Switching over to intel. Which motherboard?

mattius1989

mattius1989

mattius1989

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I am looking to switch over to an Intel i5 2500K in about 4 months time. I already have the PSU, Case, RAM etc and two HD6870s.

I just need a somebody to recommend me a decent 1155 motherboard that will allow me to run my two 6870s a 16x/16x in crossfire?

I am not looking to do any crazy OC'ing or anything. Thanks.
 
i dont think any allow 16x 16x,usually 16x 8x? not 100% sure on that though,can recommend asus z68 v pro,no problems with it at all
 
My current MB (CH IV Formula) supports 16/16 AFAIK. But does it make much of a GPU performance difference?

That V Pro is a bit pricey, but then I notice it supports PCI-3 3.0. For future proofing, would it be worth investing in the added compatability at this stage? Thanks.
 
I can't remember which boards do dual 16x but most do dual 8x. Performance difference is very minimal.
 
mattius1989 said:
I am looking to switch over to an Intel i5 2500K in about 4 months time. I already have the PSU, Case, RAM etc and two HD6870s.

I just need a somebody to recommend me a decent 1155 motherboard that will allow me to run my two 6870s a 16x/16x in crossfire?

I am not looking to do any crazy OC'ing or anything. Thanks.
Click to expand...

The new Z77 chipset board may be out by then with Ivy Bridge, PCI-E 3 and native USB 3 support.

It took Intel a while to get the USB 3.0 support to its chipsets and according to the schedule seen by Fudzilla, this should finally happen in first half of 2012.

The top chipset to natively support USB 3.0 is Z77 and it is tailored for Ivy Bridge 22nm, socket 1155 CPUs. It will come with a choice of one 16X PCIe slot, two 8X PCIes or one 8X and two 4X Gen 3 PCIe slots.

The chipset supports Intel RST, Smart Response Technology and supports maximum of 6 SATA ports where two of them can reach the top 6Gb/s speed. Total number of USB slots is 14 but only four of them can get to USB 3.0 speeds.

The chipset supports 8 PCIe 2.0 (5GT/s) and has zero PCI slot support. The good news is that Z77 supports CPU overclocking and it can support maximum of 4 DIMM memory modules.

The chipset also has a new graphics core, which is actually a part of Ivy Bridge 22nm CPU. This graphics core supports three independent displays and a choice of HDMI / DVI / Display Port / eDP or VGA connectors are possible. Lets not forget the integrated audio codec that supports dual stream HDMI and Display Port Audio.

These boards will also have native Gigabit Ethernet MAC and Intel Rapid Storage Technology 11 that includes Smart Response Technology, SATA 6Gb/s support, Lower power and UI enhancements, Single disk migration, RAID 0/1/5/10 support and Intel Rapid Recover Technology.

Sounds like a decent chipset to us and it is meant to replace Z68, the chipset that is about to launch today.
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@Davefran:
As you said Z77 chipset is for Ivy bridge , will it support sandy bridge architecture ?

@mattius1989:
I dont think any chipset on the market as of now will support X16 X16. it will run at X8 X8. unless you upgrade X79 architecture..
 
Kautya said:
@Davefran:
As you said Z77 chipset is for Ivy bridge , will it support sandy bridge architecture ?

@mattius1989:
I dont think any chipset on the market as of now will support X16 X16. it will run at X8 X8. unless you upgrade X79 architecture..
Click to expand...

Yes the Z77 will support Sandy Bridge, but you'd lose PCI-E 3 support if you installed a SB instead of Ivy Bridge CPU.

As mentioned the Asrock E7 G3 has a NF200 chip, so supports x16 / x16. But the difference between x16 / x16 and x8 / x8 is pretty minimal, around 2-3%.
 
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