Need a new CPU and Motherboard.

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Jun 8, 2013
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Hi. I have an i7 920 and and a radeon 7950. I'm waiting for my second 7950 to arrive and I need to get a new CPU which means a new motherboard as well because my motherboard only supports the first gen i7s.

I'm thinking about getting an i5 for around 220 bucks but I have no clue about motherboards except that I want to spend as little as possible on one but still get everything I need. I have an Alienware Aurora.
 
Solution
Agree with others here: Definately get a 4th gen Intel. The CPU is simply not that great (OC's hot as hell), and after OCing it is simply no faster than an OC'd Sandy or Ivy Bridge processor... but that Northbridge on the motherboard is something special and well worth whatever OC ceilings are in place due to the heat issues.
I think for the next several generations people will be upgrading for the features of the northbridge rather than the speed of the CPU.
And i5 with a K skew is great if you are gaming, but it may be worth the i7 if you do other work like content creation.

For motherboards these days I have a few rules of thumb:
When building for others I get MSI for low end equipment, and ASUS for mid to high end equipment. MSI's high end stuff is simply not that great (but getting better), and ASUS makes great equipment that is very reliable.
When building for myself I get ASRock because they are a great bang for the buck, but you get that price because the QC is not the same as ASUS, so there is a greater chance of getting a bad part. When building for others I am not willing to risk it because my good name depends on the good name of the parts that I use, but if it is for myself I have no problem providing my own support if something were to go wrong.

Check and see if you have a local Microcenter. Right now they have a promo where you can get some $60 off of a high end CPU+Mobo bundle. Their CPU prices are already insanely low, so it is a great deal.
 

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Jun 8, 2013
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Thanks for the quick reply. I only play video games on my computer so if theres not much difference between the i5 and i7 besides the $100 higher price I'll get the i5. I don't have any microcenter here, do they have a website I could order from? Also what would be the cheapest I should spend on a motherboard for gaming and for my case? I would like it to have PCIe 3.0, my current mobo has 2.0. Ofcourse it has to support the current gen CPUs and I probably have to make sure it will fit and make all the ports and everything I have in the rig now work.
 

TheGoat Eater

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Apr 12, 2012
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I would recommend a 4670K and a MSI MPOWER which I currently have, I have tested different boards for 5 years for different places. I must say that MSI has come a long way from 5 years ago and are now my board of choice. The MPOWER is great and offers stability that is top notch as well as great performance. If you are looking to find the best performance/feature set to $$ ratio and you find the MPOWER a bit too much -> then the Z87-GD65 GAMING is a great choice for you.

You may also want to list off your needs and wants for features and specs, that would help narrow things down a bit more :)
 
Agree with others here: Definately get a 4th gen Intel. The CPU is simply not that great (OC's hot as hell), and after OCing it is simply no faster than an OC'd Sandy or Ivy Bridge processor... but that Northbridge on the motherboard is something special and well worth whatever OC ceilings are in place due to the heat issues.
I think for the next several generations people will be upgrading for the features of the northbridge rather than the speed of the CPU.
 
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