time for a new system me thinks

[davetherave2]

Well after many years of faithful service I feel it is time for an upgrade.

I'm currently using an old e6600 on an asus rampage formula x48 which as I said has served me well over the years but I am finding more and more that it just can't cope as my main development machine and as for gaming it just can't cope with newer games so first things first motherboard selection.

Now i have seen that in recent days that a new chipset has been released so was thinking of getting a new z77 based board. So like many which is considered best bang for buck?

I have generally stayed with asus boards as I have always loved their layout, feature set and reliability so is it time to look at a new manufacturer?

I'm thinking of getting an i5 cpu for now as i just think the i7's are over priced for my needs and go 8gb (i take it this is the new 4gig now) i'm using win 7 pro 64bit

I need a new gfx card as well but will continue to use my 8800gtx for the time being till i can make a considered review of what is out there and what will suit my needs.

Thanks in advance for any help given

 

[the_director]

I've just picked up a Asrock Extreme4 for £111 - it was out of stock on here - and I think this is the best bang for buck board around. Obviously I can't test it yet.

 

[cmndr_andi]

For the motherboard I would recommend this one. It is a good price at £100, comes from a good brand (with a 3 year warranty and UK based RMA), supports both SLI and CF at x8/x8 speed. There haven't been any proper reviews of it yet - just previews (since the Ivy Bridge CPUs which are the main reason for the Z77's existance don't come out until April 29th). However, based on the quality and performance of the gigabyte Z68 D3 motherboards this will also be a very nice board for the price.

As for the CPU, considering the Ivy Bridge CPUs will be out in a few weeks then I would suggest waiting for them if you can - they are expected to be priced at about the same level as the Sandy Bridge CPUs, so it won't cost much more (maybe £10-20 more) and offer you better performance and less heat/cooling due to the 22nm process.

Here is a performance preview of the new Ivy Bridge i7 3750K (which will replace the i7 2700K).

As for a GPU, you may want to consider just going for this HD 6850 card for £85. It isn't the fastest card available, but it is amazing value, a big step up from a GTX 8800 and will play all current games at 1080p resolution and make them look nice as well as smooth (though for the tough stuff like BF3 you will need to turn down the settings a bit). If you are willing to spend more then the HD 7850 2GB (and overclocking it) seems to be the most popular choice at the moment.

For the RAM, 8GB is indeed the new 4GB. Though if you are using applications that use a lot of RAM you may well want to go for 16GB, since RAM is currently rather cheap. I would go with one (or two) of these kits.

 

[davetherave2]

I know it is difficult to get firm answers on things yet with the new z77 boards due to the lack of real world experience. Reviews are ok but I always take them with a pinch of salt as not really real world conditions.

There does seem to be three price brackets for the boards the sub £120 market, £120 - £150 and the £150+ boards

Will moving to the middle tier level boards offer me much over the sub £120 boards you have both suggested?

I'm also guessing that ide has also been retired from these new boards which means new dvdrw's as well I guess.

My intention is to wait until the new cpu's are out as it would seem silly getting the new board and using an older cpu tech on it.

I do a lot of development work so maybe the extra ram will come in handy.