I am in the process of building a new desktop PC and got lost amidst the myriad of motherboards on offer. I would like some help with picking the most suitable LGA 1155 chipset. I will use 1 discrete video card so no need for an integrated GPU or SLI support. I will not overclock or use RAID. I will use a boot SSD, which as far as I understand makes Smart Response redundant. Ivy Bridge compatibility, four DIMM slots and Quick Sync support would be nice but not mandatory. I need SATA 3.0 for the SSD and USB 3.0 for future use, although I have no idea if them being natively supported is important or not.
Here is the setup so far, just in case:
CPU: i5-2400
GPU: GTX 560 Ti or HD 6950
RAM: 2x4 kit
PSU: XFX Core 550 Pro
SSD: Sandisk Extreme 120 GB
I don't need much in way of PCI slots, but I need four SATA 2 and two SATA 3 ports, as well as eight USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports at least.
Based on the above, can you recommend a chipset for me?
(Some actual motherboard recommendations would be nice too if only as pointers, since price and availability is very different in my country. I am aiming for a budget of $120 tops, though $80 is what I am comfortable spending on it.)
Also, should I put off buying till the end of month or is Ivy Bridge not expected to change prices too much in the forseeable future?
Thanks in advance!
Here is the setup so far, just in case:
CPU: i5-2400
GPU: GTX 560 Ti or HD 6950
RAM: 2x4 kit
PSU: XFX Core 550 Pro
SSD: Sandisk Extreme 120 GB
I don't need much in way of PCI slots, but I need four SATA 2 and two SATA 3 ports, as well as eight USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports at least.
Based on the above, can you recommend a chipset for me?
(Some actual motherboard recommendations would be nice too if only as pointers, since price and availability is very different in my country. I am aiming for a budget of $120 tops, though $80 is what I am comfortable spending on it.)
Also, should I put off buying till the end of month or is Ivy Bridge not expected to change prices too much in the forseeable future?
Thanks in advance!