Mobo for sandybridge 2500

[menthel]

Hi all,

I am thinking about upgrading my current PC to a sandybridge jobby as its starting to slow down in lightroom etc. I would get a 2500 as I don't need the k as I have no plans to overclock. What mobo would be recommended? As far as I can see a H67 would be fine as I don't plan to overclock.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you can wait a few months AMD Bulldozer will be out in April.

The Core i5 2400 is slightly better value for money than the Core i5 2500.

Ebuyer is also cheaper for the socket 1155 motherboards and processors ATM.

This is the cheapest ATX H67 motherboard which has SATA3.0 and USB3.0:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...s-raid-atx-vga

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/244521

This Gigabyte ATX motherboard looks decent but is pricey:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/247102

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...gb-s-sata-raid

If you don't mind going for a mATX motherboard this one does SATA3.0 and USB3.0 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...s-on-board-vga

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252615

[menthel]

Thanks for that! What will the AMD new CPUs offer over these?

I have never had an intel mobo before, are they any good? (I should hope they are being from intel!)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for that! What will the AMD new CPUs offer over these?

I have never had an intel mobo before, are they any good? (I should hope they are being from intel!)

Firstly,the AMD processors should be more competitive than the current ones and this will mean better prices for us all(hopefully).

It is hard to say how good the performance but the new processors should offer more cores than the current ones. This means at least in any applications which use multiple threads performance could be quite good.

The Intel motherboards tend to do the job and AFAIK are reliable but not flashy.

[menthel]

Reliable but not flashy sounds good to me. I think I will stick with intel cpu's this time round as my last one has lasted for quite a while.

One final question, will the intel HSF supplied be ok for a non-o/ced processor? Are they quite quiet?

You can tell I have not had a new PC in quite some time!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Reliable but not flashy sounds good to me. I think I will stick with intel cpu's this time round as my last one has lasted for quite a while.

AMD CPUs are just as reliable. TBH, if you keep any Intel or AMD CPU at stock clockspeeds it will last for years.

One final question, will the intel HSF supplied be ok for a non-o/ced processor? Are they quite quiet?

You can tell I have not had a new PC in quite some time!

I am not sure how quiet the heatsink is though.

BTW,my PC is probably older than yours!!

I have 975X motherboard and a Q6600 which still does the job fine.

TBH,if you picked up a secondhand Q6700 it would be a decent performance boost too.

Even a Q6600 will be faster than your E6750 for image editing and video encoding:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/60?vs=53

[menthel]

AMD CPUs are just as reliable. TBH, if you keep any Intel or AMD CPU at stock clockspeeds it will last for years.



I am not sure how quiet the heatsink is though.

BTW,my PC is probably older than yours!!

I have 975X motherboard and a Q6600 which still does the job fine.

TBH,if you picked up a secondhand Q6700 it would be a decent performance boost too.

Even a Q6600 will be faster than your E6750 for image editing and video encoding:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/60?vs=53

You are probably right but I have had some dodgy moments with my current setup and the USB ports on my mobo are starting to act up, causing windows to hang sometimes if stuff is in them at boot up, so I think it may be best to upgrade the whole lot and give myself a CPU and ram (go to 8gb) boost at the same time!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You are probably right but I have had some dodgy moments with my current setup and the USB ports on my mobo are starting to act up, causing windows to hang sometimes if stuff is in them at boot up, so I think it may be best to upgrade the whole lot and give myself a CPU and ram (go to 8gb) boost at the same time!

The motherboard did not last even 4 years! That is not very long IMHO.

Looks like an upgrade is in order!

BTW,you need to get 1.5V RAM for socket 1155 motherboards.

This RAM looks like it will do the job:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(...-9-24-xmp-150v

OTH,I don't know why many of these 1600MHZ DDR3 RAM DIMMs need huge heatsinks as they run at lower voltage than DDR or DDR2.

[menthel]

That is some silly looking ram! I wonder if, as the H67 only runs a 1333 max that the normal 1600 will run at 1.5v at 1333. Its a few quid cheaper and not as daft looking!

Damn, looks like scan have been listening! They have a 2500, the silly looking ram and the gigabyte UD3 mobo for £335. Hmm....

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Scan seem to be doing the Core i5 2500 and the Asus P8H67-M PRO for around £238 on Today Only:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

I would get 2X4GB DIMMs instead of 4X2GB DIMMs too.

[Anteries]

Reliable but not flashy sounds good to me. I think I will stick with intel cpu's this time round as my last one has lasted for quite a while.

One final question, will the intel HSF supplied be ok for a non-o/ced processor? Are they quite quiet?

You can tell I have not had a new PC in quite some time!

Funnily enough I've just been playing with a fan on the heatsink of my core I5 2400, which has just arrived. The whole heatsink is a funny little thing it's got a copper core and seems well made.

I've been trying to work out how loud it is before installing, I plugged into my other motherboard, at idle is almost inaudible I had the fan about 3 inches from my ear, my Samsung hard drive was making far more noise, I'm not saying it's completely silent because I could only test it with my computer running and it was hard to tell. But you would never hear it inside your computer case of idle. Cranked up its definitely audible but not particularly extreme.

My advice about motherboards, is to make sure it's got all the features you need. Basically they're all good, but I had an old-style PCI SoundBlaster card, and some point down the line and old-fashioned D sub VGA output might be handy. Take a look at the back panel.

that Asus that was recommended, is a great board, but notice it had slots for two graphics cards but no PCI 2 slots. It is not hugely important, but if you don't play games.

[menthel]

Thanks all. I like the look of the scan bundle with the gigabyte board in it. I do still game but will only ever use 1 gfx card. I just can't be bothered with all of the tweaking, adjusting and driver downloading that living at the cutting edge of PC's causes!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks all. I like the look of the scan bundle with the gigabyte board in it. I do still game but will only ever use 1 gfx card. I just can't be bothered with all of the tweaking, adjusting and driver downloading that living at the cutting edge of PC's causes!

I assume you mean this bundle for £336:

Intel Core i5 2500, Socket 1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.3GHz, 6MB Cache, 95W, Retail
+ 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.50V
+ Gigabyte GA-PH67A-UD3, Intel H67 Express, S 1155, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1333, SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID

However, I would still go with an H67 motherboard though:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4113/l...n-sandy-bridge

[menthel]

I thought from the details that it was a H67 mobo?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I thought from the details that it was a H67 mobo?

Your right!

I would still read the article though!

[menthel]

Your right!

I would still read the article though!

Will do. I am supposed to be working though!