Need help upgrading now that bulldozer sucks !

[FatFishMonster]

have been in need of a new cpu for a while been as my Athlon X4 is dated and i always said to my self i would wait for Bulldozer even when i could afford a sandybridge setup is still waited (due to having a AM3+ board already due to a dead board a while ago)

so now im sat here planning out my upgrade path been as Bulldozer sucks.

im currently mainly thinking a 2500k with the possibility of ivybridge but my concern is:

what motherboard do i get ?

do i need to change ram as im currently running 2 2GB corsair XMS3 1333mhz and 2 2GB XMS3 1600mhz ?

and do i need to get a new processor cooler or will my arctic 7 been suffienct enough for a decent overclock ?

ive never had an intel system before so sorry if i sould silly.


or should i go for a phenom of some sort? although id rather switch to intel now.... been as AMD are flopping.

i use my pc for gaming, Flash and photoshop mainly

thanks

 

[Final8y]

LOL what's wrong with your other suck thread, not enough sucky sucky threads ?.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18328699

 

[FatFishMonster]

nah this one isnt about BD sucking. this is me trying iron out the things i dont know about Sandybridge before i start saving and planning.

 

[metigue]

Sandy bridge is a very good choice, as sandy bridge E will not really offer a performance upgrade in single threaded apps and ivybridge is rumoured to be on socket 1155.

You need a Z68/P67(socket 1155) motherboard, which one you get is up to you, there are some coming out just now that claim support for pci-e 3.0 which is definitely worth looking at (although a little bit useless at the moment)

Your ram as always will be downclocked to 1333mhz until you overclock it, but it should be fine on a sandybridge system.

I don't know about the arctic 7 although I would always buy component-specific coolers, E.g. a cooler designed for the 2500k

As far as I'm concerned the 1100t is so far behind sandy bridge the only reason you might consider one is purely to keep the same motherboard.

 

[FatFishMonster]

the concern i had with motherboards is that ive heard arent as fast as others.

yeh i know my ram is downclocked ( the 1600mhz was cheaper than 1333mhz at the time of purchase)

the motherboards that catch my eye are the Asus maximus IV, Asrock Extreme4 gen3 or the gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P.


anybody shed any light on these boards in terms of how good they are for clocking the 2500k to about the 4ghz mark???

 

[metigue]

Well, how many graphics cards are you running?

Those motherboards cost a lot (depending on version of IV) because of the extra PCI slots and additional extras.
If you aren't going to use them all, then there is no point paying so much.

I need 3 8x+ pci-e slots for my trifire so I'm personally getting the maximus IV extreme-z but a factor in this is because I can't get asrock in a one day delivery.

I would say the Asus and asrock > gigabyte for overclocking, but there is really no need to spend so much on such high tier motherboards if you aren't going to utilise all of the pci slots / extras

 

[FatFishMonster]

i currently have one. but i want the possibility for two. i was looking at the non extreme one, the one thats £145, purley because i kinow the amd version of these, the crosshairs are really good for OC so i assumed the same about the maximus.


so are u suggesting something more along the line of the Asrock PRO3 for £100 or the msi Z68A-G45-B3 for £105 or something of a similar price ?

 

[metigue]

i currently have one. but i want the possibility for two. i was looking at the non extreme one, the one thats £145, purley because i kinow the amd version of these, the crosshairs are really good for OC so i assumed the same about the maximus.


so are u suggesting something more along the line of the Asrock PRO3 for £100 or the msi Z68A-G45-B3 for £105 or something of a similar price ?

It depends how good you are at overclocking, most greasemonkeys prefer simpler boards, while someone that prefers to dabble with overclocking would prefer the ease of use of the maximus. This isn't true for everyone, but really just google reviews, all three boards will serve your purposes

 

[FoxEye]

It depends how good you are at overclocking, most greasemonkeys prefer simpler boards, while someone that prefers to dabble with overclocking would prefer the ease of use of the maximus. This isn't true for everyone, but really just google reviews, all three boards will serve your purposes

Define: greasemonkey

 

[mickyflinn]

grease monkey, slang for a mechanic.

 

[MichaelM]

Well I have the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 being shipped to me now with a 2500K. It seems to have the best of what AMD boards offer in features and layout at what I think is a reasonable price difference. PCI-e 3 and Ivy support for the future is handy as well.

Not many would spend so much on a board and that's up to your own tastes and requirements.