Need advice on what mobo to get

[super92]

I really stuck on the mobo's atm. This site includes so much info about all kinds of parts but i don't know where to look for advice about motherboards.

I had some minor problems with my current asus p5kc regarding DDR3 RAM it didnt support any of the 1333 ones i tried. Got some DDR2 1066 then and it works , but overheating like crazy. Had to get an additional ram cooler. Im not much of a pc wizard so im not sure if i did something.

Ok, so moving on with the new one. The cpu that caught my eye was
i7-2600K Unlocked Core i7 Quad-Core Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1155)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridge-i7-2600K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B004FA8NOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319823918&sr=1-1

im not too sure about the video card yet. Would like to move to Gforce but they're quite expensive, my one now is radeon 5770 gddr5 1gb but as a gamer i consider Gforce to be more superior in gaming.
I'm quite confused at times as well, looking at GeForce GTX 470, price ranges are from £200 to £500 looking at the info all of them are 1280mb DDR5 or GDDR5
http://www.nvidia.com/object/buy_now_results_ci.html?id=GFGTX470

I would like to keep my old 2x HDD samsung HD321KJ ata 300gb each.

I think that's about it, no idea what else i would need expect maybe for a new power supply cooler, my one is (700W PC PSU, 12cm Silent Fan, SATA, 24 pin Power, V2.2)

If anyone could give me some info about this stuff and suggestions on what to get i would be very grateful.

[David (PassMark)]

There should have been no need for additional "RAM coolers" with DDR2 1066, as long as the case fan pulls a reasonable amount of air through the case.

The i7-2600K is a good CPU. But you might want to get the i7-2600 instead if you aren't going to overclock. Or wait a week and get the new i7-2700K.

This i7 is uses a socket 1155. So any motherboard with this socket type should work. There are literally 100s of them on the market at the moment, and many are very very similar to each other. Check,
1) Will it fit into your case
2) Does it support enough RAM slots
3) Does it support dual video cards (if you wanted to do this)
4) Does it support USB3 (be silly to get one without this)
5) Reasonable on-board sound, GB LAN, 6Gb SATA. (But they pretty much all have this)

My advice would be to get the cheaper i7 2600 (or even go to the cheaper again i5). Get a brand name, but no frills MB, then use the money you save to get a small SSD as a boot drive. You'll get much more benefit from a SSD than you'll get from a marginally better MB and CPU.

[super92]

Thanks for the reply.
The current RAM cannot be left without that cooler because the pc will crash constantly.
About the overclocking. I might want to start doing that in the future so i would like to get the parts and mobo with a decent overclocking ability.
Could you give me some mb examples so i could read them up and compare, because at the moment i am very fresh on motherboards.

[David (PassMark)]

I would suggest starting by having a look at the NewEgg top 20 sellers.

[super92]

got a setup that i want you to check out
just to make sure if it's going to work out.

just not sure about DDR3 , the sockets are in different colors. Are they both the same or not ?

MB Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.1 Motherboard (Socket 1155, ATX, DDR3, Quad USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s Support)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-P8P67-PRO-REV-3-1/dp/B004ZIFWBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319918484&sr=8-1
as i mentioned before i would like the mb to last a few years. Meaning i would like to be able to put new gear into it for a few years :P
not too sure if this one is good for it tho

RAM Corsair CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 16GB (4x4GB) 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Blu Memory Four Module Kit
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B-1600MHz-Vengeance-Memory/dp/B004RFBIUU/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319918811&sr=1-1
16gb because 12gb is about £8 cheaper. So i thought i might as well have that extra 4gb. Unless its will be killing my mb like the old one i mentioned. (would like some info on that will it stress my mb alot more than 12gb?)

CPU Intel Sandybridge i7-2600K Unlocked Core i7 Quad-Core Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1155)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridge-i7-2600K-Quad-Core-Processor/dp/B004FA8NOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319918873&sr=1-1

SSD Corsair 60GB SSD Corsair Nova Series 2 Solid State Drive - Read 270MB/s, Write 240MB/s, 128MB Cache, Retail
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Nova-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B0057A5RA6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1319921022&sr =1-1
gonna use my old samsung ones for data storage

not sure what else would i need that i could not instal from my current pc. Unless my current PSU would not be enough.
700W PC PSU, 12cm Silent Fan, SATA, 24 pin Power, V2.2, Black Edition Power Supply
http://www.amazon.co.uk/700W-Silent-Power-Black-Supply/dp/B002BU2MLM/ref=pd_ys_iyr21

EDIT: my friend suggested that i should take the kingston ssd drive but does it make a big difference from the one i listed in this post ?
Kingston drive: Kingston SSD V100 64GB SATA2 2.5inch Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-V100-SATA2-2-5inch-Drive/dp/B004BNT0OY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319922030&sr=8-1

[David (PassMark)]

The OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD got better benchmarks than the Nova, but is slightly more expensive. With just 60GB I find there is some disk management involved in order to not run out of disk space. 80GB to 120GB makes this easier, but of course is more expensive.

Never heard of that power supply. But should be more than enough in terms of wattage (in fact overkill and thus probably not very efficient).

16GB will only generate slightly more heat, and draw slightly more power than 12GB.

[super92]

got some bad reviews on the product durability on vertex so not too sure about it =/
50% of the people who wrote reviews got it to fail in just a matter of weeks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B003NE5JCO/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_pop_hist_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpo ints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

looking at all the SSD reviews, actually loads of people have all kinds of problems with them. Wondering is it their soft being outdated or it's just that the SSD's are not that reliable atm.



EDIT: would you say Gigabyte GA-P67X-UD3-B3 (rev. 1.0) - Motherboard - ATX - LGA1155 Socket - P67 - USB 3.0, FireWire - Gigabit Ethernet - HD Audio (8-channel) is a better choice ?
Just got told that this one should go into consideration as well

[David (PassMark)]

looking at all the SSD reviews, actually loads of people have all kinds of problems with them

Yes. Unhappy people tend to write more reviews. Our in house failure rate has been about 10%.

HD Audio (8-channel)

Who has 8 speakers connected to their PC?

Firewire is also near useless nowadays.

I don't think you would notice the difference between the MB. Unless you are doing a lot of O/C, you tend to install the MB, then forget about it.

[super92]

Well, thank you very much for all your help

I've ordered
Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit

Crucial CT128M4Solid State Drive2 128GB M4 Solid State Drive

Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.1 Motherboard (Socket 1155, ATX, DDR3, Quad USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s Support)

Intel Sandybridge i7-2600K Unlocked Core i7 Quad-Core Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1155)

hope i have no problems with these

[super92]

just a quick note
using the parts + hd 1gb 5770 the pc works great so far. Been using it for a couple of weeks and im happy with the results, altho i think my 5770 is not going so well against the current cpu