Motherboards Sheesh, you're out of the game for a *bit* and everything changes!

Hi all,

I've got an admission straight off the bat here, in the last two years I really haven't been paying too much attention to the PC hardware game and it seems to have changed completely in that time (I'm sure it hasn't really). I work in mobile so I've been all over that like a rash, plus my rig hasn't needed any changes up until now.

Anyway, 4 years ago I built the rig in my signature, and now I want to do a bit of upgrading so I can put it in a smaller case with some slightly fast kit.

I'm going to put it in the Antec Solo II, I'm going to keep the GPU, Sound card and PSU.

The hardware I plan to put in it is a Sandbridge CPU (probably the i5 2500) annnnnd then I get stuck on motherboard chipsets.

From what I can see it is the introduction on-board graphics which is confusing me but I want to be sure. My requirement is ATX, doesn't need to be overclockable all that much, and 6gbs SATA would be handy for any future upgrades (probably SSD when Windows 8 comes out).

The confusion for me definitely seems to be about the H67, P67 and Z68 motherboards - i'm just not sure which one to go for in terms of the chipsets, any advice would be muchly appreciated.

I guess off the back of this is the RAM question - am I right in thinking all of those above chipsets support Tri-Channel DDR3?

TIA guys

 

Sandybridge CPUS (all the latest i series) have an onboard GPU built into the chip. H67 supports it, P67 doesn't. However, H67 does not support overclocking, P67 does (though you'll also need a K series chip that supports OCing too such as the 2500k).

Z68 does both. See here

All of the above support DUAL channel DDR3 memory.

 

Btw, the 2500 does not support overclocking, the 2500k does. The premium for the K version is so very little that in my eyes its definitely worth investing in it, even if you aren't going to use it straight away.

 

Z68 is the most feature-rich, and most expensive. It has stuff like Intel's Smart Reponse (or somesuch nonsensical name) which uses a small SSD (if you have one) as a cache for your mechanical HDD. It can use the i5/i7's onboard graphics. Also overclocks well.

P67 is arguably the best. It overclocks and because it doesn't have z68's random features, it isn't too pricey. However, it can't make use of onboard graphics and seems to be in the process of being phased out.

H67 is cheap, doesn't overclock well and shouldn't really be considered.

Most boards have at least two 6gbps SATA ports.

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None of these support tri-channel RAM. Socket 1155 uses dual-channel.

Edit: ninja'ed

 

Brilliant, this all makes sense now.

I do have one question about the on-board graphics which is thus: adding a graphics card automatically disables it, or is it something to disable in bios?

Although I guess having my display plugged in to the DVI on my graphics card null and voids my question (apologies for thinking out loud).

I think I'll look around and see what P67 or Z68 board is in budget - I think I'll be getting something from Gigabyte as I like them (the Striker Extreme burnt me, I had 4 in 12 months so not a big fan of Asus even though I know this won't be an issue these days for mid range kit, you know how these things work).

And thank you for the info about the RAM, is x58 Tri channel? (just so I know)

 

Yep, you are spot on if you plug your monitor DVD/HDMI/VGA cable into the motherboard you will use the on-board graphics.

 

X58, or LGA1366 is triple channel, yes.

 

Gotcha,

Thanks all - maybe it hasn't moved on as much as I thought, just that onboard graphics bit that through me, last time I was looking at hardware and saw that was because there was a GPU on the board, not on the die on the CPU, it threw me a bit!

 

One thing to be aware of with Gigabyte is that their low(er)-end Z68 boards don't have any of the features of a Z68 (onboard graphics, Smart Response, Lucid).

Z68 does have a nice feature which allows you to plug the monitor into the motherboard's DVI/HDMI/VGA output, and use the onboard GPU for non-intensive tasks, and then fire up the main GPU for 3D tasks. Saves a bit of power.

One other thing to consider if you want a smaller system but don't use many of the PCI-E lanes available would be to get an MATX case like the Fortress FT03 and an MATX motherboard. It's large enough to still fit big GPUs and full size coolers, but small enough to have a small footprint and take up a lot less room. Best bang for buck MATX LGA1155 motherboard is the Asus (I know) P67M-Pro for ~£100-120, gives SLI/Crossfire support, and is a great overclocker. There's also a Z68 version.

 

Thanks Marvin, I'll investigate that as well, I'm just trying to think what I have in my PCI slots atm and I think it's the X-Fi sound card and Nova-T 500 TV tuner so as long as I could fit those in it will be a possibility. I'll see how much it all comes to.