[Just.Jamie]

Hi.

My old 775 build is on its last legs so upgrading my PC's guts to 1156. I'm looking at what bits to use and I'm pretty stuck on motherboards.

I'm looking at using an Intel i5 760 (4 core), want DDR3 upgradable to 16GB. I'm not much of a gamer, I play the odd game of civilisation.... but nothing crazy. It will be mainly used for web browsing, basic gaming, video editing and some software development.

It will need to be full ATX. Not sure if it should be better with H55 or P55. Not interested in sli/xfire, would ideally like not to have to add any graphics cards if onboard can handle it. Not bothered about USB3.

I don't want to go mad with my budget so the cheapest decent mobo that can meet the above is fine. Gives me more money for SSD.....

Any and all help appreciated. If you need to know anything else just ask.

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Hi Just.Jamie,

Before opting for a 1156 Intel build You might consider the following.

Opinions from "professional reviewers" seems to be that socket 1156 will get very little support with new CPUs, probably only lower spec ones. Some have said, "socket 1156 is dead"

If staying with Intel I would go for a Socket 1155 platform with a Sandy Bridge CPU and Mobo. With 6 and 8 cores due in the near future there would be plenty of scope to upgrade should you want too plus you get the new bios on a Asus board.
Your selected Intel i5 760 (4 core), is not cheap at $205.00. On this page, > http://www.cpubenchm...h_end_cpus.html find your CPU, price on the right. Hover on the coloured bar Will give you some information. Clicking on the name will give you more. Try the 2500 and 2500K a well.

Benchmarks Sandy Bridge, > http://www.tomshardw...32-nm,2831.html

Benchmarks, review, > http://benchmarkrevi...d=667&Itemid=69

[iammykyl]

Hi Just.Jamie,

Before opting for a 1156 Intel build You might consider the following.

Opinions from "professional reviewers" seems to be that socket 1156 will get very little support with new CPUs, probably only lower spec ones. Some have said, "socket 1156 is dead"

If staying with Intel I would go for a Socket 1155 platform with a Sandy Bridge CPU and Mobo. With 6 and 8 cores due in the near future there would be plenty of scope to upgrade should you want too plus you get the new bios on a Asus board.
Your selected Intel i5 760 (4 core), is not cheap at $205.00. On this page, > http://www.cpubenchm...h_end_cpus.html find your CPU, price on the right. Hover on the coloured bar Will give you some information. Clicking on the name will give you more. Try the 2500 and 2500K a well.

Benchmarks Sandy Bridge, > http://www.tomshardw...32-nm,2831.html

Benchmarks, review, > http://benchmarkrevi...d=667&Itemid=69

[Just.Jamie]

Thanks iammykyl.

I was looking at 1156 as I'd read that there were problems with sandybridge. When looking on ebuyer there were few positive reviews of the 1155 compared to the mass of 5 stars on all 1156 (maybe because its been around longer).

Although I'd like an element of future proofing I'm hoping this new rig will also do me for a few years as my old P4 did before that (5/6 years). Realistically I would only change processor after the build if the existing unit had problems.

Would be happy with 1155 if its stable and not overly costly. The Asus board looks like a Swiss army mobo but does use more budget than I was hoping. Also at the moment I'm only running a crappy VGA output monitor so onboard would be good but I can get a card if need be. When money gets better I will look to upgrade my screen along with everything else.

[Neil Jones]

1155 Sandy Bridge is brand new, so there won't be a lot of user feedback on it yet. The best future proof option Intel wise at the moment is Socket 1155 and Sandy Bridge. Intel have always issues on irregular occasions with new product launches and Sandy Bridge is no exception to the rule. The entire Pentium D range was inferior because it ran obscenely hot for one thing, and was completely inefficient power wise compared to the AMDs of the time. Issues which were both fixed with the Core 2 Duo range.

[Just.Jamie]

So does that mean 1155 is worth buying or not? Planning on making a purchase within the next couple of weeks. Is there any point buying a 1155 mobo with several SATA connections when on 2 are guaranteed to work properly.

[iammykyl]

So does that mean 1155 is worth buying or not?

That's a 100++% yes. I think in six months you would be hard pressed to find a retail PC that does not contain a Sandy Bridge. To get the same performance from other Intel chips you have to spend hundreds of dollars more. There may be competition from AMD Buildozer, but we will have to wait and see.

Is there any point buying a 1155 mobo with several SATA connections when on 2 are guaranteed to work properly.

Intel are again causing confusion with Chipsets on the Motherboards. Everything works on all the Mobos except the integrated graphics on the P67. On the H67 and Most of the overclocking options on the H67 are disabled.

The main differences between H67 and P67 can be boiled down into three parts:

• Display outputs: While all the new Sandy Bridge CPUs have an integrated graphics chip, P67 boards don't have any video outputs. To use GMA HD 2000/3000 graphics and the associated features, H67 is the way to go.
• Overclocking: Multiplier adjustment is off the table for H67. P67 boards are allowed to increase the multiplier by 4 for TurboBoost-enabled processors (not including the increase provided by TurboBoost itself). For "K" series processors, there is no limit. Increasing the base clock frequency (100 MHz) is not recommended as it is tied to other interfaces (such as it was in the olden days) including PCI Express and SATA. This effectively neuters H67 for overclocking.
• PCI Express lanes: The 16 PCI Express lanes provided by the processor do not split up into 8/8 for use with dual video cards on H67. The chipset offers the same number of lanes as P67, but there simply aren't enough to go around, so CrossFireX capable H67 boards have a crippled second PCI-E 16x slot operating at only 4x.

Enthusiasts, power users, and gamers will gravitate twoward P67, paying a premium for its extra potential. Everyone else who wants to build a Sandy Bridge system are left with the more limited H67 chipset. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we don't appreciate these purely artificial divisions, fabricated to segregate the market. There doesn't appear to be a technical reason why display outputs cannot be added to P67 or why multiplier overclocking capability cannot be added to H67. For the dregs relegated to H67, we have a pair of contenders to look at today. One is a budget board from Intel, the other is a more upscale model from Asus.' Full article, >
http://www.silentpcr...67_Motherboards

Page for 4 other articles, > http://www.silentpcr...om/articleindex

Edited by iammykyl, 17 February 2011 - 07:09 AM.

[Just.Jamie]

Thanks guys.

Despite what everyone has said above I think I'm still going to opt for a 1156 board. Mainly due to budget, existing equipment and time contraints. I don't think I can wait around for 1155 to "come good" although I'm sure within a few months it will.

The challenge to you all is which mobo to choose. Looking around I'm having a real hard time finding something that meets the above

As I'm not really a big gamer I would like to forgo purchasing a graphics card in favour of on board GPU (if achievable).

Needs

• VGA output.
• ATX
• raid 0,1 availbility
• IDE connector
• SATA2
• 4 DDR3 slots ideally upto 16Gb

As above I won't need crossfire and everything else seems to be standard across everything I've check so far.

Nice to have:

• 2x SATA3 connectors
• USB3 would

The reason for the above is that my budget is not great and I want to reuse my PSU, box, optical drives and maybe some IDE drives (as backup)through my internal hard drive caddy. I would hope to upgrade everything eventually but its going to take me time. Realistically all I need in the short term is a mobo, processor and ram. Was looking at i3 or maybe i5 tops for processor.

All help would be appreciated.

[iammykyl]

This is the only socket 1156 ATX mobo from a known Brand with integrated graphics. > http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813186190

Very low spec board.

[happyrock]

just want to throw my 2 cents worth in here...
the mobo is the most important component in the system...its how all the other components communicate with each other and it is set in what it will support...do not skip on it...go with the 1155 mobo even if you have to wait a couple of months to get one

[iammykyl]

A complete change of direction.

If you want to build now, this AMD Motherboard would give you evething you want including pretty good graphics.

> http://www.newegg.co...PID=3630615=

basic gaming, video editing and some software development

Choose one of these 6 core CPUs, better for number chrunching than a 4 core.

> http://www.newegg.co...9^19-103-849-TS

This would just leave the RAM to select.

[iammykyl]

Just been browsing Neregg and see that SB is back on sale again.

Guess you have 2 choices now. ?

Please let us know how you decide.

[Just.Jamie]

Thanks guys.

Finally made a decision.

I'm going to go down the AMD route and use an Asus M4A88TD - V Evo/USB3 ATX mobo. Seems to have everything I wanted + lots more and at a pretty good price. Going to get a Phenom 2 x2 560 3.3ghz processor and then unlock the 2 dormant cores to make a quad. Together they come to £130 ($211 to my friends across the pond) so means I've got enough extra cash for a decent SSD drive and half decent RAM. Gonna go for the crucial 64GB Real SSD C300 2.5" - Read 355MB/s Write 75MB/s and take advantage of the 6Gb/s SATA connection. Going for 1x Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600mhz Vengeance to start with. I here 1 of the slots can be obstructed by the processor fan hence the 1 strip rather than 2x2Gb.

Not buying until the weekend so feedback is still welcome.

Thanks again.

[iammykyl]

Good to hear back from you.

For the money, I don't think you could do better.

Be aware that there is no guarantee that the CPU you receive will unlock or that the unlocked core will be stable. Here is a good review with benchmarks.
> http://benchmarkrevi...d=601&Itemid=63

Good choice for the Mobo, Asus product page, >
http://usa.asus.com/...mllTHNRm4IGqnbL

SSD is one I was looking at for my next build. Are you going to use the SSD for the OS and one of your existing HDD for DATA storage? If yes, this might be of interest to you, >
http://forum.corsair...ad.php?p=462026

If you are au fait with regedit, read this article before installing the OS, >
http://www.overclock...-secondary.html

RAM. A short review for the 8GB kit, >
http://www.yoursworl...00mhz-4330.html

Be sure to check out the QVL list from Asus and I would also check the site for whichever RAM manufacturer you decide to use.