Rig upgrade to i7 3770K

[myles]

Ok, so i know more or less what i want but i need help deciding...

Motherboard in order of choice
1) Asus P8Z77-V Premium
- but i cant find anyone who stocks it locally and price?

2) Asus P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt
- R2855 from comx

3) Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH
- but i cant find anyone who stocks it locally and price?

4) Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3
- R2360 from comx

CPU
i7 3770K
- R3290 from comx

RAM
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3
- R999 from evetech

CASE
- i know i want lots of USB3 ports and it must be full tower. Currently i have a previous generation Thermaltake Armor case.

Motherboards 1, 2 and 3 support Thunderbolt. I only plan on upgrading again in +/- 5yrs.
It would be nice if i could get everything from 1 supplier.
My budget is in the region of R8500.
Dont plan on running more than 2 graphics cards.
Any better options?
Help me decide...

 

[Pada]

What is your current PC's specifications?
Do you like to overclock & run multiple graphics cards?

Will you ever use ThunderBolt? I'd reckon that it is only useful if you're going to use Apple devices such as their screens or portable storage devices, which are both insanely expensive.

I'd rather recommend that you spend slightly less and upgrade a bit more frequently: ~ every 3yrs.

 

[myles]

Current rig:
i7 920
Intel DX58SO motherboard
6GB DDR3 Corsair
GTX660 TI

I would like to explore overclocking and do not plan on using more than 2 graphics cards.

 

[Brawler]

Why not OC your 920 to around 3.8Ghz? and save a lot of cash?

Do you have a SSD? If not that would provide a much more drastic difference.

 

[Pada]

Overclocking on the Sandy & Ivy Bridge CPU's are pretty straight forward, because you basically just increase the CPU multiplier.
It is much more interesting with the X58 chipset!

Overclocking to about 3.6GHz should be fairly simple and without heat complications - such as NB overheating.

Even though your motherboard has just SATA 2 (3Gbps) ports, you'll still benefit much more from a SSD + overclocked i7 920 @ 3.6GHz than an i7 3770k.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

I dont see the point in thunderbolt myself, apple stuff is overpriced.
I personally prefer the ASrock Z77 extreme6 motherboards, got one running my i7 3770k and its a great overclocking board.
I built my system about 2 weeks ago with roughly the same stuff you are looking at but minus the case and with gfx cards etc, little more pricey at R17k

 

[GeOgre]

If you are looking for the Best Overclocking board + enough(10) SATA Ports, get the Asrock OC Formula.

And the Black and Gold looks Great. They Sell for about R3000 and is still R1000+ cheaper than the Asus ROG stuff and even faster than the Asus. However the Extreme6 is an Awesome board.

Thunderbolt is the Next Firewire, overpriced and not commercially not viable at present, Guru3d Recently had an article on this and they also don't see the point as yet.

Their are Motherboard with 2x USB 3.0 headers(for 4 ports), but most chassis only over 2x USB 3.0 ports in front.

2x single 8GB Corsiar Vengeance 1600 Modules will be ~R100 cheaper than a 16GB Kit