Its that time of the year.

[LoZz]

The last time I posted here I got great help in building properly the best, most bug free system I have had in years. So I will try again.

Its that time of year again. I am going to upgrade my hardware on my pc. In January last year I bought a cpu, mobo and ram. I got a core 2 duo socket 775 processor at 2.66ghz. I got a asus p5k-e mobo and 2 gb’s of ddr 2 1066mhz ram. It has enabled me to play every PC game I have bought on high graphics for over the last year and a half! No small achievement I feel. 6-8 months ago I bought a new graphics card to see me over. I got a 8800gt 512mb.

Now however its time to upgrade and once again I find myself banging my head in frustration at the rate tech has moved on. My current mobo is socket 775 which I hear will be dropped at the end of the year by intel in favour of i7? or i9? It’s also only pci-e 16x. I understand that the new 200 series from nvidia is pci-e 2?

So in short I need a new mobo. I have decided the graphics card to get is the 275 from nvidia. And I am going to just buy a decent i9/i7 quad core for around £200. I am going to wait till October when windows 7 comes out before buying anything. Windows 7 is actually at a decent price and I figure waiting then means only one new install rather then one now and then one when I get windows 7.

My problem is I have no idea which mobo to get. The only spec I want/need is it has to support this new socket, pci-e 2 (doesn’t have to be sli or crossfire). If possible I would like to re-use my ddr 2 ram. But if not its not the end of the world.

I already calculate that currently to get windows 7 professional, a 275 and a £200 quad core will cost me around £500. I already have a decent coolmasters PC case, a decent PSU and I am going to use my current hard drives rather then a new ones so the only thing I need is a mobo but I can’t figure out which one. I am totally lost by the choice out there. The same with the processor, which is why I just set myself a budget rather then an actual model. So any help with getting a mobo for £100 and a new CPU in the new socket for no more then £200 would be great.

[Wheelchair]

I think you should go the ATi route for videocards, I suggest buying the HD 4890, I'm using 2 of them right now and 1 can play crysis maxed out at 38Fps average, If I add another in crossfire my FPS stays at 60, In crysis.

Also, for motherboard I suggest Gigabyte EX58-UD3R , It supports crossfire so if you go the ATi route you can hook up a second 4890 down the road. The HD4890 is on par with the GTX275 and in alot of benchmarks is slightly better in performance, and around 40-50$ cheaper.

Also, for ram I suggest G.skill 1600MHz ram 6GB, It should run you around 100$ USD. Reason you'll have to get new ram is because the X58 motherboards only support DDR3, but it's not a bad thing.

What Freddy is going to tell you is to hold off on upgrading and wait until after October when the new series of videocards are released along with the i5's and i9's down the road. Going LG1366 Mobo route is a better idea then LGA1156 because the i9 is also LGA1366 so it'll fit on the standardized X58 Mobos that support core i7's *takes deep breathe* I also agree with Freddy, hold off a few more months until you upgrade, you'll either be able to buy alot better Hardware OR save alot of money, or both.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

you'll either be able to buy alot better Hardware OR save alot of money, or both.

Always true as prices always go down.

[Wheelchair]

Always true as prices always go down.

hahaha Chaob I <3 you, I like how were having a Signature war, lmao.

Hilarious.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

hahaha Chaob I <3 you, I like how were having a Signature war, lmao.

Hilarious.

I ran out of space to add stuff... we could start changing colors now

[squeaky]

I would honestly wait a little bit before buying a new motherboard. I agree that an x58 board on socket 1366 would be your best bet for future-proofing, but at the same time the prices are very high right now and I don't think it's worth spending that much to upgrade past what you've got now (which is pretty good)

the core i5 supporting boards (socket 11xx something) are coming out soon so those might mix things up if you don't need to stay on the bleeding edge right now.

[LoZz]

what the difference between i5 and i7?

[squeaky]

i5 will run on a different socket, one designed to replace socket775 as the mid/low range. The biggest deal with them will be more affordable motherboards. They're definitely not top of the line (reserved for i7 now, and i9 soon after).
They're going to be mostly quad cores without hyperthreading at the top end, so i7 will definitely beat it out.

But it depends what you want really. If you want top of the line and want to be able to keep upgrading to top of the line, the i7 is more future-proof. but if you're ok getting 2nd tier and upgrading to the 2nd tier in the future and want to save some cash, i5 might be a possibility for you.

[Freddie]

i5 will run on a different socket, one designed to replace socket775 as the mid/low range. The biggest deal with them will be more affordable motherboards. They're definitely not top of the line (reserved for i7 now, and i9 soon after).
They're going to be mostly quad cores without hyperthreading at the top end, so i7 will definitely beat it out.

But it depends what you want really. If you want top of the line and want to be able to keep upgrading to top of the line, the i7 is more future-proof. but if you're ok getting 2nd tier and upgrading to the 2nd tier in the future and want to save some cash, i5 might be a possibility for you.

No. The new socket LGA1156 doesn't mean it's exclusive to core i5, there are new core i7's coming out for LGA1156 and mainstream core i5 as well.

Core i7 870, LGA1156, hyperthreading
Core i7 860, LGA1156, hyperthreading
Core i5 750, LGA 1156, no hyperthreading

The main difference is that the new socket is dual channel memory rather then triple channel but benchmarks have shown that makes bugger difference how many channels you have. The new Lynnfield CPU's feature a very aggresive turbo mode which automatically overclocks the CPU when only one thread is being used. The turbo on the 870 goes to around 3.6ghz where as the Core i7 920 only goes to 2.93.

[squeaky]

right, i never said it was exclusive to core i5, however that socket was not meant to be for the top-end as it won't get the eventual i9

[LoZz]

could someone explain to me i5, i7, i9 and these two different sockets? still slightly confused. is the i7 to i9 what windows vista is to windows 7? and then i5 is like a lite/cheap version. and then all 3 cpu's will come in socket 1156 and 1366. except i7? and socket 1366 will be more common? am i right?

[Wheelchair]

could someone explain to me i5, i7, i9 and these two different sockets? still slightly confused. is the i7 to i9 what windows vista is to windows 7? and then i5 is like a lite/cheap version. and then all 3 cpu's will come in socket 1156 and 1366. except i7? and socket 1366 will be more common? am i right?

Intel is good at confusing people.

i5 will be 1156, It'll include Dualcores and I believe a quad or two.

i7 AND i9 will be 1366, i9 will be very high end, it'll start at 6 cores, 12 threads, 3.1GHz, and 12MB Cache, Ridiculous!

[Freddie]

could someone explain to me i5, i7, i9 and these two different sockets? still slightly confused. is the i7 to i9 what windows vista is to windows 7? and then i5 is like a lite/cheap version. and then all 3 cpu's will come in socket 1156 and 1366. except i7? and socket 1366 will be more common? am i right?

It might be easier if I just draw up a table and posted it, Intel have worked wonders at confusing even the most die hard tech enthusiast. Watch this space.

BTW You can forget about Core i9 - 6 core's all with hyperthreading but it's going to cost upwards of £1000 and it's going to take a few years for games and software to come along to take advantage of all those cores so you might as well wait until there are cheaper 6 core CPU's on the market before going up this route.

Edit:



This should help the names and what socket each chip works on. For me the sweet spot is the Core i7 860 I have my eye on that chip to take centre stage on my new build but that's only if it can be overclocked to the levels that have been reported on in early testing in Tiwan. If not I'll probably get a Core i7 920.

[Roman_Man#3]

the i7 860 and 870 will also be on Socket 1156. The only difference there is that the memory controller is on the processor, as opposed to the motherboard. Dual channel memory support as opposed to triple channel. I'm going to be snagging myself one of those bad boys.

[LoZz]

so what i want if i am feeling flash is an i7 on socket 1366. and a i5 on socket 1156 if i am feeling cheap?

[Freddie]

so what i want if i am feeling flash is an i7 on socket 1366. and a i5 on socket 1156 if i am feeling cheap?

Yes but the Core i7 870 on the 1156 is going to be more expensive then the Core i7 920 on 1366. The Core i7 860 is expected to be the same price as the currant Core i7 920.

[Wheelchair]

Yes but the Core i7 870 on the 1156 is going to be more expensive then the Core i7 920 on 1366. The Core i7 860 is expected to be the same price as the currant Core i7 920.

So.. the 870 is a rebranded 920? basically? Just more efficient architecture probably.

[Freddie]

So.. the 870 is a rebranded 920? basically? Just more efficient architecture probably.

I wouldn't say it's a rebranded 920 but it looks like the 860 is CPU that's going to replace the 920 as the 'best value for money' for performance enthusiasts. The 860 is dual channel memory rather then the 920's triple channel but it does have a higher clock rate, better turbo, lower thermals and power (like you said more efficient).

The 870 looks set to replace the 940/950 as it's quite a bit more expensive then the 860 (twice the price)

[LoZz]

so best bang for buck would be the Core i7 870 on the 1156?

[Freddie]

so best bang for buck would be the Core i7 870 on the 1156?

No the best bang for buck will be the Core i7 860 or the Coire i5 750, we will have to wait and see.