Motherboard Decision

D

Darkhour

New member
I'm building a new Pc to replace my 3 year old rig.

I'm planning on getting:

i7-2600K (OC to 4GHz)

Noctua NH-D14

8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 1.5v

GeForce GTX 580 (Possibly SLI later on)

Silent Pro Gold 1000w PSU

HAF X Full tower case (with optional fans)

Windows 7 Home Premium x64

1TB SATA 3 7200RPM HHD (for general storage)

120 SATA 3 SSD (for OS and games)

I'm still on the fence about a motherboard.

Gigabyte is supposed to be releasing the G1 sniper 2 Z68 board in September. I was going to wait for that, but I hear it will cost around $460. Not that I can't afford it, but it does not seem to be worth that price. Especially when their UD5 and UD7 models are cheaper and practically the same or better from a practical use perspective. I could care less about an integrated sound card. I don't have any fancy setup and sound is sound to me. Never really saw the point in aftermarket sound cards. Speaker quality has always seemed more noticable. And I could care less about this Bigfoot Killer NIC which probably won't have any noticable performance boost. It's PCIe 3.0 compatible and supports 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, but I probably won't be upgrading CPUs until 3 years when I upgrade the whole system again and as far as I know most GPUs don't even tax PCIe 2.0.

The Gigabyte UD7 has PCIe 2.0 x16/x16 on two cards vs all other Z68 boards being x8/x8 in SLI. Do GPUs even fully utilize x8? Will x16/x16 really make any noticable difference? That's pretty much the only thing the UD7 has over the UD5 in my opinion.

Since I plan to buy a SSD to run the OS and therefore have no desire to utilize SSD caching, is it worthwhile to consider getting a P67? I have heard that they actually perform better than Z68s, but I have questions as to rather or not the 1155s work as well with P67 as Z68. I definitely want the i7-2600K for the OC ability so X58 isn't even being considered.

Any suggestions?
 
Sniper 2 out to order now mate..

priced at £350 so thats closer to $570 USD!!

WAAAY to expensive for me too, and I agree totally with your reasons! ( im looking at UD7 )

16x/16x v 8x/8x will be bugger all really. 1-2% drop maybe?? and lets face it, SLI gtx580s will rule most stuff anyway

like 2-5 FPS on a multimonitor setup?

if money is a factor, look at the UD4 or UD5, and take the hit on the SLI lane restriction, and invest the money u save on the board, into other areas of the build

if money ISNT a problem, i DO like the look of that UD7
smile.gif
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P67 if the board is a hell of a lot cheaper would be worth it (make sure its B3 revision for sata fix)

Z68 is now pretty much the norm for all 1155 chips, so personally i would go for this, only for future support / updates, and if you have to RMA the board, u get the same one back..

just my rambling 2 cents worth
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Matt_58 said:
Sniper 2 out to order now mate..

priced at £350 so thats closer to $570 USD!!
Click to expand...

Maybe it's available in the UK, but I don't see it anywhere in the states. At $460 they would be pushing it. At $570, they wouldn't be able to sell them. They just don't bring anything to the table. It's just UD7 with an rifle themed aesthtic, no x16/x16, no N2400 chip (whatever it's called) and some fancy sound card and NIC that don't really bring anything new to the table. Even if I was a billionaire I wouldn't pay that much for a board. It's the principle.

I'm debating whether to go with Gigabyte UD5 or Asus Maximus series. I notice the UD7 doesn't have enough space between the PCIE16_1 and _2 ports(necessary for x16/x16) to fit 2 of my graphic cards which take up 3 slots), but UD5 would fit 2 perfectly. That made that choice simple. My RAM is blue anyway so to colors will match the blue of the UD5 vs the gold of the UD7.

I don't really know anything about the other manufacturer's reputation. Anyone have any suggestions on non-gigabyte boards?
 
I looked up the G1 Sniper 2 on NCIX. It's $360 Canadian. I find it odd that prices don't match. Everything should be so much cheaper for you guys. For you, the G1 Sniper 2 should be ~220 quid. You got screwed on the 990x too. Its $1,000 in Canada ($1120 with tax), but it's 1,000 quid for you (~$1,620 CDN). Either way, it's overpriced. I wouldn't buy it.
 
yup if it was £250 ish i would be ordering it now.. i just cant see how looking military costs £100 more!!
 
shyguy094 said:
I looked up the G1 Sniper 2 on NCIX. It's $360 Canadian. I find it odd that prices don't match. Everything should be so much cheaper for you guys. For you, the G1 Sniper 2 should be ~220 quid. You got screwed on the 990x too. Its $1,000 in Canada ($1120 with tax), but it's 1,000 quid for you (~$1,620 CDN). Either way, it's overpriced. I wouldn't buy it.
Click to expand...

Video games are the same way. Like the Mass Efect 3 CE is $80 here and £70 ($101) in the UK.

I noticed everything on that NCIX site is overpriced. Windows 7 is $119.98CAD vs $99.99USD, the i7-2600K is $343.84CAD vs $314.99USD. I got my NNH-D14 for 75.42USD(including shipping) and it's $89.99CAD on NCIX.

If the Sniper 2 is $350ish USD (UD7 price) I might just get it. But nobody sells it in the states. I'm wondering what's going on with that. Although, the UD5 pretty much has everything I need. I really wish the Sniper 2 was genuinely better than a UD5 to justify buying it.
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You might consider the new EVGA Z68 FTW that costs $264.99 in EVGA store, its quite simple in features and its aimed for the gamer overclocker enthusiast but since there is no reviews of it yet its hard to say if it worth the money. Right now i think the best performer/ value is the UD5.
 
Darkhour said:
ASRock Extreme 7 Gen3 looks nice. It's also Ivy Bridge/PCIE 3.0 compatible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157269
Click to expand...

I agree that looks amazing and its full of features and extras and reviewers are giving high awards but the problem with Asrock its reliability. I think its too soon to tell if they are really making the jump to good quality high end boards.

I had one and it given me a couple of headaches. If you go with it try search forums for users that are already using it hardcore.
 
3dProphet said:
I agree that looks amazing and its full of features and extras and reviewers are giving high awards but the problem with Asrock its reliability. I think its too soon to tell if they are really making the jump to good quality high end boards.

I had one and it given me a couple of headaches. If you go with it try search forums for users that are already using it hardcore.
Click to expand...

According to this article which tests x16/x16 vs x8/x8 the whole NF200 inclusion is practically meaningless. native x8 actually being faster in most cases than NF200 at x16. The human eye can't tell the difference. x16/x16 is sounding more and more like a cheap gimmick.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4...el_x8_x8_p67_performance_analysis/index1.html

The ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 (Fatal1ty) is actually more future proof in that it has 2 PCIe3.0 slots vs 1 in the Extreme7. And the Pro GEN3 is now $40 cheaper on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157263

On another note, anyone know if there is any reason to get a i7-2600K over a i7-2500K. They both can easily OC and have similar performance but one is $100 cheaper.
 
i7 gives 2mb more cache and enabled hyperthreading on the cores.

if u do gaming, surfing the net, bit of music / video downloading here and there, then the i7 is a bit overkill, save your hard earned cash go for i5-2500k

if, however, you do Video encoding, 3d video rendering, number crunching applications on a regular basis, then the I7 2600k is the puppy u want at the heart of it all
 
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