I have started to upgrade my PC since most of the components are a few years old.

I am upgrading as I do a lot of video editing, graphic/3d design, sound/music editing, web design and do play some games at times and my current system is a bit slow. Its a Intel quad core 2.6Ghz CPU and 6GB DDR-2 SLI RAM and a Nforce motherboard which I want to change.

I have already (which I am keeping for the new build):

Blu-ray drive with lightscribe and CD/DVD-RW, DVD-RW, Geforce 9800GTX 1GB, Creative X-fi XtremeGamer 5.1 PCI soundcard, 320GB IDE HD, 1TB SATA HD, 750W PSU, Samsung Syncmaster 20.1 inch 2ms TFT monitor, mouse and keyboard. Have Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

I ordered a Intel Core i7 3820 3.6Ghz quad core CPU and Corsair 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance RAM (x2 4GB)

I just need a motherboard but unsure which is good. I have around £100 left for it ( I know its not really enough for a decent motherboard) and don't want one that isn't very good for the price. I was looking at this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004O9WT16/r ... B004O9WT16 full specs here: http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_S ... 8H67M_PRO/ but unsure about it, the graphics card is quite big with the fans on it and only need to fit it and the soundcard in the slots but unsure if both would fit in a micro ATX board like that. I liked the other features (Max 32GB RAM, USB 3 and SATA ports) but since I have not built a PC in about 2 years, a little behind on current technology. Is there an other motherboard I could get for around the price I have to spend or would this be fine?

It's an H67, which means you can use the integrated graphics chip but you can't overclock. Also, that i7 3820 apparently uses the 2011 socket, whereas this mobo is an 1155 socket.
Also, why would you buy that i7 3820? I wouldn't recommend that to just about anybody at the moment really. It's about as expensive as the i7 3770 which is faster and uses less power. If you want to OC you're better off buying the 3570K. Also, socket 2011 motherboards are more expensive than socket 1155 ones.

Also, is your system slow at doing actual calculations or is it a bit sluggish? If the latter is the case, you're better off buying an SSD.

Edit: I fail at reading.

Whoops, didn't realise that, should have checked that.



It was ok, the motherboard packed in and I didn't want to just replace the motherboard as I wanted something more up-to-date and faster. I am thinking of getting an SSD in future but not at the moment but it would be a plus.

I don't really want to overclock so looked at the i7 3770 you mentioned and it does seem better. Saw the Gigabyte SKT-1155 Z77-D3H Motherboard and it works with the i7 3770.

Thanks for the info.

I currently have an Asrock which is awesome. I hear good things about Asus and msi. I would suggest you get one with UEFI instead of Bios though, nice to have a more modern system running everything behind the scenes.

Also if you want to add an ssd later, you might look into caching disks, at least from what I saw the benefits were rather impressive.

I have used 2 MSI and 1 Asus motherboard before and I know they are quite good. I have been looking at processors but don't know the difference between these two:

Intel Core i7-3770 3.50GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 8Mb L3 Cache and Core i7-3770S 3.10GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 8Mb L3 Cache. Besides the speed what is different?

I think the "S" series draws less power and creates less heat at 100 percent capacity. I dunno if that means it won't handle CPU intensive work as well as the other, but at a guess I'd say that's the case. My brother in-law is a huge fan of the "Bridges".

Thanks, read that the "S" series is for Performance optimized lifestyle, but not 100% sure what that means, I suppose if you want better performance you'd want an S CPU? I decided to go for the Core i7-3770S 3.10GHz, so I'll know soon enough, but might have to wait a week for it to arrive.



Got myself an Asus motherboard with UEFI. Can't recall the make of my head but just arrived, and the memory is shipped, just need to wait on the CPU. Also got a 500GB SATA HDD to install windows on and 1TB for everything else (want a SDD in future to install windows on, but since I didn't have a lot of money and used most on the rest of the components, will have to wait)

No, the S draws less power like Bobby said. It's typically a bit slower as a result of that.

Thanks, just got my PC up and running, here is the specs (Have not used it much yet besides on internet and re-installing all the programs I use):

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Intel Core i7 3770s 3.10Ghz
Asus P8H77-V LE Motherboard
8GB (2 x4GB Cosair Vengeance DDR-3 RAM) - good but heatsink is a bit big on them and doesn't sit well beside the CPU fan/heatsink
Nvidia Geforce 260GTX (At some point I'll upgrade that but no money for that for a long while)
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer 5.1 Soundcard
Logitech 5.1 Surround Sound speakers
320GB SATA HDD, 1.3TB and 1TB SATA HDD
ASUS Blu-ray ROM drive with DVD-RW/CD-RW and lightscribe
Samsung Syncmaster P2070 monitor
Mouse/Keyboard/Card reader etc...


I have however I have read of heat issues with the Ivy Bridge CPUs as mine reads 35-40C normally and is that normal? I have not overclocked it and don't plan to really. Is there any good headsinks/CPU fans that could cool it better? I am not certain as it just got warmer past few days here, but I think my PC when on is causing the room to be a little warmer than usual due to the CPU heat but unsure. Rather not have that happen if that was the case. My PC tower case has a hole at the top of it where a fan should be and will get one to put there, but I think heat might be coming out of that.

Mine, a Core i7 920, idles around the 40 Celsius mark and gets up to 50 and a bit when gaming. Real Temp has a warning utility and it's default is the high 90s. I think if yours stays below 60 constantly than you're fine.

Not sure about the maximum recommended temps for Ivy Bridge, I think it's a bit higher than on older generations. Idle around 35-40 is fine, under load it's fine if it goes up to 70. On the other hand the S should stay a bit colder because it consumes less heat, but Ivy Bridge uses bad thermal paste between the cores and the heat spreader.

All right since my own PC has stopped booting up, I've decided to join this conversation.

Can anybody tell me why the Intel Core I7-2600K is the same price as the I7-3820 when the latter has more memory and faster clock speeds? What the fuck is going on there, exactly?

Thank you in advance.

Two reasons: the i7 3820 is not much faster than the i7 2600K and it requires a socket 2011 motherboard, which are generally far more expensive, so the total price goes up even if the CPU itself isn't more expensive.

Edit: I'm an idiot, that's really only one reason.

All right, I did notice the socket type was different on that one.

Hrm.

I was casually looking at computers, specifically the i7 processors, and the sockets are freaking confusing. The last two times I built computers it was surprisingly simple choosing the correct motherboard.