Changing my board but not sure what to get.

Alz_D

Alz_D

Alz_D

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I am in a position where I am changing my current set up. Goint to get an I7 2600k but am unsure as to which board to get. Different people have mentioned different boards. So far I have:

Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 Intel Z68

or

Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68

Any advice / other suggestions welcome. I am looking around that price point (less than £150)

I use the thing mainly for gaming and occasional photo editing. The rest of the rig is in my sig although the 5870's have been swapped for 7950's. :D
 
I'm not sure,maybe z68 ud4 or ud5? I think you would need to wait for gen3 boards though,asus gen3 would be good choice if you can't wait

Might be worth waiting few months and skipping z68 and sb and go for z77 and ivy bridge
 
I think the Asus is the one I'm gonna go for in fairness. It's defo number 1 on the list right now.
 
Not sure if you've considered the i5 2500K as you mention you mainly game, this is just as good as the i7 for games, not so much for the photo editing but you don't sound like you that too much and the i5 is still an absolute beast, you could then use the additional money on a decent cooler and a better motherboard? Just a thought? :)
 
I already have a CoolIT 240 with akasa viper fans (almost the same as corsair H100 and made by same people) to keep it cool. I was thinking about the I5 but I have an I7 950 at the moment. What is going to give better gains - I7 with one of the above mentioned boards or I5 with a £200 board?
 
I can only speak from what I've done recently and have always done and got the best bank for buck CPU and a cracking motherboard, so now I'm on the i5 2500K and the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme, and I've clocked my CPU to 4GHz and reduced the Vcore, can get to 4.5-4.8GHz with very little effort, its scary :)

Will you need the extra hyperthreading, how much photo/video editing do you do?
 
Not a huge amount I suppose - mainly gaming. I suppose I could look at more expensive boards....
 
Hi there,

Based on your uses and your existing system (i7 950) then I would suggest skipping over Sandy Bridge and wait for what Ivy Bridge brings to the table. I say this because buying a sandy bridge i7 and board will be expensive, but the performance gains are not massive over what you currently have (especially if you overclock your CPU to 4.0-4.2GHz).

Here is a performance comparison of the i7 950 and i7 2600K at stock clockspeeds, it is really up to you whether this performance jump is worth ~£350 to you.
 
I should have said - It's not really costing me anything to upgrade (hence the reason I am not waiting for IB) I have all the parts for another computer except for MB, Chip and ram sat in boxes doing nothing from previous upgrades. Selling it all rebuilt to a collegue is funding the new MB and processor and I can't do one without the other. And it gives me chance to sneak in the purchase of a SSD :p And then i need to lock the thing away in a box somewhere to stop me spending any more money on it - Although my crossfire 7950's do look really nice. Quite an expensive hobby I have got myself into again :eek:

It seems that opinion is split between these 2 boards - I'm guessing that either one is going to do the job well.
 
i have an asrock unopened,must admit it looks the biz,loads of accessories too,like the front usb3 dock lets you mount an ssd inside it too
 
Well I have one more day to decide. I was set on the Asus but a lot of people seem to lean towards the Asrock boards... I can't believe it is taking me so long to make up my mind! I'd be crap on countdown.......
 
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