Best intel board

Zinth · 16 Oct 2011 at 21:04

Im thinking about going intel, but i have no clue really about intel mobo's. So whats the best/cheapest 16x 16x CF intel board ??? thinking of getting an i5 2500k.

Zinth · 16 Oct 2011 at 21:05

Preferably within £100-£170 mark

Surveyor · 16 Oct 2011 at 21:52

The cheapest motherboard which will run x16/x16 with an i5-2500K is the Asrock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Z68 @ £224.98.

Perhaps you should revise your requirements and accept x8/x8 as there's hardly any difference in performance.

Edit

The cheapest board which will run x8/x8 is the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 @ £99.98.

There's no graphical BIOS on that motherboard so if that bothers you then let us know.

Zinth · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:21

Will this not run x16x16

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-476-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

??

Surveyor · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:28

Zinth said:
Will this not run x16x16

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-476-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

??

No it won't.

The P67/Z68 chipsets don't have enough PCI-E lanes available for x16/x16, or even x16/x8, so it's 1 card @ x16 or 2 cards @x8/x8.

The ASRock board I linked to above has an NF200 chip added to give extra PCI-E lanes.

The difference between running x16/x16 and x8/x8 is around 2% so it's not worth worrying about.

What you definately don't want is a board which runs at x16/x4 as that can really bottleneck the second graphics card.

Zinth · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:32

Ahh right. a lot i didnt know tbh. intel mobos seem so much more pricey than amd =/.
Yeah i know its only 2% but i do like to have the best of the best xD. I am right in thinking my current board is 16x16x ?

Surveyor · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:40

Zinth said:
I am right in thinking my current board is 16x16x ?

Yes it is.

But you'll likely gain far more in CPU bound games by moving to the i5-2500K than the 2% you lose by dropping to x8/x8.

I wouldn't have though your current setup was exactly struggling though.

Zinth · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:44

Surveyor said:
Yes it is.

In CPU bound games you'll gain far more from moving to the i5-2500K than the 2% you lose by dropping to x8/x8.

But I wouldn't have though your current setup was exactly struggling.

Nah its not at all. But ive had the temptation to move to intel for a while.
Just wish it wasnt so expensive. I wanna hit 4ghz+ with ease for bf3