Mobo recomendations please

Corky McDuff · 15 Jan 2011 at 17:32

Hi, I need some guidance on a potenial upgrade of my mobo?

I am trying to run 2x ATI 6950's in crossover so will need a space between the cards for cooling. The cards themselves are double thickness anyway.

Currently have an AMD 630 quad core processsor that I think is a bottle neck, but not sure I want to go intel prices.

Mobo I have is ASRock M3A88ODE.
4x DDR3 1333 2gb Ram
Creative soundblaster Xfi Fatality PCI
Raid controller PCI
4x Hard drives
Sapphire Pure 1050W Modular Power Supply (on order as last one went pop)

Any help/advice is appreciated thank you.

Corky McDuff · 17 Jan 2011 at 09:26

I am tempted to go Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard. Will my existing processor fit that till I decided to upgrade?

or shall I just bite the bullet on that also and go with the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1090T Black Edition 3.20GHz ?

Does the processor come with a heat sink? Been a while since I have bough one.

My only concern with this mobo is to fit my PCI card in, it will have to fit in between my graphics cards that are crossfire. There will be a gap still for the fan I believe.

Blue160 · 17 Jan 2011 at 09:58

Sandy bridge would be much quicker. The MSI P67-GD65 has an extra gap between the PCIe slots to allow for better cooling in crossfire.

Apem · 17 Jan 2011 at 10:27

If you want to go AMD wait on the new bulldozer chips they are out soon enough

Corky McDuff · 17 Jan 2011 at 13:10

Thank you.
Blue 160 I cannot see the msi board you mentioned on the site. Is it still available?

Stormar · 17 Jan 2011 at 13:16

Yes that board is still available,but its for the new sandybridge its not for a amd setup.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-154-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

Corky McDuff · 17 Jan 2011 at 18:42

The only reason I was looking at amd was price. Sandybridge are pretty expensive aren't they?

Corky McDuff · 17 Jan 2011 at 21:19

Ok looking at the Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor, is that the right one for this board please ?

Also do they ship with a heat sink?

Thanks for the help so far!

muggs · 17 Jan 2011 at 21:40

im thinking of getting that too, if the cpu is retail then it will come with heatsink and fan, i i think im going to wait for a few weeks and see what clocks ppl are getting on this board and others in the price range, then make my decision

Stormar · 17 Jan 2011 at 22:05

Sandybridge 2500k would be a better choice its £100 cheaper and performance is just as good,to do a sandy setup its going to cost you around £380 for motherboard-cpu-ram and you get a stock heatsink but if you want to oc you be better getting a aftermarket one.

jbs · 17 Jan 2011 at 22:07

Corky McDuff said:
Ok looking at the Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor, is that the right one for this board please ?

Also do they ship with a heat sink?

Thanks for the help so far!

In my opinion the Intel Core i5-2500K is better value and quite a bit cheaper. Yes, they do ship with a cooler, but it is a pretty basic one.

My i5-2500k is running on the MSI GD65 board at 4.4GHz.

muggs · 17 Jan 2011 at 22:32

Stormar said:
Sandybridge 2500k would be a better choice its £100 cheaper and performance is just as good,to do a sandy setup its going to cost you around £380 for motherboard-cpu-ram and you get a stock heatsink but if you want to oc you be better getting a aftermarket one.

£100 pound cheaper? £26 cheaper unless im missing something? are you talking about a bundle or something?

woops was looking at the wrong chip lol

Corky McDuff · 18 Jan 2011 at 08:42

Thanks again, so do you think there is much difference between my current amd 630 x4 core and this? I.e is it worth doing...I presume yes?

Blue160 · 18 Jan 2011 at 14:50

Yes it should be a big difference. It's your call if it's worth doing or not though.