Need help in choosing a motherboard!

[JCMRBUSHIDO]

Hello all, although I have a general grasp of the new technology, I am not as educated as most of you on this site, so any advice is greatly appreciated.

My main goal is to have an “Upgradeable” gaming system, that would allow me to keep updating it, thus it would last me about three years allowing me to constantly upgrade it’s parts to keep up with new technology/games.

So far I have opted for Pentium i5 750, I want a Nvidia Sli configuration, the part I am having the greatest difficulty is in choosing a good motherboard that would accomplish this goal, one that already has embraced the latest technology (ei: usb 3, sata 3, OC capable, etc.) and would allow me to continue to upgrade my system for years to come, without having to replace the motherboard itself.

The options I have so far (from the manufacturers that is building my pc) are:

H55:

* Asus P7H55

* Asus P7H55-M Pro

* GigaByte GA-H55M-UD2H

* GigaByte GA-H55M-UD2H

* Asus P7H57D-V EVO

P55:

*Asus P7P55 LX

*Asus P7P55D-E

*Asus P7P55D-E Pro

*Asus P7P55D Deluxe

*P7P55D-E

*EVGA P55 TR

*GigaByte GA-P55A-UD3

*GigaByte GA-P55A-UD4P

*GigaByte GA-P55-UD6

*MSI P55-GD65

*MSI Big Bang Fuzion

Thanks in advanced for all the help.

 

[Lmeow]

Depends on your budget. The only boards that can do 8x/8x SLI would be the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro, P7P55D Deluxe, GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P, GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD6, MSI P55-GD65 and MSI Big Bang Fuzion. From those boards I'd go for the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro.

 

[saint19]

Hi newcomer and welcome to the Tom's hardware forum.

1- What is ur budget? since u are jumping from a cheap mobo (H55 chipset) to a very expensive mobo (MSI Big Bang Fuzion).
2- From your options, the ASUS P7P55D-E and the MSI P55-GD65 are solid options price/performance.

 

[JCMRBUSHIDO]

Thank you all for your quick responses.

After reading your answers and doing some research, I am not so sure now if I should go with an 1156:i5/i7 or 1366 for Core i7; which one is the one that is going to give me more future upgrades possibilities?

If I understand correctly the 1366 Motherboards and Core i7 are the ones that appear to be more upgradeable in the future, and the technology that Intel appears to be focusing on. So I think I would be better off with 1366/Core i7, even if it’s one of the low ones in the CPU list.

Please any suggestions advice is appreciated, and by the way my budget is about $1,500 US, and having the computer build by Cyberpower.

Thanks in advance.

 

[saint19]

In the upgradeable part AMD is much better since doesn't have the same numerous socket that Intel have and the new CPUs (Phenom II, Athlon II) socket AM3 works without problems in the old socket AM2+

Here are ur option for a Intel rig.

Mobo: P6X58D-E
CPU: i7-930
RAM: G.Skill 6GB (3x2GB) 1600
GPU: 5870
SSD: Intel 80GB
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Cooler: Hyper 212+

Total: $1485.93 before rebates and shipping + $100 OS Win 7 Home Premium.

 

[JCMRBUSHIDO]

Best answer selected by JCMRBUSHIDO.