i7 Wanted: New motherboard?

There aren't many micro ATX socket 2011 boards.

Here is a link to 2 of them available at Newegg. You'd have to find your own source in the UK.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600238945%20600009017&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivate dMark=False&CompareItemList=280|13-157-283^13-157-283-TS%2C13-131-805^13-131-805-TS

Sometimes PC manufacturers like HP have proprietary features in their cases that make the case incompatible with industry-standard motherboards. I have no idea if that is true for your particular case.

The brands I would consider are Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, and Intel, but you still need to research the specific model you are considering. Intel brand motherboards are typically very stable, but not the best choice if you intend to overclock.

This last link is to ALL socket 2011 ATX motherboards at Newegg (excludes micro-ATX):

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Motherboards, Intel Motherboards, LGA 2011, ATX

Chips said:

Is the Gigabyte X79-UD5 LGA 2011 good for high end graphics gaming? And will it accept AMD as well as Intel CPUs?

There have been no AMD CPUs that are socket-compatible with Intel for quite a while. The last I recall was Socket 7, from the Pentium I days.

My first DIY system was a Pentium II, using the early version of Slot 1. It was built in 1997.

Chips said:

Is the Gigabyte X79-UD5 LGA 2011 good for high end graphics gaming? And will it accept AMD as well as Intel CPUs?

That motherboard has an Extended ATX form factor---rare, but sometimes used in workstations or servers.

It's larger than ATX and may require a full tower case?

I'd probably avoid it for that reason unless it has some particular features that you need and cannot find elsewhere.

No, it won't accept AMD processors.

Is it the same situation with modern CPUs as it was with Pentiums vs Athlons? If I remember right the Athlons were cheaper and faster? Is that still the same, that you're getting a better deal all round with AMD?

James7679 said:

What is your budget?
What will the PC be used for?
What do you want to "reuse"? Probably only going to be able to salvage the HDD and Optical from your current system.
What is your display setup?

Around the region of £800-£900 for a full computer.
From the info it looks like I'll be keeping the old one for basic use and the new one for gaming.
If you mean what's my screen res it's 1920 x 1080.

Chips said:

Is it the same situation with modern CPUs as it was with Pentiums vs Athlons? If I remember right the Athlons were cheaper and faster? Is that still the same, that you're getting a better deal all round with AMD?

No, it isn't the same situation.

AMD is reasonably competitive at lower price points.

At your budget level, Intel has the edge in performance and power consumption. If you are contemplating socket 2011 level performance, there isn't much point in AMD, fanboys to the contrary notwithstanding.

Chips said:

Is it the same situation with modern CPUs as it was with Pentiums vs Athlons? If I remember right the Athlons were cheaper and faster? Is that still the same, that you're getting a better deal all round with AMD?

Not at the moment. That was true back in the day of Sockets 754 and 939 (2004), with the original Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2. The dominance ended a few years later with the Intel Core 2 CPUs.

The "bulldozer" line (top end is the FX-8150, 8 nominal cores) was generally disappointing, even compared to the Phenom II X6 CPUs. For gaming, the Phenom II X6 chips didn't necessarily do better than the Phenom II X4 chips. Things are different with applications that efficently use multithreading, but those seem to be rare.

Okay, looks like I'll be going for the Gigabyte SKT-2011 X79-UD5 mother board, that is unless the UD7 has something really mega that makes it the preferred option? If it's only a marginal difference then I'll be getting the UD5. Also, am I right that the UD5 has had some overheating problems?


CPUs: I was thinking about the: Intel Core i7 3820 Quad Core CPU (3.60GHz, 10MB Cache, Socket 2011, 130W, Sandy Bridge)

Is this good for what I want? Is it right that it's the bottom of the range of 2011 CPUs?

James7679 said:

My suggestions for a 2011 build

SSD Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/90G 2.5" 90GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive)
GPU Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1573-KR GeForce GTX 570 HD w/Display-Port (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

So, just slightly over budget, but definitely a nice rig.

Is THIS the graphics card in question?

The SSD. I'm guessing that's the hard drive? If so isn't 90GB a tad small by today's standards when most computers are running on 1TB?