Damn these motherboards have got expensive

MumboJumbo · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:00

Hey, well I'm just doing a little research as I'm thinkig of droping an i7 930 into my pc but these motherboard prices have shot up since I last built a pc. I remeber when for £140 you could get a decent little number for overclocking.

Are there no decent motherboards which are bellow £200 for overclocking?

Helios1234 · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:04

ASUS P6X58D-E is a cracking board and around £140 so that's perfect for you

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ThomasTheTankEngine · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:09

Well that's socket 1366 for you. It's a rip off. You're paying for extra memory and pci-e bandwidth that 98% of users don't need.

MumboJumbo · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:22

Cheers for the suggestion, I'll look into it.

Would you recommend the 860 instead then?

Future proofing isn't an issue. I tend not to upgrade my pc for another 3 years and by then I will always need a new mobo.

cmndr_andi · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:22

Helios1234 said:
ASUS P6X58D-E is a cracking board and around £140 so that's perfect for you .

+ 1 - great board.

Here is a review. For £144 on the weekly deal it a very good board at a fair price.

Would you recommend the 860 instead then?

It really depends what you are doing. The CPU will be the same price as an i7 930, but the board and RAM will cost you a fair bit less. If you are mainly going to be using the machine for CPU hungry work then it certainly makes sense. However, if you want multi-GPU features and a lot of PCIe lanes then you are better off with an i7 930 and an X58 board.

MumboJumbo · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:36

Well the chances of me ever using more then 1 gpu are slim as I rather just upgrade to the most powerful gpu around at the time usualy and be done with it.

Currently I use a tv card and this is a must, this is PCI-E. I also have a sound card and that is PCI I believe off the top of my head. Apart from that I don't have any immediate use for more.

The only thing I want the board to do is overclock and be reliable. I have a x38 quadGT and it doesn't overclock at all any more. I think the mobo was pretty duff when I got it but I couldn't send it back as it's technicaly not "faulty" any overclock over 300FBS causes my pc not to boot pretty much. It used to do 400fbs if I really pushed but not any more. Am really dissapointed . I wouldn't be upgrading if I could still run my q6600 at 3.4-3.6ghz but at 3ghz it's causing me to lag sometimes I think.

Cheap as possible is always a plus. While I could spend £1000 I think i'd rather just save it for spending at uni and try and keep the upgrade under £500. I'm not even sure if i'm taking the pc up with me this year, I just want something to do hahaha.

:EDIT:

I'm not a benchmarker so i'm not bothered if It won't hit the peak. But a good healthy overclock out of what ever i7 I buy is a must so that it lasts me another gpu upgrade. What is the difference between the 860 and 930 really? The 860 has a lower wattage which I find strange.

cmndr_andi · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:43

Ah, in that case the X58 platform an an i7 930 may be more than you will need.

What do you think the new system would be used for mainly and what are the most computationally intensive tasks you will be using it for?

MumboJumbo · 13 Sep 2010 at 15:55

Just gaming really. I overclock just to save money really, it's not a hobby. If I got an i7 to 4.2ghz or 4.4ghz and a gpu upgrade in 1 or 2 years I recon the pc could last me quite a while. I was just looking into the 930 vs 860 and it looks like it would be a lot more benefishal to go 930. Though it's looking to be quite expensive so I may sit on the idea for a while and do it at christmas instead.

cmndr_andi · 13 Sep 2010 at 16:07

That is a fair point, the i7 900 series really is more powerful than current games need (especially when overclocked) so should see you well into the future. Another option is the AMD Phenom II X6 which is a hex core CPU - more than fast enough for modern games and has six cores, which will likely be put to full use in future games. The other benefit of the AMD X6 CPUs is they can work in very cheap boards (basically all AM3 and mant AM2+ ones) - so the cost will likely be less than the i7, if you pick a board with only the features you need.

One other option would be to wait for the new tech coming from AMD and Intel early next year (if you feel you can wait). These Intel "Sandy Bridge" and AMD "Bulldozer" are supposedly a fair bit faster than current systems and may be worth the wait (only if you fell you can cope with your current system up until then).

MumboJumbo · 13 Sep 2010 at 16:12

O the waiting game. The best part is that when they come out they will only release the extreme ones and because all the media will be saying "OMG these extreme ones are aweeeesome but too expensive I can't wait for the cheaper ones" no one will buy anything new till they come out haha. Could be a while though. I guess i'll sit on it for a bit. It's not like my pc can't run games it's just not as bling as it once was haha.

Cheers for the help.

:EDIT:

OOO thats intresting, the new boards do crossfire and sli. I'd definitly be putting my 285GTX in for a physics card when I upgrade my gpu. Be tempted to pick up a second if I could cheaply for sli. My my I really am out of touch. To think I used to spec peoples pc's up on here years ago. Now I don't know anything about the new tech XD.

JimboJet · 13 Sep 2010 at 17:29

+1 for the Asus P6X58D-E, cracking board, rock solid for Overclocks.

Helios1234 · 13 Sep 2010 at 17:53

cmndr_andi said:
+ 1 - great board.

Here is a review. For £144 on the weekly deal it a very good board at a fair price.

another review: http://www.vortez.co.uk/contentteller/articles_pages/asus_p6x58d_e_motherboard_review,1.html

ThomasTheTankEngine · 13 Sep 2010 at 19:57

8igdave said:
Just gaming really. I overclock just to save money really, it's not a hobby. If I got an i7 to 4.2ghz or 4.4ghz and a gpu upgrade in 1 or 2 years I recon the pc could last me quite a while. I was just looking into the 930 vs 860 and it looks like it would be a lot more benefishal to go 930. Though it's looking to be quite expensive so I may sit on the idea for a while and do it at christmas instead.

I still think the i5 750 (well, now 760) is the best bang for buck as far as gaming goes. Either that, or an AMD hex-core.

If you're encoding lots of stuff then you'll benefit from the more powerful 1366 chips. If you're doing a lot of video editing then the triple channel ram (and having 12gb) is useful. If you're just gaming, the extra features of 1366 over 1156 will cost you around £100 more, and give you absolutely minimal fps gains. Much better to put that extra £100 on the video card, if you're mostly gaming.

evoyear · 13 Sep 2010 at 22:45

jimbob27 said:
I still think the i5 750 (well, now 760) is the best bang for buck as far as gaming goes. Either that, or an AMD hex-core.

If you're encoding lots of stuff then you'll benefit from the more powerful 1366 chips. If you're doing a lot of video editing then the triple channel ram (and having 12gb) is useful. If you're just gaming, the extra features of 1366 over 1156 will cost you around £100 more, and give you absolutely minimal fps gains. Much better to put that extra £100 on the video card, if you're mostly gaming.

+1, depends what you wish most and do you wish to invest that much

MumboJumbo · 14 Sep 2010 at 02:52

Interesting, well really the only concern is that this CPU last me about 3 years. More then that is a plus but not a necessity. If you think an i5 would do the same then I would get that. The money isn't really a huge concern just the value. I'm practical, not poor. So to speak. Though with these new supposed super cpu's coming out I will wait to see what effect they have on the market. But I suspect the non-enthusiast cpu's won't be available till late q2 2011. Which is a long time away. We shall see.

Big.Wayne · 14 Sep 2010 at 03:36

Hey 8igdave

8igdave said:
Damn these motherboards have got expensive

motherboard prices have shot up since I last built a pc

Cheap as possible is always a plus

I overclock just to save money really

it's looking to be quite expensive so I may sit on the idea for a while

The money isn't really a huge concern just the value

I'm practical, not poor

Do you "think" you are trying to tell yourself something here!

MumboJumbo · 14 Sep 2010 at 14:29

No not really. You can come up with any apparent hidden message when taking lines of text out of context.

I made a statement that they have got expensive, 3/4 years ago spending £300 on a motherboard was a huge amount but now they all seem to be edging up to it or over it.

Cheap as possible is a plus. Well why wouldn't it be? Why would I buy a more expensive motherboard when a cheaper one will do the same thing for what I want? Like I said I'm practical.

By overclocking to save money you presume I ment that I take the cheapest cpu and up it? No. I overclock a cpu which over clocks well so that It will last a long time. That doesn't mean buying the cheapest cpu. That means buying the best overclocking one within reason which is going to hit a clock speed that will be good for 3 years. As I stated before. Whats the point in buying a cpu every 1.5 years when I can do it in 3 instead. I don't overclock as a hobby like I said.

As for the last two bullet points I think I've covered them already.

I'm just being sensible. Only the rich just buy anything they see and I never claimed to be rich either

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Henry8601 · 17 Sep 2010 at 15:04

Is the foxconn bloodrage no longer avaliable - that was comparitively cheap and overclocked very well.

rush_syndrome · 17 Sep 2010 at 21:14

I would recommend the Gigabyte UD3R. If you think they are expensive then be glad you didn't have to buy my UD9

rjk · 18 Sep 2010 at 14:02

Henry8601 said:
Is the foxconn bloodrage no longer avaliable - that was comparitively cheap and overclocked very well.

it was average at best.

the high end overclocking boards really arent worth it unless you plan on benching competativley.

for instance. a rampage extreme 2/3 or UD7 is all well and good. but on air/water it will clock no better than the much cheaper P6X58D-E or a UD3R

just buy best bang for buck board.

both the asus P6X58D-E and gigabyte UD3R are great boards and you will easily get 4/4.2 on a 930 with them