Suggestions on s1155 motherboards

[razer121]

As per title, i am finally moving over to sandy bridge and feel the time is about right, new cpus a good 6 months away right? well either way they have come down in price and i7's can be had for under £200 bonus!

So i may have a i7 sorted out if it falls through then back to the i5

But i need a board! and there is like what 4 different chipsets? i have NO idea which does what but as long as i have some basic features i need im happy so to clear things up,

It will be either -
A core i5 2500K or a core i7 2600k

The board would ideally have 4 memory slots,

It would naturally need to be a decent brand!

The colour choice is not major but blacks and blues are prefered (case mod)

It needs to be able to do an overclock on my cpus! only a small one but a overclock either way

One other thing, i use alot of USB's so need at least 6 min on the back.

So has anyone got any good suggestions and more info on which chipset is best?

Just to add, i have £150 to spend on the board it HAS to be a mATX aswell!

Thanks chaps

p.s - MSI is my choice of boards

[Terbinator]

Well, overclocking is limited to the P67/Z68 boards only so thats the chipset sorted for you.

If you have that much to spend on a uATX board i would of thought the only real option was an Asus ROG GENE? Although that would be black/red - not black/blue :/

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...hdmi-micro-atx

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would wait a bit longer - Z77 based motherboards are supposedly being released in the next few weeks.

[Mapester]

would it be worth waiting on Z77? Im kinda in same scenario as the 1st post and Leaning towards an Asrock -Extreme Gen3 z68 mobo + i5-2500k but thats a ATX mobo and not a mATX so not suitable for you.

I'd choose a i5 vs i7 as imo the i7 would be overkill atm and botteneck anyways unless ur doing some serious video encodes or some thing like that requires the extra hyperthreading of the i7.

[format]

NVm, sorry!

[razer121]

Thanks so far guys, always been wary of the ASUS boards due to having alot of problems with past gen products! But if its a decent board i would definatly consider it, seems to fit the bill perfectly!

But before i do go ahead with it i am wanting to know more about it so reviews i must go!

Any other suggestions are welcome.

I'm not going to bother with the next gen, it will be way overkill on the budget i have! already adding extra cash to this new build

Also the i7 2600k looks to be the cpu im using, its only abit over my budget for CPU so stretched to get it.

Edit - scrap that ASUS seems to be the wrong chipset

[kalniel]

They're all fine. They've all got 4 RAM slots. According to scan they all have at least 6 USBs out the back (if not, use a hub!). They all allow a bit of overclocking. They're all blue and black (yawn! ).

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...6%29-micro-atx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...vga-on-board-m

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z...a)-dvi-d-hdmi-

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

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z...board-micro-at

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-board-micro-a

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

would it be worth waiting on Z77? Im kinda in same scenario as the 1st post and Leaning towards an Asrock -Extreme Gen3 z68 mobo + i5-2500k but thats a ATX mobo and not a mATX so not suitable for you.

I'd choose a i5 vs i7 as imo the i7 would be overkill atm and botteneck anyways unless ur doing some serious video encodes or some thing like that requires the extra hyperthreading of the i7.

I would as it will force down prices of the Z68 based ones. Remember,when the Z68 based motherboards were released the P67 based motherboards went down in price.

Here is the first Z77 based motherboard to be released:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/wibtek-f...ard/14411.html

[razer121]

Hm i suppose but i will be without a pc untill the boards come out if i wait...

[Mapester]

ah ic yes that would be good, hopefully they will be about for arround feb this year, as i am thinking of building a Z68 based PC arround then and can't complain if its gonna be cheaper.