how is this mobo

[MSI_PC_GAMER]

hey i am buying a new mobo tonight and i was looking at buying the msi z77a-gd65 but how is it for gameing and overclocking i like it cuz its blue and black i love blue im not planing on useing the 1sec oc thing but i wanted a bord that did not cost alot but still was nice looking and should i go with a 3570k or a 3770k its for gameing plus vid stuff 2 i fgered the 3770k would be best for both stuff im doing and also prob gona buy a corsair h100i but not useing stock fans and i have noctua nt-h1 premium grade thermal compound 2 use on the cpu is it any good i have not used it yet

[CaseySean01]

1. The motherboard should be a very good choice. You can't really go wrong with MSI. I would normally recommend getting an ASUS motherboard, because they're the best out of all of them, but for gaming and overclocking, this motherboard should be great. It also comes with 4 memory slots so throw 4 sticks of RAM in there for quad-channel.

2. For gaming, the Intel Core i5-3570K is roughly comparable in performance to the AMD 8350, which is fantastic. For gaming, the i5 would definitely be a great choice, however since you're planning on using it for video editing, and you may need the extra power, I suggest going with the i7-3770K (I own one, and it is an absolute beast, especially when overclocked).

3. Personally, I use the H60 for liquid cooling and its sufficient. Cores idle at 30 degrees celsius. However, you can't go wrong with the H100i - I'm sure you'll love it.

4. You don't necessarily need to get aftermarket thermal compound, (I just use the compound that comes already installed on the processor), but if you don't mind spending the extra 15-30 dollars, go ahead.

Hope this helps. let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to email me.

[bwskillz]

Alright,, for the CPU/Cooler stuff:

By video stuff do you mean like rendering? Cuz if you're doing hardcore rendering I would definantly go with the 3770k. If it is minor video stuff, I would stay stick with the 3570k and just overclock to say something like,,, 4.5Ghz. You can easily get great and similar performance for about $100 cheaper. One of the reasons I am recommending this is because of the cooler you chose. I personally have the original H100 and it works great for me. I, however, am using stock fans but changing soon anyways but they do their job if you need them. I run an i5-2500k @ 4.5Ghz and it keeps it around 50-60 degrees C while doing "hardcore gaming sessions" lol. Really I look at it as: i5 for gaming and i7 for gaming+rendering/other video stuff. Note: if you are doing rendering make sure you have more than 8GB of ram cause it uses more ram than gaming. 16GB is recommended from what I have been told.

For thermal paste,, Corsair is generally good about high quality paste. In this fairly old but useful round up:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/geek_tested_17_thermal_pastes_face?page=0,1

it shows your Noctua compound isn't that much different if not a little worse than the stock paste. Note: Corsair waterloop coolers come with pretty high quality Shin-Etsu pastes preinstalled. So in my opinion, there is no harm done using the paste if you want, but if you wanna save some time in your build you don't have to.

For the motherboard, it looks good to me and the reviews are also looking good but I don't know much about other boards right now considering I am an Asus ROG fanboy lol. But looking at the numerous reviews on Newegg (sorry Linus :) ), most are saying it's easy to Overclock and hold very good overclocks if you want using both the OC Genie utility or doing it manually. I'd go for it on looks along with the good reviews to be honest but that's me lol.

Hope this helps,

Ben S.

[MSI_PC_GAMER]

im useing it for gaming+rendering/other video stuff all prob just go with the ic diamond paste its also linus fav to use so should be good and for the h100i im use gelid wing 120mm fans

[bwskillz]

For more reference on the CPU you might want to look at this:

http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/community-portal/general-discussion-offtopic/150953-potential-desktop-gaming-editing-pc-spec

But pretty much if you are doing professional hardcore editing and rendering stick with the 3770k. Otherwise go with the 3570k and either save and keep money or put that saved money into something else like peripherals or something else you could step up.