Help me choose a MB for i5

jackgreat

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Jun 26, 2006
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Hi Guys,

I want to upgrade my pc. My current pc's spects are :

- Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHZ
- Gigabyte MB
- 4 GB RAM
- 1 TB HDD
- NVidia Geforce GTX 275
- Win 7

Now what I would like to change is my processor, motheboard and hard drive. On the HDD front I am going for a 2TB one. But I need help on the processor & motherboard front.

Primary usage: Gaming and bit of application development

My choice of processor: Intel core i5. Should be enough for me. How about sandy bridge i5 2500. ?

On the motherboard front I am blank. If I am getting a good processor I might as well get a poweful motherboard which compliments it. (around $120). What do you guys recommend? Because I have a graphics & sound card which I will install on motherboard, its not important that motherboard ships with onboard features on graphics/sound front. It it does its fine.

Will be glad if anyone can advice me.

I heard motherboards of companies like gigabyte are better than intel's stock board. Is this true?

Cheers,
Jack
 

lccc37

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Mar 20, 2011
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I recommend you the MSI P67A-GD65, it's not expensive and its quality is good. Those DrMOSs will be very useful when you try to overclock your i5 2500K to 5GHz.
 

jackgreat

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Gigabyte motherboard GA-P67A-UD4 B3 is not available here. Can you recommend boards slightly cheaper or lower to the one I mentioned above. I am getting Segate Sata 2 TB HDD for around $90 here, so I dont think it will be supporting Sata 6GB/sec speed.
(I live outside the US).
 

chmcke01

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Mar 16, 2011
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The ASRock P67 Extreme4 is definitely the best "bang for your buck." If you lookup some reviews and benchmarks it performs greater than or on par with ASUS and GIGABYTE boards that are much more expensive.
 

jackgreat

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Jun 26, 2006
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@rolli59 - the board you mentioned is not recommended because of sata port bug. Thats why I think the B3 came into the picture.

@chmcke01- I am reluctant to try another brand. Intel, Gigabyte & Asus is what I would like to stick to.

Any additional names can you guys give ?
 

GA-P67A-UD3-B3 that I linked to earlier http://204.14.213.185/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128476&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=
 

jackgreat

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The P67 motherboards are not available here so far. I think they will be available within a week. The Asus P67 boards price may start at around $240 or higher. I am not sure about the price of Gigabyte P67 boards. I think that would be above my budget.

If P67 boards price is high should I got for a H67 board. I think their price maybe around $120-$150 (estimate only).