Help Me Choose A Mobo, Please!

[Piyono2]

I've been doing service/support exclusively for years, now. It's been a couple of years since my last build, and I'm almost completely out of the hardware loop.

A client wants to buy a new Mobo/RAM/CPU so that he can play some of the newer titles out there. He's got a GeForce 6900 already (not sure what brand).

This is a budget build all the way. He's not looking for crazy frame rates or anything. Just playability.

He's plans on getting an i5 CPU. Given the GPU he already has, what are some motherboard options?

Piyono

 

[DaveSimmons]

If he will pay for it, the best combo that will support games for years and a video card upgrade or two is socket 1155 / sandy bridge.

Get an i5-2500k CPU, P67 chipset motherboard, 4 GB - 8 GB DDR3 RAM.

Are you sure about that gf 6900? If so, that's a very old card, before the 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx, 2xx, 4xx and now 5xx series cards. If it's really that old he can't play anything modern without also buying a geforce 460 or 560.

 

[Slugbait]

My guess is that he doesn't have a GeForce 6900...well, ok, so it can't be a GeForce 6900. Did you mean to say HD 6900?

If he actually has a GeForce 6-series, he won't want to play the newer titles regardless of a CPU upgrade.

If it's an HD 6900, go for it.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What is the current platform? If he is on a budget and his platform is still decent, maybe we can just suggest a GPU upgrade instead.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, I don't think Nvidia ever made a GeForce 69xx.

OP, to answer your question, as long as he has a PCIe card (if not, throw it out and use an H67 and the IGP), then pretty much any H67/P67 board will do fine. I'd suggest the GA-P67A-UD3 as a good, reasonably priced P67 board.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Seems there is a 9600 GT. Reviews are showing it vs the 3870

EDIT: Link

 

[Dark Shroud]

Well if there is no plan to run SLI or Crossfire the Gigabyte P67A-UD3 is a great entry level Sandy Bridge mobo. It even has a PCI-Ex x4 slot so it can use raid cards or a Thunderbolt controller when those hit the market.

 

[Piyono2]

Oops! My bad.

The video card is a 9600 GT. Brand unknown.

I was reading up on Cougar Point; looks like manufacturers are already shipping the B3 stepping. That's good— after hearing about the SATA problem I hadn't expected the replacement parts to appear any time soon.

OK, so P67 with an i2500 or so.
Are there any Mobos which are known to work better or worse with the 9600 GT?

Piyono

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

OK, so P67 with an i2500 or so.

If you get the 2500, 1333Mhz ram will be sort of be a limiting factor in your overclocking - there are ways around this though.. if you get the 2500K, the multiplier is unlocked thus taking the RAM out of the equation for any overclocking.

Are there any Mobos which are known to work better or worse with the 9600 GT?

No but the 9600 GT will be a big bottleneck in most games post 2005 though.

 

[mfenn]

If you get the 2500, 1333Mhz ram will be sort of be a limiting factor in your overclocking - there are ways around this though.. if you get the 2500K, the multiplier is unlocked thus taking the RAM out of the equation for any overclocking.

How so? The memory clock itself runs completely asynchronous from the BCLK. (Not that you can get the BCLK much over 105 anyway).

 

[mnewsham]

How so? The memory clock itself runs completely asynchronous from the BCLK. (Not that you can get the BCLK much over 105 anyway).

Not to mention you cant even really OC the i5-2500 (non-k version) anyway. AFAIK you can OC to make it turbo more often. :sneaky:

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yup, overclocking has changed on SNB - I was wrong: Link

Thanks guys :thumbsup:

 

[mfenn]

Yup, overclocking has changed on SNB - I was wrong: Link

Thanks guys :thumbsup:

Major props to BTRY B for finding solid info! :thumbsup:

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Major props to BTRY B for finding solid info! :thumbsup:

Hah, took me long enough, doh