Planning my next upgrade with IVY bridge, mobos and memory

Hi Tanya, and take this post with a grain of salt :)

From what i know, memory is not an issue with Win7 64 bit OS.
Are you planning to use these PC's with a 32 bit OS?

Now that you have explained things more i understand where you're coming from.
What you can do is send an email to the MB manufacturers and ask if they will produce something with your requirements.
Yup, you already know about the vague "specs"...so will they answer??...
I have seen this "vague" problem with other manufacturers and software vendors.

You could also post questions on hardware review sites that might know and answer for sure...
I expect they won't answer before the official release.

It sounds like you are an enthusiast, so you have different needs than the "Mass Market".
I'm more of an HTPC user, so I have the same problem, but from a different point of view.
If they build things based on your needs, it might cost me more.
I won't like that, should i complain?...

We are both in some specialty/niche market and have to pay for that choice.

Every motherboard i have ever used has features and ports that i don't want or need.
Yet, i have had to pay for these...
Or, did the MB cost less to produce because of Mass Production efficiencies, and it really saved me money?

Maybe this issue goes back to where the assembly line and mass production started?
I have heard "You can have any color you want as long as it's black"...

I think manufacturers have to build based on the "Mass Market" to decrease costs.
With that, i understand the specialty "One Off" builds (if possible) will cost more.

Food for thought,
David

All systems have a 'Reserved' or 'Hardware Reserved' RAM, this is for misc hardware, more is used for mobo or CPU graphics.

Check your current system 'Task Manager' and/or 'Resource Monitor'.
My system 'Hardware Reserved' is 8.8MB, there is no onboard graphics, mobo or CPU.

If you disable CPU graphics in EFI you should not have any RAM reserved for it.

I understand your position on this but there is not going to be much loss percentage wise with 16GB RAM.
The 1155 socket Z77 chipset mobos are designed for on CPU graphics whether the CPU has them or not.
CPUs above the 3770K don't have on board graphics, which won't matter since the motherboard will be set up for it.

Since the info is not completely released for these mobo/chipsets and I haven't seen any mobo manuals published yet, we won't know the details until they are released.

Edit: Just found this mobo, it's not a Z77 chipset but may work for you.
You can check the Gigabyte GA-P75-D3, it appears not to have any back panel graphics connections.
This may be what you are looking for.

Thanks all for your kind assistance.

I like to get ahead of things and be ready to go when technologies are released. (and I often get hit with the bugs, like the B2 bug). I've spent the last couple of days reading and it looks like the best option is to wait at least 2 months, but probably more likely next year, to upgrade. Staying current, to be honest, has been a preference not a neccessity. This is going to he soooo hard...

I've contacted the manufacturers of ASUS, Gigabyte and ASROCK regarding their motherboards and asked which don't have graphics on board, and if there are none, are they able to be configured so as to not use any dedicated or shared memory.

I agree that this is becoming less of a problem with memory costs dropping (relatively speaking), and no I won't be putting down any 32 bit OS's. That would not serve my purposes at all, limiting me to 3.25GB of memory.

8.8mb or 16mb I can live with. 640mb or 1760mb of appropriated memory I cannot.

There seems to be a lot of confusion though about CPU integrated graphics and motherboard Integrated graphics.. Graphics WAS implemented on motherboads long before it was integrated onto the CPUs.

Dave76: Thanks for the info on the P75. WIll look into it.

Here is an extract from Wikipedia.. (The full article is here: Graphics processing unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Integrated graphics solutions
Integrated graphics solutions, shared graphics solutions, or Integrated graphics processors (IGP) utilize a portion of a computer's system RAM rather than dedicated graphics memory. They are integrated into the motherboard. Exceptions are AMD's IGPs that use dedicated sideport memory on certain motherboards, and APUs, where they are integrated with the CPU die. Computers with integrated graphics account for 90% of all PC shipments.[14] These solutions are less costly to implement than dedicated graphics solutions, but tend to be less capable. Historically, integrated solutions were often considered unfit to play 3D games or run graphically intensive programs but could run less intensive programs such as Adobe Flash. Examples of such IGPs would be offerings from SiS and VIA circa 2004.[15] However, modern integrated graphics processors such as AMD's Fusion IGPs and Intel's HD Graphics are more than capable of handling 2D graphics from Adobe Flash or low stress 3D graphics, but struggle with the latest games like Battlefield 3. IGPs like the Intel's HD Graphics 3000 and AMD's Fusion IGPs have improved performance that may match cheap dedicated graphic cards, but still lag behind the more expensive dedicated graphics cards. While older platforms had the IGP integrated onto the motherboard, newer platforms (Intel Core i series and AMD Fusion) integrate the GPU right onto the CPU die.
As a GPU is extremely memory intensive, an integrated solution may find itself competing for the already relatively slow system RAM with the CPU, as it has minimal or no dedicated video memory. IGPs can have up to 29.856 GB/s of memory bandwidth from system RAM, however graphics cards can enjoy up to 16GB/s of bandwidth over PCIe 3.0. Older integrated graphics chipsets lacked hardware transform and lighting, but newer ones include it.[16]

There are new benefits to on CPU graphics like transcoding, may be useful if you need this.

Intel Quick Sync Video