Help with a new Mobo [Solved]

[Dark Prince]

Hi there,

So it's time for an upgrade and I've chosen that my motherboard is the most outdated in my computer. My current specs:
Intel Quad Core @ 2.5 Ghz
Nvidia Geforce 250s
Asus P5QLD Pro DDR2 motherboard (I know right)
4 GB DDR2 RAM

So thats the just of it. The memory is not an issue as I have some DDR3 sticks here. I'm looking for a motherboard that can handle DDR3 memory (the standard these days anyways) and can also handle my current CPU and also support the newer generation CPU's because I will buy myself an i7 eventually.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Dark Prince

[Cpt.Monde]

Rather post your question in here as it is the official thread for these questions. :)

Not really sure which quad core CPU you're referring to, but your motherboard seems to be an LGA 775 'board so I'm going to assume you have a Core 2 Quad.

Your current CPU is not supported with the newer generations of motherboards. As far as I know, i7 processors need LGA 1156/1155 motherboards (correct me if I'm wrong please) so you won't be able to use your current CPU if you get one of those. If you want to carry on using your current CPU, you'll have to stick to 775 motherboards.

I'm no expert when it comes to motherboards, so I'm not sure which motherboards has a faster integrated graphics chipset, better cooling, overclocking facilities, etc, but I'd recommend the ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M if you want to stick to Intel processors. It's R1566.25 on Prophecy.co.za.

[innocent159]

i don't think there's a board that would support your current quad core cpu and be able to upgrade to i7 cpu, quad core is mostly 775, and i3,5,7 is 1155, 1156 and 2011, so if its for gaming i'd prefer a z77 board which is capable with i3,5,7. i recommand Asus Intel P8z77-v Lx which is about R1,897.00 and support Intel® Socket 1155 for 3rd/2nd Generation Core™ i7/Core™ i5/Core™ i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors. Supports Intel® 22 nm CPU. show its future prove

[Dark Prince]

Sorry for not posting in the right section :)

OK so it seems that continuing to use my same CPU is out of the question if i want to upgrade in the near future. The motherboard you suggested Cpt.Monde seems to be a good deal for all the benefits that it offers. However I will still be open to other people's suggestions. Is there any other similar motherboards that you may suggest? The concept of buying a iX processor is set in stone now. I do have another question though. What exactly sets apart these Z77 motherboards from those of others that can support an iX with usb 3.0 etc etc.

[innocent159]

the chipset is different, its made for pc gaming, support ivy bridge and sandy bridge... apart from you don't get dual core cpu in stores. the board i suggest takes i3,5,7. PCI-E 3.0, and support 22nm

[Wesley]

My current specs:
Intel Quad Core @ 2.5 Ghz
Nvidia Geforce 250s
Asus P5QLD Pro DDR2 motherboard (I know right)
4 GB DDR2 RAM

So thats the just of it. The memory is not an issue as I have some DDR3 sticks here. I'm looking for a motherboard that can handle DDR3 memory (the standard these days anyways) and can also handle my current CPU and also support the newer generation CPU's because I will buy myself an i7 eventually.

Just keep in mind that the i7 family isn't that much faster than the i5 chips. i7 is a better fit if you do a lot of video encoding and video or photo editing because Intel's Hyper-Threading on those chips really does boost performance in multi-threaded apps by quite a bit. Since you've never overclocked your quad, this is what I would suggest:

Intel Core i5 3470 @ R1986
ASRock B75M ATX @ R703

If you need something more of a stop-gap measure and you really want an i7, I'd stick with the B75 board and shove in a Pentium G2120 for now. What's likely going to give you performance issues is your GPU because you'll be bottlenecked by it, so you could always do it the other way around and upgrade the GPU first and then pick up a new board and chip when AMD's new FX chips land here. Game performance should improve by quite a bit and if Geo's reading this, he can pipe in because he still has a Core 2 Quad 9300 at the heart of h That'll bring prices down a little and you might even be tempted to go over to the red team.

Also, what PSU do you have? If its a decent brand you won't have to swap that out as the new components will be vastly more efficient than your current setup. It might be worth replacing the PSU a little further down the road, but for now you should be able to re-use it.

As far as I know, i7 processors need LGA 1156/1155 motherboards (correct me if I'm wrong please) so you won't be able to use your current CPU if you get one of those.

You're correct, although LGA 1156 boards are no longer sold. A LGA1155 i7 processor can work on anything from a H61 board all the way to Z77.

What exactly sets apart these Z77 motherboards from those of others that can support an iX with usb 3.0 etc etc.

Z77 allows for control of the multiplier and generally allows for two PCI-Express 3.0 slots on the board, one in the full 16x mode and the other only running in 4x. Moving from Z77 to B75 you only lose multiplier control as most B75-based boards do feature USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0 and Intel's RST controller for using SSDs as a cache. H61 is the basic layout and only supports PCI-E 2.0 and does have support for legacy peripherals on the back panel like a LPT port, COM port and sometimes two PS/2 ports. B75 is in the middle of the two chipsets and is geared for business use, but holds good value for gamers and system builders working in a tight budget.

the chipset is different, its made for pc gaming, support ivy bridge and sandy bridge... apart from you don't get dual core cpu in stores. the board i suggest takes i3,5,7. PCI-E 3.0, and support 22nm

Just remember that fallacy of "made for PC gaming" is old hat now. You can build a gaming rig based on H61, B75 or even Z77 boards and so long as the components are all the same, there's no difference in how games should behave based on the board you have. It used to be the case during the LGA775 days that boards based on higher-end chipsets did show an improvement, but it was marginal in most cases. These days because the memory controller and PCI lanes are all on the CPU itself the only things the different chipsets bring to the table is standards compliance, extra ports and more features.

[Dark Prince]

Thank you Wesley for the reply, really appreciate the input. The current PSU that I own is a Huntkey 700W. I work alot in photoshop and illustrator from time to time, although the programs seem to work fine on the current CPU. One thing I can say though is I do alot of gaming and I do like to push my computer to the limits. I also wish to overclock my CPU at some stage. I was going to overclock my current CPU but then I came to grips with the fact that my efforts would be in vain. Anymore info you would like that would influence some factors??

[Wesley]

Well if those are your workloads, then these combinations are what I'd look at. I'll give you two more in addition to the i5 and B75 combo I already recommended.

Not Breaking the Bank:
Intel Core i5 3570K @ R2404
MSI Z77A-G43 @ R1076

Breaking the Bank:
Intel Core i7 3770K @ R3506
ASRock Z77 Extreme6 @ R1923

Either one will be fine for your use, as will the entry-level option I recommended. I don't know if you're working with any multi-threaded plugins so I left in the Core i7 as an option. Depending on which plugins you use an AMD FX processor might be faster than anything else, but overall Intel has better performance in most apps. Note that you can pair the i7 with the cheaper MSI board and still get decent overclocking ability.

As an aside, if you're limited by budget you can pair the i5-3470 with the MSI Z77 board and overclock it a bit. On non-K models you can clock the cores up to their maximum Turbo boost levels, so a i5-3570 can go up to 3.6GHz on all cores without a hitch. That saves you a bit of money and still gives you leeway for tweaking. Anything I've recommended is going to be at least 50% faster than your current setup.

While you're pondering a complete upgrade, I'd suggest seeing if the budget can accommodate a SSD.

[Dark Prince]

Ok well Ive done some hunting and research and I've come down to these that Im going to get first:
MSI Z77A-G43 (Thank you Wesley)
Intel Core i5 2400 (From Pinnacle)

Thanks for the support everyone