What processor/chipset for gaming and overclocking, new build?

[Hey Zeus]

If you are on a budget and don't have a Microcenter near you to get a better price on the 920 or 860, I would say go for Core i5 750 for $200 + $135-$160 mobo in the likes Gigabyte P55A-UD3 or Asus P7P55D-E. EVGA is good too. I would not get an MSI board over these 3 though.

So you have $90 savings on the processor vs. 860/920 + $25-$50 savings on the mobo over X58 and another $20-30 savings on the ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ll+eco&x=0&y=0

ECO line only requires 1.35V. This is probably the best DDR3 ram out right now. In general G.Skill kits this round provide great bang for the buck with low voltage requirements. If you don't know how you can benefit from 6GBs of ram over 4GBs, then you clearly don't need 6GBs of ram just yet. Plus you can always pick up more Ram for 1156 later (it supports 16GBs, more than enough).

Even if you consider the lowest savings you can get that's $135 over an equivalent 920 setup. Take this $$ and put it into an Intel SSD or get yourself a faster videocard.

Also, the good EVGA P55 board is the EVGA P55 FTW SLI edition. Since there is not a single compelling NV card out right now for the $, you are paying $210 for SLI option you won't use (are you seriously going to SLI GTX 260/275 with Fermi?). Getting 2xGTX 260 is also a waste since you can instead get a single 5870.

That's why I recommend you go for the other 2 boards I posted (any of these boards will more than max out the 750 on air cooling, so why pay more than $150 for a P55 board?).

FTW is probably the best overclocking board next to the FTW 200 and the Classified

 

[cbn]

Gigabyte P55A-UD3 or Asus P7P55D-E.

Do these mainboards allow full 16x PCI-E 2.0 when SATA 3/USB 3 are being used?

It may be that future video cards begin to stress that bandwidth? ATI is supposed to have 28nm video cards out beginning of next year.

 

[grimpr]

There's a reason that Intel and AMD are pushing native USB3.0/SATA3.0 in their chipsets, starting from the 2011 platforms.

 

[RussianSensation]

FTW is probably the best overclocking board next to the FTW 200 and the Classified

Right, but it's $210. A $135 Gigabyte UD3 or UD3R board will easily do 210 Baseclock. Since both Gigabyte and Asus allow "free" access to 1 Turbo multiplier in overclocking, you can then raise core i5 750's multiplier from 20x to 21x.

Therefore, 21x 210 base clock = 4.4ghz <<< which is beyond what most air cooling can do for 24/7 >>>

Therefore, a FTW board will not overclock a quad better on air cooling, because the other boards will easily max it out.

Again if you are going to spend $210 on a motherboard, just put the $65 difference between the i5 750 into an 860.

Do these mainboards allow full 16x PCI-E 2.0 when SATA 3/USB 3 are being used?

It may be that future video cards begin to stress that bandwidth? ATI is supposed to have 28nm video cards out beginning of next year.

Since you still have USB 2.0 and SATA 2 on those boards, there is no need to use USB 3.0 or SATA 3 in case PCI-E 2.0 8x becomes a bottleneck. I don't understand the point of your comment since you always have the option of not using USB3.0/SATA3. Those boards cost less and overclock just as good as the EVGA P55 for example. What exactly warrants the higher price of the EVGA board for quads air cooled, other than SLI?

In case you are wondering, it's going to take a significantly faster graphics card than 5870 to notice <4&#37; performance difference between 8x and 16x:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/25.html

also

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p55-pci-express-scaling,2517-6.html

 

[alyarb]

UD3+860 => better OC than 750+any board

 

[cbn]

Since you still have USB 2.0 and SATA 2 on those boards, there is no need to use USB 3.0 or SATA 3 in case PCI-E 2.0 8x becomes a bottleneck.

Trouble is SSD will probably get much faster in the next two years.

This means the person is forced to either use a magnetic hard drive with a Future higher performance video card.....or be forced to use much slower GPU if the SATA 3 SSD is preferred.

P.S. I hope future cards like "Fermi 2" and "HD6870" still run fine on PCI-E 2.0 x8....I am not sure how close we to the point where bandwidth becomes a limitation.

 

[RussianSensation]

This means the person is forced to either use a magnetic hard drive with a Future higher performance video card.....or be forced to use much slower GPU if the SATA 3 SSD is preferred.

I am not trying to say that the current implementation is ideal. I am just saying that even UD3R with no SATA3 or USB3.0 is still a better value motherboard. There is little need for mobos > $150 on P55, unless you are looking for better features. You aren't going to get better overclocking on a $250 board vs. a $140 board.

Look at this:
"Until now only two Gigabyte mainboards – GA-P55-UD6 and GA-P55-UD3R – as well as Asus P7P55D Deluxe could overclock the CPU that high that is why it is extremely pleasing to see our small Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 solution joining this elite group so easily." - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p55m-ud4_5.html#sect0

3 of the top 4 overclocking boards Xbitlabs ever tested for Quads on air cooling were all Gigabyte of which UD3R is <$140!

 

[nyker96]

the future of gaming should be in the quads, if you buying new I think i5 750 is best $$ spent. if you got more cash i7 920 is also excellent for a bit more future proof since you get 6core on that platform soon. but they both gaming monsters now and has room for future.

 

[Arkaign]

Trouble is SSD will probably get much faster in the next two years.

This means the person is forced to either use a magnetic hard drive with a Future higher performance video card.....or be forced to use much slower GPU if the SATA 3 SSD is preferred.

P.S. I hope future cards like "Fermi 2" and "HD6870" still run fine on PCI-E 2.0 x8....I am not sure how close we to the point where bandwidth becomes a limitation.

I think they will still be perfectly usable, just as a 5970 works on PCI-E 1.0 16x, but given the tri-GPU advantages showing with X58 vs. P55, the next-gen GPUs will probably show losses when running with PCI-E 2.0 x8 in dual configs. The losses probably won't be enough to make it pointless, but by that time it will probably be time to move to newer/better mobo and/or CPU for the enthusiast set.

 

[The Sauce]

Thanks all. I ordered the 750 with the ASUS mobo. Gonna hold off on SSD for now, still too pricey. Went with 4gb ram since I plan to overclock. Will wait until 5830 is released and get that. I appreciate all the advice.