them?

-I'd like to give a go in overclocking, but i absolutely have no idea how to go about doing it, and the guides i find are really quite a read. I have not put much effort into it yet i agree, but are there any simple ways of getting into it? 

-The most intensive thing i am going to do on my computer is playing games all at their highest settings while multi-tasking on my 2nd monitor. With that, many advised me to get a i5 and that i7 would not be needed at all. So, i5 be the best option? 

-Lastly, i receantly read up on liquid cooling. Sure i read many guides on them, but i'd like some helpful inputs on the real world feasibilities and the pros and cons of having a liquid system cause the price as compared to air cooling is quite big. I am personally quite a lazy person, so most important question for me is that, how much maintanence is required for a water cooled system?

 

Thanks alot!

1.  The things that set apart motherboards is the feature set.  Some have better power delivery systems, some are factory tested for overclocking, some have any combination of thunderbolt, wifi, bluetooth.  Generally speaking, if you buy any Asus, Gigabyte or MSI board you should be fine but shit can still happen.

 

2. Unless you're aiming for an AMD APU system then the speed of your ram will not have a significant impact on gaming performance but it's a pretty good deal for that ram so I'd go for it!

 

3.  Current Intel CPU are easy to overclock, just change the cpu multiplier and adjust the voltage as needed inside the bios.  Depending on your motherboard manufacturer, it could be even easier if you use the auto-magic software.  I hear OC Genie 2 is pretty good for overclocking newbies.  There are plenty of videos on youtube, as well.  I can't comment on AMD, sorry.

 

4.  Personally I can't join the watercooling club due to the price alone.  I don't find it useful or practical to watercool only part of your system so if I were watercooling, I'd have to spend quite a bit on waterblocks which I don't really have the money for.  Nor do I have the time to design a cool looking loop and mod/buy a window for my case to show it all off.  With that said, I think the end result of a proper watercooled system is fan-freaking-tastic but a bit too rich for my blood.

 

Thanks jeffrly for your quick response! 

 

1. Does this mean that i can really just buy any of the cheaper mobos from Asus, Gigabyte or MSI and they would not differ much from those really high end stuff? I would assume from what you say, those are really geared towards people who have specific needs? 

2. thanks for this piece of information! I agree with you, since it is not much more expensive than any regular 16gb ram, its a steal. Btw, 16gb seems alot to me.. is it an overkill?

3. Ill go look up on OC Genie 2. Also, would certain mobo be easier/better for OC? i guess this is where mobos come into play right? 

4.Water cooling is indeed expensive, which is why i for this, i would really like to hear many others' opinion before considering cause it feels more of a luxury than a need.

1.  Not exactly.  We're at a stage in technology where there's very little that the motherboard manufacturer can do to differentiate their board from the next but things like BIOS user interface or things like OC Genie 2 from MSI, or Fan Xpert 2 from Asus are the small things for the average user that can tip the scales.  Other things they do is optimize the power delivery system on the board whether it's throwing more phases or using better components.  

Gigabyte has what they call Ultra Durable 5 on their newer boards which feature different types of capacitors that run cooler and last longer.  I believe Asus has up to 20-phase power delivery design on their more premium motherboards.  Granted, beefy power delivery systems are useless unless you're aiming for those max overclocks.  MSI stress-tests each and every one of their MPower motherboards so you know that it was 110% working (they also overclock the boards) by the time it leaves the warehouse to distributors.  

Maybe you want some value-added bonuses from your board.  If you buy a Gigabyte board that comes with wifi, it's usually in the form of a pci-e 1x expansion card that you can chose to use in whatever system you want whereas my Asus board (P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt) has onboard wifi in the form of a proprietary card that plugs into an area on the I/O shield so I can't use it in another computer.

Those are the types of features you're looking for.

2.  Yes, for gaming 16GB overkill but who cares, ram is cheap and the ~$50 you save probably won't get you a significant upgrade anywhere else.  Besides, maybe if you decide to make gaming videos then the 16GB of ram now have some use.

3.  Yes and yes.

4.  I'll be the first one to admit I'm not the best person to ask about watercooling but my take on it is it's expensive but looks badass when done right and if I were to go the watercooling route it'd be more for vanity as I don't think the price justifies the performance alone.

ok you have put most of my queries out of the way. Thanks alot you've been really helpful especially on the motherboard part. at least now i know more on what the motherboards can provide, and it gives me more things to look up for since i didnt know how to even start searching for motherboards. Ill have to read up more myself for watercooling or wait for other replies :)

Just a heads up if you didn't know, not sure what kind of watercooling you're interested in, but there's 2 types:

Closed loop: Like the usual Corsair H60, H80, H100 etc... this is much simpler with just the heatsink attached to a fan mounted on your case.

Water block: Advanced water cooling is much more involved with tubes, clamps, pumps, CPU/GPU block, reservoir for super high-end performance which can get pretty pricy.

Hmm, i read about corsair H60-100, they do not cool the GPU. Are there any closed loop cooling which includes the GPU too? and also, closed loop doesnt require maintanence AT ALL right? or is it just a exaggerated 'advertisement'. 

I kinda dont really want to do the waterblock cooling cause im plainly lazy and i probably wont ever OC my computer to the extremes. Thanks for your insights
 

There's a guy on OCN I think his name is Dwood.  He creates brackets for those closed loop type of coolers to mount on various GPUs and takes custom orders, or at least he did the last time I checked.  If you want to watercool but are too lazy/cheap for the custom loop route then this is a decent alternative.

So the idea is you can have an H100 for your CPU and another H100 for your video card.  They don't have to be the same cooler nor do they have to be H100.  you can have an H80 on your CPU and an H100 on your GPU or whatever combination of cooler on them.  Just as long as your case can support mounting two (or more, if you have multiple GPU) radiators.

And yeah those closed loop solutions are theoretically maintenance free.  Just set it, and forget it.  I'd still run them unmounted to test for leaks first, though.

Just google for his thread where he sells his brackets.