Budget 1366 Motherboard + RAM advice needed

[Gunbuster]

My friend is rebuilding his beast of a rig and has offered me his old i7 920 and Corsair H50 for £100.

This even to my rusty ears sounds like a good deal. I am currently stuck on a Core 2 e4400 with a motherboard that is hard to upgrade with.

I was already planning on getting a far better case and then building up my components.

Soo, ignoring the other parts (PSU etc).

What are my best budget options for an x58 motherboard? Also what are my options for ram? do I have to have a tri channel kit? DDR3 seems awfully expensive these days to what I remember it being.

I realise that cheapest=!best the Aria X58i looked good until I read up on the XFX X58i, although I guess its Aria's warranty not XFXs, if that is worth anything??

I had planned on an AM3 setup where the motherboards seem much better VFM, however I doubt my CPU and cooler would have come in at £100.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Getting a Core i7 920 and an H50 for £100 looks good value. However make sure that the CPU has not been overclocked using silly voltages though.

Regarding motherboards these are the cheapest X58 motherboards I can find after the XFX one:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=34709

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ource=googleps

http://www.svp.co.uk/technology/comp...msi-01001.html

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ource=googleps

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...source=froogle

This is quite a good X58 motherboard for the price as it has USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...6Gb-s-RAID-ATX

You could always start with a 3GB kit if you want to save money.

[nibbler]

It's possible to put dual channel DDR3 in I thought? Or is it that it's possible to use a triple channel kit on AM3...?

[Skulltrail]

Anything Gigabyte or Asus should be a safe bet:

For the absolute minimum cost (bar a few I’d give a miss): http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX (£141.20)

The cheapest, but still good, with USB 3 and SATA 3: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...6Gb-s-RAID-ATX (£156.47)

For slightly higher OCs than the above, and with the possibility of 3-way SLI or Crossfire: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-ATX (£151.77)

As above, but with USB 3 and SATA 3: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...3Gb-s-RAID-ATX (£170.57)

The main difference is that the Asus’s give 3x PCI-2.0 x16, rather than the 2x PCI-2.0 x16 on the Gigabyte, whereas the Gigabyte’s offer more SATA and USB ports, usually 8 verses 6.

I would recommend getting one of the boards with SATA 3 and USB 3 as for the sake of ~£10 you get a real boost in usability a few years down the line – probably more so with the USB 3 than the SATA 3.

The Asus’s may well achieve about 200MHz or so higher OC than the Gigabyte’s, although all of the above should reach 3.8 without issue. If you wanted to OC above that, the Asus’s would have the edge and the Corsair H-50 should facilitate that.

Ultimately, the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R is probably your best bet, although if you could stretch to the Asus P6X58D-E, it is probably the best of the above boards, but by a slim margin.

Price wise, I just looked quickly on Scan, but in CAT’s post he found the same for better prices, so shop around!

Hope this helps!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can run the RAM in dual channel in an X58 motherboard.

However 6GB of DDR3 can be had for around £100:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ource=googleps

[Terbinator]

Thats 3GB Cat?

Edit: NVM.

[Skulltrail]

RAM wise, you really need 1600MHz+ to see the benefit of DDR3 due to the increased latency compared with DDR2. Accordingly, you will be look at bout £150 for a 6GB set.

This OCZ at 1600MHz with 8-8-8-24 timings (rather than the usual 9-9-9-24) is a good starting point at £149.99 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...1600LV6GK.html)

£20 more will buy G.Skill with tight 6-8-6-20 timings. These can also run at quite a low voltage compared to the others. (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...L6T-6GBPI.html)

If you were feeling extravagant, £183 would buy 6GB of G.Skill 2000MHz CAS9 memory, although this will probably offer little real world benefit. (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...L9T-6GBTD.html)

Generally, above 1600MHz, choose latency over MHz. I find Scan expensive for RAM, so shop around. Novatech is pretty good and has free delivery.

[Terbinator]

Faster RAM will require you to OC as well though, just out of interest what is the RAM multi on the 920 ?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Since the OP is on a budget I would suggest looking at the following motherboard:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=34709

However,it still is nearly £30 more than the XFX motherboard.There are a few other motehrboards I mentioned in post 2 for around the same price or around £10 less but this motherboard looks a safe choice IMHO. The Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R costs around £156 delivered from Scan and has USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 like I said before.

You can also get 3GB of this relatively low latency 1600MHZ DDR3 for under £80 delivered:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/826680...y/Product.html

There is 6GB of this Geil 1800MHZ DDR3 for around £153 delivered:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/136087...t/Product.html

You can also get 6GB of this Geil 1333MHZ DDR3 RAM for around £130 delivered:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/136086...t/Product.html

OcUK are also doing some 6GB 1333MHZ and 1600MHZ DDR3 kits for around £140 delivered.

[Gunbuster]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

It has been overclocked before, but he specifically mentioned that he used a relatively minor voltage increase. Judging by the rest of his build this is a genuine upgrade, rather than punting off of a duff CPU.

As you can see from my current setup even a normally clocked 920 and 6GB should be a massive upgrade.

I really do appreciate the help, I just don't build that often anymore so I don't have much advice to give or often needing to receive. Will let you all know.

[Gunbuster]

Quick follow up. I am buying the 920+h50 on the 16th. Following the advice from the likes of Skulltrail I will probably not be cheaping out too much on the motherboard and will be getting USB3 and SATA3 as I don't plan on doing an overhaul again for quite some time. However in the short term I might just get a single stick of DDR3 to tide me over for a month or two so I can get the car's MOT and my next set of Glasses out of the way. These are both essentials for me (strong prescription, chipped current specs) so I can live on 2GB for the short term. Probably upgrading to 6GB later this year, SSD after that and so on. Cheaping out on the Mobo seems like a bad idea anyway, same goes for the case so I will probably future proof on that regard too. My current case and motherboard walls to any kinda upgrade at the moment.

Ram wise I will revisit all of your advise, when I go to do it right. Thanks for everyones help.

[Gunbuster]

Final follow up, I ended up getting a ASUS P6X58D-E for £148 and 6GB of Corsair XMS3 1333 C7 DDR3 from Play's sale for £99.

Cheers all.

[Terbinator]

Not bad at all, especially on the RAM.