Socket 775 or 1366

There is no point in investing in a 775 socket since it's days are counted, unless you are ok with investing in a new socket sooner than later....

Have you looked at LGA 1156? If I were you I would be looking at the P55 platform and not the P45....

Basically because I spent over 4000 18months ago, I am really looking to get stability for around 800, while getting good speed too. I figure in another year Ill go for the major Build again. So this is basically to hold me over till I do another major build.

Yea but don't spend any coin on LGA 775... You will endup in the same situation as you are now. The P55 motherboards and i5 750 are cost effective and you will not have to upgrade in a while.....

Motherboards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Well I decided to go for the :

ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - RetailInv #52589393

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - RetailInv #52589393

2 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ .

It should be here today, still a little nervous about setting up my HD's, I have the Raptor 150 & 300 and I have a regular seagate 500. Now this MB has 2 red ports that are for speeding HD, now their older model board you had to hook up 2 HD's in Raid to have it work. But this newer model I may be able to just hook up 1 normal Drive which If possible I would like to put the Boot Drive their (150 raptor).

Ok so even if I just hook up this HD my conern is that right now I have vista ultimate 32bit, and upgrading next week to Windows 7 64bit. I had made all the copies of files from my HD because I planned on doing a full Wipe. So now I am wondering If I should do a full wipe anyway and a clean install of Vista 32bit. Now I have a Program that does full wipes of HD's, but I need to boot to the CD to do it. I dont want that to cause problems, so would it be ok for me to do this once I first turn the rig on and just set it to boot to CD wipe the HD, do the install. Or just wait to wipe it till everything is working, just a little concerned about old drivers and the new drivers from this MB and will it be ok.

Also if their is anything you can suggest I should do with settings, timings etc on this board please let me know. As this is only the 2nd time Im doing a MB install Im a little nervous.

Also I had read that now with some CPU's that you dont cover the whole cpu with Artic Silver 5 and that you just put a thin stripe down the middle of the CPU. Going to look up today to make sure what I need to do for this specific CPU. Does this one line thing work, it actually makes me nervous cause Im used to just putting a thin layer across the whole cpu.

Very good choice of hardware.

You dont have to worry about installing your exsisting hard drive on the new board. You will still be able to boot and see your files.

Before you start the build, make sure you are grounded if on carpet. Touch the PSU before you put your hands on the board. Install CPU, RAM and then the cooler, then screw down the board to its case. Then hook everything else up making sure the board has both the 24 and 8 pin power plugs connected. Make sure you take your time with the cable management (hide cables) so you can get the best airlfow possible. Once you have everything hooked up make sure the front panel cables are connected to the board (Power, HDD, etc...) Power up and you should be fine .....

Let me know if you encounter any issues.....

Kinda confused here, what hard drive/drives will you be using on your new build?

I use the 150 raptor for boot drive, utilities, etc. I use my 300 raptor for games, and I use my regular 500 for my online business, pics, music etc. I try to keep my Boot Drive fairly clean by just using it for Drivers, utilites, etc. So I wasnt sure if I could just hook up my 150 raptor to the red port on the board without putting another HD their.

I also bought one of those Wrist things I figure with all the expensive equipment I have spending a few dollars on a wristband was well worth it.

I know this board comes with a SB Xi-fi, but I have the front port I/O & Platnium Fatal1ty, I was going to wait till I set everything up before even installing that. I have the Cooler Master Stacker Case which is Gigantic. Also I bought that Spin Q fan the other day before I realized my old 780i MB was fried. But according to Thermaltake I the brackets included for the 1366 should also work for the 1156. Hopefully it will fit on the board because I know it fits in the case. I also have the 4 fans on that side panel, I have it set so that the top 2 pull out and the bottom 2 blow in. I have a fan in front of the HD's that blows in, as well as the fan on the top blowing out. And then your basic Fan on the back of the case.

what did you spend 4k on? an alienware???

it was 18months ago I had it built by Digitalstormonline I figured it was my first major Gaming Rig where I could get everything I wanted. Back then I bought the second fastest processor which was the Intel Extreme QX6850 I think that alone was 1400 or so. I had the 150 raptor, 500 hd, SB Fatal1ty Platnium with I/O port, xp & vista OS, nvidia 8800gtx, silverstone 750w psu, 4g corsair dominator 1066mhz (it was this that i was always having issues with think it had to do with 2.2v and burning out modules). I had the 680i board, then they changed it to the 780i. At the time all the pieces came to out 750-800 less than if I put it together myself. But figured the 3year Full Warranty was well worth it and believe me I got major use out of that warranty, so far the MB, RAM, PSU & was replaced. But for 3years they replace anything that fries, etc. So for a first extreme build it was worth it to me. Once I send back the parts that recently messed up Im gonna get a case and make that a backup Rig.

Yea the wrist band helps alot... I have one as well....

Anyways are all your drives full or do they have space available to store data once you are ready to format?

my150 is half full, my 300 is about 1/2 full, and my 500 is only 25% full

If you can get most of your data onto the 500GB then it should be a piece of cake. You need to find a way to backup all your data, after that you can put the data back on the drives and you should be fine. Unless you have another way of doing it...

Well I put everything together when my board came yesterday but I cant get it to boot. Tried using only 2 sticks of RAM, tried only hooking up my 1 HD. Had to go buy an external cd/dvd player because this board only uses Optical. Now when I go into Bios it seems everything is being recognized, not sure why it wont boot. Im wondering if it could be my PSU. The same thing was happening last week, although then I couldnt even get into the Bios on my old board.

So my question is can a PSU be fried and still show voltages in the Bios. When I look in the Bios Im seeing voltages on everything, but Im still not sure my PSU is working correctly. And NO my PSU dosent have a switch to change the frequency. I have a Silverstone Decathlon DA850 and running all stuff I mentioned in the post above. So can it possibly be my PSU. I cant boot from my HD, or my new external CD/DVD player, once it powers on and gets thru the logo page and info stuff it just sits their with a blinking _

Also I've gone into the bios and changed how it should boot from HD to DVD, tried numerous ways and I actually heard it trying to boot the CD but it just didnt seem to follow thru, also I can hear my HD working but nothing happens.

UPDATE: Ok so after letting it sit for 20min I just started it up again, now when it was at the blinking _ I hit F1 and the Computer just shut down. Also when I was in the bios earlier I could see my temps: cpu 40, MB 28 Also in the Bios when I went into the CPU menu it said I had a choice to see or acitivate cores: ALL, 2 ---- now I chose all, shouldnt have shown 4 with the Intel i5 750.

Another thing I notice is that the PSU is never even warm after 5-10 minutes of running, shouldn't it be at least slightly warm

The PSU is fine, if you are able to go into bios you should be able to boot. Make sure you go into bios and boot from the correct drive, for example if your hard drive in on SATA 1 make sure you are booting from SATA 1.... Have you ever formatted before? If so it is the same exact procedure...

for me i think you spend too much on a PC.

The most I probably ever spend is roughly around 400-500. Because nowadays it's pointless to chase technology, it updates too fast to be throwing money away just to have a good system.