Going Core i7

[AntiHeroUK]

I have decided that I can't wait any longer and now is the time for me to upgrade

Basically I have narrowed my choice of motherboards down to the following three:

Biostar TPower X58

DFI Lan Party LP UT X58-T3EH6

Gigabyte EX58-UD5

These boards fit nicely into my budget, however I am open to suggestions of more expensive boards, but the extra cost will need to be justified.

While I am on the subject, is there any reason to buy the retail Core i7 920 over the OEM version apart from the extra warranty and bundled cooler? Are the retail CPUs likely to be better clockers at all?

 

[Brooksie]

afaik oem cpu's are just retail without the cooler.

 

[cl0ck_ed]

The retail will have better sell on value as it has the box n cooler ect. Imo don't spend more than £15 extra on the retail version as the sell on benefits will diminish.

This is the difference between the two dfi mobo: to sum up, For an extra £65 you get Bernstein audio card, 3-way sli, 8 phase digital pwm, better cooling.

 

[undersea]

Go Biostar,

Check Rebels for info on that board.

Good Luck!

 

[SwaleSmith]

Out of you list I'd probably get the lan party, however my rampage extreme is an excellent board and would be my first choice if budget allowed.

 

[Hodgstar]

Go Biostar,

Check Rebels for info on that board.

Good Luck!

yeah what he said

 

[OmegaStalker]

i love my Gigabyte...

 

[undersea]

i love my Gigabyte...

They are all good boards,

For me the question would be how much do you want to pay?

 

[AntiHeroUK]

I've decided to up my budget to around £300 max for the motherboard.

So two more boards I am looking at are:

DFI Lan Party LP UT X58-T3EH8

Foxconn Blood Rage X58

The more I look the less certain I am. I am pretty sure I want to try something new though, so nothing from Asus or Gigabyte.

 

[undersea]

I've decided to up my budget to around £300 max for the motherboard.

The more I look the less certain I am. I am pretty sure I want to try something new though, so nothing from Asus or Gigabyte.

I've tried Foxconn in the past and not always been thrilled with them. Funky Bios although the board you listed received some good write-ups.

The DFI board is really nice. DFI almost always makes a nice board. Bios is kind of tough but everyone has sort of caught up to DFI in that regards.

Check tech power up forums or extreme systems. I can't post a linky yet sorry.

 

[Ging3r]

I would always go Foxconn if i could afford it.

@OEM cpu's, its not the box and the cooler that puts the price up.. you get a 3 year warrenty with retail, as an OEM only gets 1 year

 

[SwaleSmith]

Ah yes forgot about the bloodrage, In that case It would be a coin **** beetween bloodrage and the lan party both are top boards.....think the bloodrage would be my choice, both are ''apparently'' blessed with fiddly bios's though.