Which mobo!!!

[Ryanster84]

Hello peeps

Im new here so hihi

Im about to order a x58 system ( should I really wait for Sandy bridge? )
ive narrowed my motherboard search down to either a gigbyte UD3R or the asus sabretooth, which do you think is the better board guys? I will be using the machine for gaming and media and plan to OC an I7 950 to 4ghz, I may also invest in sli or crossfire

any help appreciated

 

[cmndr_andi]

To be honest - the Gigabyte X58A UD3R, ASUS Sabertooth TUF and ASUS P6X58D-E are all great motherboards. All overclock as well as each other. Which one is better for you really depends on the features you favour. The Sabertooth has the best onboard cooling and some of the components are high-grade, the P6X58D-E has 16+2 phase power (others have 8+2), the Gigabyte has 10 SATA ports and is the cheapest. The boards also have different arrangements of PCIe and PCI ports - so chose the one that has the best arrangement for your uses.

As for waiting for sandy bridge - if you can, I would. Its just over a month away and it will be faster than current generation i7 in CPU heavy tasks.

 

[Ryanster84]

To be honest - the Gigabyte X58A UD3R, ASUS Sabertooth TUF and ASUS P6X58D-E are all great motherboards. All overclock as well as each other. Which one is better for you really depends on the features you favour. The Sabertooth has the best onboard cooling and some of the components are high-grade, the P6X58D-E has 16+2 phase power (others have 8+2), the Gigabyte has 10 SATA ports and is the cheapest. The boards also have different arrangements of PCIe and PCI ports - so chose the one that has the best arrangement for your uses.

As for waiting for sandy bridge - if you can, I would. Its just over a month away and it will be faster than current generation i7 in CPU heavy tasks.

Thanks for the reply

OK so its just down to visuals for me as all 3 boards you mentioned easily cater for my needs, How much faster are we talking with SB? as I understand the launch of SB will only offer mainstream parts, enthusiast parts arent avail until the end of 2011!!! Im also a little concerned about overclocking the new SB CPUS. ive read ud need a special "K" series chip with factory unlocked multi in order to OC, my guess is these will be very expensive, This is why ive been thinking I7 930/950 and OC to 4GHZ, that sort of core coupled with a top of the line video card should last me a good 2 years right?

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Custom PC have a review of the Sabretooth this month.. Very good motherboard in their opinion.

Ask your self, "What are you waiting for in Sandybridge"? The i7 platform is cheaper than what it was a year ago and to be honest, an overclocked i930 or i930 is going to high end for the foreseeable future and even for a few years since it's direct replacement isn't due until end of 2011. Even then, providing your system is performing wel, then it upgrading further maybe be meaningless in real world apps and games.

Upgrade when you feel it's right for you. Worry about forthcoming technology as and when you need to.

 

[Ryanster84]

Custom PC have a review of the Sabretooth this month.. Very good motherboard in their opinion.

Ask your self, "What are you waiting for in Sandybridge"? The i7 platform is cheaper than what it was a year ago and to be honest, an overclocked i930 or i930 is going to high end for the foreseeable future and even for a few years since it's direct replacement isn't due until end of 2011. Even then, providing your system is performing wel, then it upgrading further maybe be meaningless in real world apps and games.

Upgrade when you feel it's right for you. Worry about forthcoming technology as and when you need to.

Ahh cool, I really do like the look of the sabretooth

Good point! I think if you play the waiting game you will end up waiting and waitng and then some ....

My upgrade plan is normally every 2.5 years or so, sometimes 3 if I dont get upgrade fever lol, my current system is a stock Q9450 on an asus p5e3 prem with 4gb ddr and a gtx 280, how much of an upgrade would say an I7 @4ghz be compared to the stock Q9450?

The only bits im keeping from my old system are the 2 new 90GB SSDS, auzentech xfi prelude, blu ray rw, case and PSU

 

[cmndr_andi]

OK so its just down to visuals for me as all 3 boards you mentioned easily cater for my needs, How much faster are we talking with SB?

SB i7s is expected to be 10-20% faster clock-for-clock than current generation i7s in CPU heavy tasks. Also, they are expected to be clocked higher at stock and overclock higher using air cooling (and a multiplier unlocked chip). In games that make use of extra CPU grunt (GTA4, BFBC2, Civ 5 to name a few) then this will help to increase framerates, but with the majority of current games the graphics card will bottleneck performance instead of the CPU.

as I understand the launch of SB will only offer mainstream parts, enthusiast parts arent avail until the end of 2011!!!

This is true - but for gaming the mainstream parts should be enough. You get the extra CPU power of sandy bridge plus dual channel memory and x8x8 PCIe multi-GPU support - ie more than sufficient for gaming. It is true that the higher-end Intel parts are expected in Q3 2011 - but these are really only aimed at ppl who need crazy amounts of CPU power (for applications like rendering and number crunching), run multi-GPU rigs or like spending loads of money.

Im also a little concerned about overclocking the new SB CPUS. ive read ud need a special "K" series chip with factory unlocked multi in order to OC, my guess is these will be very expensive,

It does seem like a step backwards, but if they stay true to current prices the i5 K series (quad core) will cost less than £200 and probably the best bet for a gaming CPU. As for overclocking, intel has been showing off a sandy bridge clocked at 5GHz on air - so I reckon overclocking with a multiplier unlocked chip will be fine.

This is why ive been thinking I7 930/950 and OC to 4GHZ, that sort of core coupled with a top of the line video card should last me a good 2 years right?

Even if you don't wait for SB, a current generation i7 rig should last you at least 2 years, so long as it stays coupled with a good graphics card. The main benefit with waiting for SB is that has more CPU grunt and will be able to keep up for a bit longer. But if you just want to get gaming now (and your current system is holding you back) - then I would go for s1156 i5 instead of i7 X58, due to the lower cost and no performance loss in games.


Edit: Please ignore all of the above (just say what current system you have) - if you already have a Q9450/X48 then please just keep it and overclock it. It is still a very fast quad core that plays games great and overclocks well - no need to upgrade that if you are mainly gaming. Get a new GPU (wait till december for AMD HD 6900 series) and marvel at the extra speed.

 

[Ryanster84]

SB i7s is expected to be 10-20% faster clock-for-clock than current generation i7s in CPU heavy tasks. Also, they are expected to be clocked higher at stock and overclock higher using air cooling (and a multiplier unlocked chip). In games that make use of extra CPU grunt (GTA4, BFBC2, Civ 5 to name a few) then this will help to increase framerates, but with the majority of current games the graphics card will bottleneck performance instead of the CPU.



This is true - but for gaming the mainstream parts should be enough. You get the extra CPU power of sandy bridge plus dual channel memory and x8x8 PCIe multi-GPU support - ie more than sufficient for gaming. It is true that the higher-end Intel parts are expected in Q3 2011 - but these are really only aimed at ppl who need crazy amounts of CPU power (for applications like rendering and number crunching), run multi-GPU rigs or like spending loads of money.



It does seem like a step backwards, but if they stay true to current prices the i5 K series (quad core) will cost less than £200 and probably the best bet for a gaming CPU. As for overclocking, intel has been showing off a sandy bridge clocked at 5GHz on air - so I reckon overclocking with a multiplier unlocked chip will be fine.



Even if you don't wait for SB, a current generation i7 rig should last you at least 2 years, so long as it stays coupled with a good graphics card. The main benefit with waiting for SB is that has more CPU grunt and will be able to keep up for a bit longer. But if you just want to get gaming now (and your current system is holding you back) - then I would go for s1156 i5 instead of i7 X58, due to the lower cost and no performance loss in games.


Edit: Please ignore all of the above (just say what current system you have) - if you already have a Q9450/X48 then please just keep it and overclock it. It is still a very fast quad core that plays games great and overclocks well - no need to upgrade that if you are mainly gaming. Get a new GPU (wait till december for AMD HD 6900 series) and marvel at the extra speed.

hmm very interesting!! I read the new ATI vid card is out dec 13? I was going to go gtx 580 or ATI depending on which is best, as with regards to me upgrading board cpu ram etc, there is reason! I always hand my old kit down to my poor brother :E, he is in desperate need of it lol, his current E6600 is poor in modern games, So this is what im thinking ... current I7 @4GHZ plus + X58 + gtx580/ati 6900, this will keep me going for atleast 2 years i hope ... whats next from intel after SB?

 

[cmndr_andi]

I understand your situation, I do a similar thing with my little sister.

May I ask what motherboard you brother is using? You may be able to drop in a Q6600 for him, sell the E6600 (£45 total cost after sale), overclock the Q6600 to 3GHz+ and he will be sorted for some time (so long as his GPU is up to scratch). Then you upgrade your GPU to something modern (6970 perhaps) and give your GTX 280 to him.

Total cost, ~£350-400 instead of a LOT more for a full upgrade.

 

[Ryanster84]

I understand your situation, I do a similar thing with my little sister.

May I ask what motherboard you brother is using? You may be able to drop in a Q6600 for him, sell the E6600 (£45 total cost after sale), overclock the Q6600 to 3GHz+ and he will be sorted for some time (so long as his GPU is up to scratch). Then you upgrade your GPU to something modern (6970 perhaps) and give your GTX 280 to him.

Total cost, ~£350-400 instead of a LOT more for a full upgrade.

A crappy asrock turbotwins thing lol, cost him about £45 new!!! im more than happy to do this upgrade as it isnt costing me, my GF is paying for it as my xmas present , the plan was to give him my board,cpu,cooler,ram and video card, my gf will be buying me all of the above except the video card, ill buy the video card as a little present to myself hehe

 

[cmndr_andi]

Ah, well if its a Xmas present then that makes sense, have fun.

That said, if you are getting it for christmas then you may want to ask for a tonne of OCUK vouchers instead of the hardware - since the next generation is coming out a mere 2 weeks after christmas morning.

 

[Ryanster84]

Ah, well if its a Xmas present then that makes sense, have fun.

That said, if you are getting it for christmas then you may want to ask for a tonne of OCUK vouchers instead of the hardware - since the next generation is coming out a mere 2 weeks after christmas morning.

Well I can wait !!! im hoping there will be some reviews on the net which state performance numbers and bench results sometime soon, if it is THAT much better then ill go with SB, but that said it depends on how much more itll cost than current I7/x58

 

[cmndr_andi]

This preview is well worth a read then. It must be noted that this is just an early version, so the release chips could be even better.

As for price, if you go for the i5 quad core K series chip and a s1155 board with PCIe x8x8, SLI/CF, I can't seeing it costing any more than what an i7/X58 currently costs.

 

[Ryanster84]

This preview is well worth a read then. It must be noted that this is just an early version, so the release chips could be even better.

As for price, if you go for the i5 quad core K series chip and a s1155 board with PCIe x8x8, SLI/CF, I can't seeing it costing any more than what an i7/X58 currently costs.

Yeah I already read that! interesting benches

Wonder what the I7 2600K will be like ?