What motherboard

[Hicks12]

Right i thought i had decided on this board http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...e-20-(x16)-atx

However im starting to think about alternatives, im getting either i5 or i7 (i can decide that myself after reading some benchmarks later ) overclocking is key along with good support for SSDs as my current mobo is only sata 3 and supports nothing so my ssd drives all run at 100/100 read write LOL. I guess using the IGP doesnt bother me on the cpu cause i will have a dedicated gpu (i guess power usage is a bonus though).

Stability and overclocking basically... what motherboards support UEFI? Id like to have one with that and one of the main reasons why im having second thoughts with the GB board as it doesn't have it

Any suggestions welcomed as i want to order this sometime tomorrow , also price i guess is important id rather spend less than more unless it gives advantages (i want sli/crossfire encase i use it in the future).

[Pob255]

Unless you've only got sata 1.5gbit/s aka sataI then you should be getting more than that, I can only assume your running your sata in ide mode and don't have the sata drivers installed correctly. otherwise there should be no compatibility issues.
Sata is sata, reguardless to what drive is plugged in.

Personally I'd go with i5 2500k as the added cost of the i7 2600k is too much when the only real additional thing you get is HT

That gigabyte motherboard does have an efi bios, gigabyte call it "Touch BIOS" because not only is it purely mouse driven but it's also designed to work with touch screens.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3912#ov
Actually I think that's a very good motherboard, not the cheapest, but good VRM & VRM cooling so should be a good overclocker and not skimping on any features.

[Hicks12]

yeah mine doesnt support ahci, it really is terrible , nvidia 750i chipset based board FTL.

Think im going for the 2500k as even though the 2600k is 30% faster in visual studios with compiling its also 30% more, i could spend that sometime down the line on a better cpu or more towards a better gpu .

Yeah i have noticed that now, seems that and the asus p8z68-v are both good boards... strugling to decide between them. Also noticed Scan have this one http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...e-20-(x16)-atx on today only for £117, cant seem to tell the difference between them except one has B3 on the end?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This P67 based motherboard gets good reviews:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-p...-%28x16%29-atx

[Hicks12]

hmm it does knock off £30 almost (unless i get the other gigabyte off the scan today only at £117), seems to be a pretty damn good motherboard going by this review http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...53-b3-review/5

However it looks as though the sata performance is a fair bit different compared to the asus boards... HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[Noxvayl]

The motherboards with "B3" in the name are older ones from when Intel made that massive cock-up with the chipset. B3 signified they had the "fixed" silicon. Most of them have less features anyway.

I am looking at getting the first board you linked to. I have been using Gigabyte for 4 years now and like their boards. Something to be aware of is that you need to enable/install the Touch BIOS, it isn't natively available like the Asus EUFI-BIOS.

I really don't care about EUFI-BIOS, it's the BIOS not an operating system

[melon]

Im still not sure the overclocking , I read someone on a Amazon review claiming they overclocked i5200
to 4.5 ghz !! ( got no idea what motherboard or cooling system he had though ) i suppose for £20.00 difference between that and the unclocked its seems crazy not to get it.

The motherboard is giving me a headache too .. If im overclocking as Id like to at least try Pobs seems the best , for a newbie like me.

m

[Pob255]

The B3 was the fixed chipset, it's still a p67 just one where the sata controller was fixed.
It just lacks the on integrated graphics (and the ability to use it for video encoding when using a separate graphics card) and the Smart Response Technology (using an SSD as a hard drive cache)
The p67 is no different on overclocking from the z68 as on SB overclocking is all down to cpu multiplier and the stability of the power from the motherboard VRM's

One thing the Asus boards have going for them is the very good automatic overclocking via their "Auto tune" where as the gigabyte auto overclocking system just uses a list of known safe overclocks and does a best guess based on the hardware detected.

Asus high end boards are good, however their lower end boards are not that good for the cost.

EDITne of the other things the Asus boards have is the lovely Quick-sheild which is so much nicer to use than a standard IO shield, with no fiddly bits sticking out.
The Quick-connect is also nice but other brands also use them, the Q-shield is preparatory to asus, again doesn't come with the cheap models.

the P8Z68-V, Pro and EVO do have all these features, the cheaper P8Z68-V LE and LX don't

[Hicks12]

i do like q connect... and asus boards have always been solid/reliable, just this one based off the 750i nvidia chip was poor. Maybe ill get the p8z68-v or pro then, seems a very good performer and i guess i dont need smart response (i got 128gb c300 lol) and encoding doesnt happen every day for me .

Difference between the pro and v? the pro seems to have sli and intel ethernet, thats all i can see and the fact the pro does x8/x8 where as the v does x8/x4 (seems VERY low?) and the pro @ £120 seems to make it a much less appealing motherboard when the z chipsets are £117-£130 , i want sli and atleast x8/x8 so this has just made my life harder again LOL

[Hicks12]

Now ive just seen this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z...a-on-board-atx

PCi-e 3.0 O.o, Cant seem to find info about MSI warranty as alot of places say 3 years and if registered within 30 days its 5 years where as scans website says 12months and other msi listings says 24months lol.

I hate flipping motherboards, so much choice... its to confusing what i need to get for the best performance and cost effectiveness .

[melon]

The B3 was the fixed chipset, it's still a p67 just one where the sata controller was fixed.
It just lacks the on integrated graphics (and the ability to use it for video encoding when using a separate graphics card) and the Smart Response Technology (using an SSD as a hard drive cache)
The p67 is no different on overclocking from the z68 as on SB overclocking is all down to cpu multiplier and the stability of the power from the motherboard VRM's

One thing the Asus boards have going for them is the very good automatic overclocking via their "Auto tune" where as the gigabyte auto overclocking system just uses a list of known safe overclocks and does a best guess based on the hardware detected.

Asus high end boards are good, however their lower end boards are not that good for the cost.

EDITne of the other things the Asus boards have is the lovely Quick-sheild which is so much nicer to use than a standard IO shield, with no fiddly bits sticking out.
The Quick-connect is also nice but other brands also use them, the Q-shield is preparatory to asus, again doesn't come with the cheap models.

the P8Z68-V, Pro and EVO do have all these features, the cheaper P8Z68-V LE and LX don't

hey pob,

So I take it the fiddly bits can make installing the motherboard awkward ?

I dont need video encoding really so the p67 looks alright for £122.00 on scan , their bundle only comes with the LE version though.

m

[Hicks12]

Ok i believe ive come to a conclusion.

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V, £120 via scanshot (emailed last night, funny timing). I am right in thinking the only real difference between the V and the pro is the 2x sata ports? Am i also right in hoping that the 2x 6gb/s sata ports are on the intel chipset thing as opposed to the marvel chip? as i seem to recall marvel being worse compared to intel

Ram: Im not sure, seems postage for tomorrow aint really an option unless i pay £50 lol! Scan seem to have the kingston 8gb at £42 but the timing seems odd, 9-9-9-27 or something where as every other cas 9 i see ends in a 24 . Does ram really matter as long as its branded? i wont be overclocking it (or atleast i dont think i will!).

CPU : 99% sure on the i5, doesnt give me the e-peen compared to my mate thats just spent £2.2k on a system with a 560ti and an intel 980Extreme, lol! But its good enough.

[UseItNow]

Ok i believe ive come to a conclusion.

CPU : 99% sure on the i5, doesnt give me the e-peen compared to my mate thats just spent £2.2k on a system with a 560ti and an intel 980Extreme, lol! But its good enough.

A GTX560Ti you say? E-Peen you say?

He should have got a GTX580 with the 980Extreme, perhaps 2, then I would have said thats E-Peen!

Anyway mate, the builds looking good, BTW, what PSU you going with?

Enjoy!

[Noxvayl]

Ok i believe ive come to a conclusion.

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V, £120 via scanshot (emailed last night, funny timing). I am right in thinking the only real difference between the V and the pro is the 2x sata ports? Am i also right in hoping that the 2x 6gb/s sata ports are on the intel chipset thing as opposed to the marvel chip? as i seem to recall marvel being worse compared to intel

Ram: Im not sure, seems postage for tomorrow aint really an option unless i pay £50 lol! Scan seem to have the kingston 8gb at £42 but the timing seems odd, 9-9-9-27 or something where as every other cas 9 i see ends in a 24 . Does ram really matter as long as its branded? i wont be overclocking it (or atleast i dont think i will!).

CPU : 99% sure on the i5, doesnt give me the e-peen compared to my mate thats just spent £2.2k on a system with a 560ti and an intel 980Extreme, lol! But its good enough.

LOL With your Core i5 2500K your machine will be better at gaming than his machine

For proper E-Peen he needed to get an HD6990, only the fastest card in the world will do for E-Peen satisfaction.

[Hicks12]

I know, he aint good with computers and so thinks its good (i dont want to dis his 2.2k investment... lol!). Flipped a coin between i5 and i7.... i5 won like 10 times, each time i tried it would be i5 that won!.

So ive just bought the following:

LN39507
Asus P8Z68-V, Intel Z68 Motherboard
LN41764
8GB (2x4GB) Kingston DDR3 HyperX Genesis Grey Memory
LN36726
Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked Quad Core CPU
LN40619
ThermalTake TPX-675MPCUK

Total: £401.69
Decided to take out scansure which was £12, only because i know myself to be clumsy and with my water loop i can be pretty sure if i didnt get it i would have a leak immediately and kill everything lol! Still it was £25 cheaper than ebuyer, scanshot bundle was for all of it bar the psu for £323 .

Cant wait! And yeah my i5 will decimate in game and along with my soon to be 7900 series AMD gpu when its released .

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

A GTX560Ti you say? E-Peen you say?

He should have got a GTX580 with the 980Extreme, perhaps 2, then I would have said thats E-Peen!

Anyway mate, the builds looking good, BTW, what PSU you going with?

Enjoy!

Your a one to talk with your "fancy" 8 threaded Core i7!!

I am stuck with a Core i3!!

Cant wait! And yeah my i5 will decimate in game and along with my soon to be 7900 series AMD gpu when its released .

Make sure it isn't a 7900 series Nvidia GPU. The games might end up decimating the GPU!!