What motherboard to buy?

[floppybootstomp]

What the title says. I may be in a position to upgrade in a short while but I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to latest features, seeing as how my newest machine was made around March 2007.

Would be going i7 Socket 1155 B3 revision and need the following features:

SATA ports to take:

1) SSD Hard Drive
2) Two existing SATA 2 hard drives
3) Two existing SATA optical drives
4) Ideally a few extra SATA ports, presumably SATA 3 ports

Onboard LAN
Room to take just one large video card
RAID facility optional on two of the SATA ports
Room to take large CPU cooler

And that's it really, not bothered about PATA ports; Firewire; floppy drive port; eSATA; onboard sound; Xfire or Sli; or onboard test switches but a front USB 3 header device would be a good thing though not vital.

Budget between £100-£200.

I favour Asus & Gigabyte but am open to ideas so any recommendations?.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Alright, I'm confused now. All socket 1155 i7's & i5's appear to have integrated graphics. WTF?

 

[V_R]

Considering a bundle? Maybe a pre overclocked one?

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Bundles/ - (I know you dont like OcUK. )

Be aware that some Asus boards have a some kind of double boot issue. If that is a problem to you.

EDIT: That said about Aria, i'd be very interested regarding the volts used to get to 4.80Ghz in this bundle...

Anything above 1.35-1.38v and it will kill the CPU quicker. Cowboys....

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ah, sussed it, it's a socket 1366 board I want for an i7 without graphics.

As I've often remarked, in my long history with OCUK I've only ever had one slight problem which was an irritation, namely they didn't ship as one item shown in stock wasn't in stock and they didn't let me know so muggins here stayed in all day to take a delivery that wasn't on it's way.

Had the same problem with Play.com by way of interest so now Amazon my preferred supplier for games and media.

It's other people's problems with OCUK that make me wary.

Ok, have chosen 4 core i7 3.2Ghz, what's a good cooler for that? Don't mind paying around 50 quid but if there's anything good for less then that would be good. I like Noctua coolers but I read there are better coolers on the market now.

A bundle is a good idea but there seems to be always one thing I don't like, like they'll use an MSI board or a no-name brand of memory. And I'm also not really bothered about overclocking but I'd probably try for a modest overclock with a new system.

 

[V_R]

Nah go for the 1155 2500K or 2600K (Sandybridge) will be fine, I'd have one of them rather than one of the Nehalem/Bloomfield.

If your looking to save a few quid get an i5, its a quad core with 4 threads (i7 is Quad with 8 threads) - Will be fine for gaming as games dont tend to use 8 cores anyway.

Personally if i were in your position now, i'd go for this... (with 8GB rather than 4, you pick which MB you want)

Krypton Z68 600i Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.60GHz Overclocked Bundle

Saving £70 over the i7 2600K bundle, which can/could go towards a GPU (That Refurbed 480) / SSD etc = A Kickass PC for about 600 Quid. Bargain.


Sorted.

BTW, OCing the i series is well worth doing, big performance gains to be had.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I am becoming confused. That Asus motherboard has onboard grafix, I know I don't need to use them but it just don't feel right.

Here's what I'd figured out, I do rather like the motherboard, seems perfect for what I want.

I don't really fancy a 480, not even for £160.00 but I didn't realise how expensive Nvidia cards are, which is why I've gone for a 550.

The reason I may be in a position to upgrade is that back in April a pension I subscribed to matured and it looks as though I may be getting a lump sum. When, I'm not sure but I've been itching to upgrade for some time now.

The pension firm had been trying to find me since April and they eventually did. It couldn't have come at a better time as with so little work (read - none) I was really getting quite worried. Which seems to have been the story of my life, each time it looks like I'm going to fall into the abyss a safety net appears out of the blue.

Anyhow, other than the onboard graphics that bundle does actually look quite good. Food for thought.

 

[floppybootstomp]

PS: I have a Corsair modular 620W PSU which I feel is probably on the margin for a new system so I may have to add a PSU to the list, probably a Corsair between 800 & 1000W.

 

[Electronics & Photo Fan]

All the Sandybridge (1155) processors have the onboard graphics actually built into the processor - I didn't/don't want to use integrated graphics either so I'm using a dedicated graphics card. I'm told some technology exists in the Z68 chipset motherboards so that when you're not gaming or doing anything graphically intensive the onboard graphics actually output through the dedicated graphics card monitor output. To save energy. How true this is or how it works I don't know.

I just built a new machine, Like you floppybootstomp my last PC was way back in Summer 2006 so this was all new to me too - done loads of reading and went with this spec -

ASRock Z68 PRO3 (B3) Motherboard
Intel Core i5 2500k 1155 3.2GHz
8GB Mushkin Blackline DDR3-1600
CoolerMaster 650W PSU
Corsair H60 closed loop watercooling
(From my old machine) Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4850
Plus HDDs etc

Highest stable overclock 4.2GHz so far, but it will go much higher. It flies (as can be seen by my recent crunching returns!!)

As a side note - The 1366 socket is apparantely due for replacement later this year with the 'LGA2011' socket motherboards. But then again I hear Sandybridge is gonna be superceded by 'Ivybridge' at some point...

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the reply E&PF, I've been doing some reading on the LGA2011 socket and it seems the socket will support the soon-to-come range of Sandybridge-E CPU's as well as the 'standard' range of new i7's that will be introduced.

I was surprised to find all sandybridge processors had internal graphics, even more surprised to find Intel had named them i7 as the architecture of the two i7's is completely different.

With socket 1366 CPU's now looking a little long in the tooth and new features not far away I think I'm going to wait but for now upgrade Graphics card, PSU and get an SSD drive.

Am also going to explore maybe going AMD route.

 

[CSB]

Hi FBS

Sounds great about your plans to upgrade soon and I hope it all goes well for you.

Personally, I would stay clear from all these pre overclocked systems as all these companys just seem to want to out do each other and they end up pushing the system over the edge when it comes to stability. I have myself read many posts on here infact with people purchasing a system like this, only then having to return it etc.

I have also found the Noctua NH D14 HSF to be excellent and my CPU cores have all stayed low, even after playing high spec games. It's true that there may now be better coolers out there now, as I stoped looking once I got mine. However, with the shape and design of this cooler, it does fit nicely into a lot of motherboards.

I was going to wait for the Sandybridge myself, but then I did need a new PC asap. The launch of Sandybridge didn't go so well as we all know, so it did make me feel glad I didn't have to go returning a motherboard to get it fixed. Although of course the newest revisions are better than i7 Bloomfield from what I have read. Well they would have to be wouldn't they if they are to replace Bloomfield lol.

I feel today things move to fast, so you could be waiting forever to build a new system with the latest Mobo/CPU core. The graphics card is probably something you can save money on as the latest only seem to give you slightly better frame rates anyway and I spent nearly £400 on my Asus Nvidia 580, although I guess it will last me longer than a 550.

Anyway, it all comes down to what you want to use it for isn't it. I wanted mine for gaming and is why I bought the specs below. Happy shopping and I'm sure you'll love building the new machine, whatever the specs will be.

 

[V_R]

Personally, I would stay clear from all these pre overclocked systems as all these companys just seem to want to out do each other and they end up pushing the system over the edge when it comes to stability. I have myself read many posts on here infact with people purchasing a system like this, only then having to return it etc.

Not all of them, Aria are pushing that bundle i posted above too far, they must be over the safe vcore limit....


Also i'd just like to add, but do you remember that my MB/CPU/RAM is a pre overclocked bundle from OcUK? Which has been good as gold since the day i got it, (Almost two years now) I've even pushed it to 4.2Ghz and its still perfectly happy. Sorry but its also down to the user too, badly seated HSF, insisting of messing with BIOS settings that they may not fully understand etc...... Its not always the retailers fault.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the reply CSB, apreciated.

I'm actually quite confused. It seems the best bet would be a sandybridge CPU (assuming new gen and not one with inbuilt probs). But new technology around the corner.

But new technology is always around the corner and if I waited, I'd wait forever, I know that.

However, it seems change is quite near but it also seems Intel are having probs with new CPU's and they won't feature everything they hoped they would.

Plus, release date seems to have changed from Q42011 to Q12012 which doesn't make me too confident.

I think an AMD system may be a better bet tbh but would that actually improve a lot on the base system I have? The one I built in Nov '06? Not sure.

Methinks new grafix, SSD drive and maybe PSU for now. Then watch & wait until early next year.

As for the overclocked systems, I remember one member's negative experience with an OCUK bundle, think it was reefsmoka. If I'm going to overclock, I'll do it myself thank you, cos each chip is different, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

 

[V_R]

As for the overclocked systems, I remember one member's negative experience with an OCUK bundle, think it was reefsmoka. If I'm going to overclock, I'll do it myself thank you, cos each chip is different, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

Just to balance the bundle negativity, Finch, (The guy i play games with, he's on here sometimes) also has a pre OC'ed bundle from OcUK, both his and mine work flawlessly.

But of course your always going to hear more bad than good as its human nature to complain rather than compliment.

Dont forget the bundles are stress tested for 24 hours prior to shipping too, and that goes for all retailers not just OCUK, including Aria, Scan etc.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.mbreview.com/

A bit of reading here might help you.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2604&page=3

A few points I picked up on from the above review might be of interest.

If you were savvy enough to buy an unlocked Intel Core i5 2500K or 2600K 'Sandy Bridge' CPU from the start, you already know the unlocked CPU multiplier will let you push these chips into the mid-4 GHz range with ease...

Bottom line, let the benchmark results serve as a reminder that newer model numbers don't always mean better performance figures. Features are easy to add, but raw performance is what a computer draws on every day of the week. While the Intel P67 chipset has been recalled, re-issued in a b3-stepping and out-modeled by the Intel Z68, it offers exactly the same benchmark performance to SSD-installed operating systems. In short, if you can find it cheap, snap it up and lock a couple graphics cards into the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 motherboard!

http://www.pcstats.com/articlesearc...gory=175&CategorySearch=Get+Listing&sort=date