Upgrading to i5/Sandybridge (need help choosing)

Snooble

Snooble

Snooble

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Hey all,

Got a Q6600 system currently with DDR3 RAM. Looking at upgrading the board and processor. But have no idea what board to go for or i5/i7.

What am I looking out for in the board? Do any have problems? Why UD1/UD2/UD6 etc. What's the difference?

I definitely want SLI capability, DDR3. SATA3 and USB3 would be useful too but not so important.

What i5 should I get for gaming/video editing/general use? What's the most common and popular one?

Also, going to need a cooler, never gone watercooling before but tempted by the H50/H70.. worth it? Considering I have a 470gtx blowing away along with a few 120mm fans (noise doesn't bother me too much). Or just a good custom cooler?

Thanks for reading, just no idea where to start really! -

Also think i'll notice a performance boost going i5 over Q6600 @ 3.00ghz?

S

PS: P55/H55 chipsets? What's the difference? :)
 
My suggestion would be:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £169.99
(£141.66) £169.99
(£141.66)
Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £50.99
(£42.49) £50.99
(£42.49)
Sub Total : £309.14
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £63.73
Total : £382.37

i5 is just as good as the i7 in gaming and the Antec Khuler performs better than the H50 for the same price. :)
 
Firstly you want to be looking at SB (1155 - P67) not older i5 (1156 - P55)

UD1-6 is merely the specification, amount of connectors, SLi support etc, if you want SLi then you want UD4 and above for Gigabyte or for Asus the Pro version board

If its just for gaming then the i5 2500K is fine, if you do quite a bit of video editing then it may be worth an i7 2600K, depending on budget, its important you get the K variant not the non K variants as you can only OC with a K chip

IMO the H70 is definitely not worth the price, and I dont really think the H50 is either tbh, imo the sweet spot is around 30-35 for a cooler, anything more than this is unnecessary, so look at an Akasa Venom or Titan Fenrir

Yes it should be a nice boost, the P boards allow for OCing and do not use the integrated gfx, the H boards use integrated gfx and have no OCing, as I say you want to be looking at P67 rather than P55
 
Ok, so I have learnt from Google that H55 boards have internal GPUs and usually don't support 16x sli/crossfire. Whereas P55 boards don't support on board gpus and are for people running gpus in pci slots... eg. Most of us.

So I want a P55 board.

Also assuming after looking at specs that UD1-6 are all different revs of boards. Each has a 'changelog' kinda thing that tells you what's been improved/changed/added with each revision.

Still curious as to which i5 iteration will suit me best, whether watercooling is worth doing solely for cpu lifespan/oc potential in relation to a custom hsf and whether i'll notice much of an improvement over my Q6600 when it comes to games/movie rendering/general use.

Plus the big question. What i5 board to go with? Gigabyte seem popular.

Thanks in advance people. Hope that's helped you morguk.

S
 
Don't watercool, an air cooler like the Hyper 212+ can be had for about £20 and it's just as effective.

The P8P67 is a great board, but only get the Pro version if you need SLI.

The difference in H67 vs P67 is onboard video (H only) and overclocking (P only). You want the P version, trust me.

The i5 2500K is miles faster than the Q6600, definitely worth the upgrade.
 
As has been said:

P67 Mobo and i5 2500K is definitely the way to go.

You're not going to see a drastic increase in performance by going to i7 and the P55 mobos are slightly cheaper but Sli support is limited and theres no USB3.
 
you might still need to buy new RAM despite yours being DDR3, as older DDR3 runs at ~1.8-1.9v, or 1.65-1.7 if its a bit newer, whereas sandy bridge is designed to run with memory at around 1.5v (although 1.6 should be ok)
 
kristmace said:
As has been said:

P67 Mobo and i5 2500K is definitely the way to go.

You're not going to see a drastic increase in performance by going to i7 and the P55 mobos are slightly cheaper but Sli support is limited and theres no USB3.
Click to expand...

i agree .. i5 2500k seems pretty fast
 
Thanks a lot for all the help.. So many things I didn't know.

So I need to go K for sandybridge and only look at P boards pretty much. Unless building SFF or HTPC's etc.

Forgotten the RAM I have.. think it's cosair's (cms3 or cm3 something like that) 4gb (2x2gb). Any good cheap 1.5v ram?

Looking at an air cooler around the £30 mark (ferir), 2500k and p67 mobo with SLI.

Any reccomendations on P67 mobo with SLI? asus p8p67 pro is best way to go?
Like I said in OP, SLI/DDR3 necessity, USB3/SATA3 optional.

Thanks a lot people, learnt a few things here
 
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