why are there so many intel chipsets and what's the difference?

Skree

Skree

Skree

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AARGH lol i knew this comp lasting so long would bite me one day

I'm trying to set up a reasonably budget system, won't be doing much multitasking, generally only browsing and music together, with paused video and minimised pdf reader.. must be some ability to game.. been looking at AMD Llano APU but it's obvious that a lower end intel is more suited to what i want - a pc that will last years.. so i want some upgrade path available, hence FM1 Llano is out..

looking at intel.. possibly i3 2120 to start with but if funds allow maybe a i5 2500(k? if i got this chip it'd probably have to last the life of the rig, and be overclocked) but now there's SEVEN chipsets just for socket 1155 alone..

whats the difference? in the old days i would have just gone for the best but there are so many options with such wildly different costs and this is a budget rig
 
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These are the relevant chipsets for consumers. What's your budget?
 
budget is about 300 for cpu, 8gb ram, motherboard.. i can stretch to 350 if it's for an i5 with a good graphics card on a decent motherboard but not beyond.

I have another constraint on my system: my case. it's a good case but being an old Coolermaster 201 it's not particularly wide and doesn't have masses of cooling.. I can keep a modern CPU cool but a very hot GPU might overtax the cooling i have. All the fan holes are 80mm but i can adapt a single 120mm to fit the rear and have a 120mm fan PSU at the top plus a pci exhaust blower to keep the bottom back of the case cool but thats about it.. with me having to also buy drives annd a new psu i don't have the budget to get a new case

Really huge PCI-E cards don't look like they fit, it's not so much the length of them but the depth, it appears modern cards protrude quite a bit beyond the brackets which mount them to the case back panel.. i've got at most an inch spare space there

edit: dokkg, sounddoctor.. i have so far specced up the gigabyte z77-d3h, i3 2120, 8gb corsair vengeance low profile 1600mhz ddr3, and an antec VP550w psu... 260-270ukp... now to find a graphics card :D
 
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This PSU can save you an extra fiver: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-055-OC

The case looks fine for any GPU, at least of reference design. Could get a 6850 if you want to stay cheap?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
Total : £367.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
That's about what i've got as a preliminary spec list. There isn't much point in buying the i3 as a stopgap so i've gone overbudget a bit, probably works out better in the long run

preliminary list is as above but contains OCZ ZS 650w psu, XFX HD 6870 1gb, and i5 2500k

one year i took the side off my existing pc and the temps were so good i left it.. if i'm prepared to do that permanently on the new pc i think I can run any heatsink i like so i've specced a phanteks tc14pe. i'm potentially going to have a lot of hard drives in this rig so the extra power in the psu is welcome. I'm wary of that XFX 6870 card, but if the reviews say it's good then it's only single figure pounds more expensive than the MSI 6850 OC.. bargain?
 
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How many HDDs do you have? Really a good ~450w is enough to power that even with a slight overclock, so something like 10 odd or so drives wouldn't strain the 550w too much.
 
at least 4 storage drives just to start. i'd planned on upgrading to an SSD and a single platter fast hard disk for game installs later.. not decided how to use the ssd yet, either as c: or as SRT cache

ten hard drives is a likelihood eventually, knowing me. As are increasingly large overclocks as the system gets older, i've never run sli before but at some later stage if it turns out i can keep up with then current games by adding another card i might do that... plus all the other stuff that plugs into a pc for its power.. rather have the peace of mind that im running a 650w at 40% load for an extra few quid - it's a few quid more than the antec 550w - although i'll keep that in mind so if i do need to 'cut a corner' (not really but you know what i mean) for a few quid saving thats somewhere i can do it
 
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