Choosing the right CPU/Mobo combination?

peanutismint

peanutismint

peanutismint

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I'm thinking of upgrading my (ancient!) machine and it's got to that point where it's so old that I'll need to purchase a new motherboard as well as CPU.

So with sockets/chipsets in mind, I'm just wondering what I should be considering when choosing my hardware - I think I'm thinking of an i5/i7 processor but I'd like to choose a motherboard that will allow me to upgrade CPU again in a couple of years if I should so wish....is that a smart move or will I need to upgrade my motherboard again to be able to use whatever the new best CPU is in 2015??!
 
Next year Intel will be (hopefully) launching Haswell which I think will be on a new socket and cant really say how socket 1155 will fair.

Best bet is to get something decent now which should last you or wait until Haswell next year.

Possible build which will handle anything thrown at for a fair while :D


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £299.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
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Hahah thanks mate! You may have just made a sale! ;-)

So with that setup, for instance, I couldn't upgrade to next year's Intel processor, but I could upgrade to the best of this year's in a few years time for a little bit more power (if I wanted to??)

Also (sorry to badger with Qs but I've been out of the hardware scene for a long time!!), this motherboard has 1 x PCIe at 16x and 1 x PCIe at 4x - does this influence my options to run two GPUs with Crossfire? Or does it not work like that??
 
Ha ha :D

Yes, you can upgrade to the latest CPU on the current Socket 1155 socket, not sure what Intel has plans on doing, been a while since I have seen a CPU road map.

The second PCI-E lane will hamper performance on the 2nd card, the board below will handle it a lot better, dual 8x and can do SLI if you went Nvidia route in the future.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-390-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £325.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Ah brilliant, thanks a bunch. Yes I agree - I could go for years under the thought process of 'oh but next year there will be something better so I'll just wait a bit longer....', rather than just taking the plunge and getting something now! :) So perhaps I'll just dive in. Will also need a GPU (ideally crossfire/SLI-able for future-proofing) and probably a new PSU as mine is so old it doesn't even have PCIe power (!!). Will have a look around the OcUK system builder!!

One last thing - I know it's fairly level-pegging but do you personally have an Intel-AMD/nVidia-ATI preference??!
 
Thats it, you would never by a system if you waited :D

I assume your looking at a pre-built or are you going to build yourself, do you have a budget in mind?

I dont have preferences, but at the moment i am Intel / Nvidia, do Folding when I get a chance.
 
RJC said:
Thats it, you would never by a system if you waited :D

I assume your looking at a pre-built or are you going to build yourself, do you have a budget in mind?

I dont have preferences, but at the moment i am Intel / Nvidia, do Folding when I get a chance.
Click to expand...

Ah cool! I'm going to build myself - my current machine is from like 2009 but I have a lovely quiet Antec case that I'm never getting rid of!! :) So I'll just take everything out of that bar-HDDs and then go from there.

Budget-wise, that spec you posted first is probably around what I was looking at, but as you probably know these things have a tendency to spiral! :D So yeah, maybe £300 for Mobo, CPU, PSU, memory (might try MM for some second-hand savings!) and then for the GPU all bets are off! But more likely to spend around £100-150 on a GPU and then add another via SLI in a year or two (when it starts to struggle....). I'm a Mac user at the mo so might try to build something that can run OS X too, but not sure if we can even discuss that here....
 
 
 
Cool, thanks guys!! Sorry for delayed reply - was sure I'd replied straight after but mustn't have sent! I think I asked - that motherboard still only has one PCIe at 16x and then the other two at 8x and 4x respectively - is this a problem or am I unlikely to find any with 2 x 16x ports??
 
peanutismint said:
Cool, thanks guys!! Sorry for delayed reply - was sure I'd replied straight after but mustn't have sent! I think I asked - that motherboard still only has one PCIe at 16x and then the other two at 8x and 4x respectively - is this a problem or am I unlikely to find any with 2 x 16x ports??
Click to expand...

The motherboards in our 2nd set of specs can do dual 8x, SLI and Crossfire, the first spec of mine as you mentioned is limited to 4x on the 2nd slot.

The ports are 16x but are restricted to 8x, but for full speed slots you need higher end motherboards or the X79 chipset. Speed increase is minimal when compared to dual 8x :)
 
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