Help with i5 build please

GoonerTCN · 28 Sep 2009 at 20:27

Hi guys, really struggling choosing a motherboard for my new i5 build. I want to spend as little as possible really but would also like to do some overclocking at some point in the future (nothing extreme) so if that means I need to spend some extra cash then so be it. I quite like the look of the Gigabyte boards and am hearing good things about them so was thinking of the UD2 (cheapest lol). What benefit would I get from spending more? I'm not too hot on motherboards as u can probably tell

Also is the US3L supposed to be any good in case I don't want mATX?

That brings me on to my next dilemma... is there any drawback or benefit to a micro case? Can anyone recommend a micro case and full size case that are cheap but decent?

Thanks

GoonerTCN · 29 Sep 2009 at 08:05

Thanks for the replies so far. The following article suggests that the Realtek audio codec in the Gigabyte boards is better than the Via codec in the Asus which makes a difference for me. Does anyone know anything about the Gigabyte US3L? Is the UD3 better?

GoonerTCN · 29 Sep 2009 at 13:30

oops, forgot the link!

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17598/8

GoonerTCN · 29 Sep 2009 at 22:49

Right peeps, so far I've decided on:
i5 750
Gigabyte P55-UD3
G Skill Ripjaw 1600mhz DDR3 8-8-8-24
HD 4850
Samsung F3 1TB HDD
Antec 300 (may change to Coolermaster 335)

now for the PSU... how much wattage do I need? Will be running a 2nd HDD and possibly a 2nd GPU in future