GIGA P67A-UD4-B3 M/B or GIGA Z68X-UD3P-B3 MB

[mickr45]

Hi there hope someone can offer some advice. I am thinking of building a desktop coputer with the following hardware but have been offered 2 different motherboards
CORE I7 2600 CPU
GIGA P67A-UD4-B3 M/B or GIGA Z68X-UD3P-B3 MB
8GB K/STON 1600MHz DDR3 XMP C9
GIGA 6850 OC 1G
Which motherboard would be the best option for games etc thanks for any advise suitable for a novice- Mick

 

[Guest]

This topic has been moved from the section Opinions and Experiences to section Systems by Grumpy9117

 

[boiler1990]

I own the P67-UD4-B3 and it's a great board. The port layout on both boards will be the same though, and I'm guessing the OCing capabilities of each board are about the same.

Both boards are basically interchangeable, but you get integrated graphics and smart caching on the Z68 board.

Sidenote: Are you getting the i7-2600 for any particular reason? I'd get the i5-2500K for gaming because you'll save a lot of money and the two chips will perform almost identically. The 2500K can also OC unlike the 2600.

 

[geofelt]

1) Since your usage is gaming, and you will have a strong discrete graphics card, the integrated graphics of the cppu is of little use to you.
Either P67 or Z68 will be equally good. I would prefer the newer Z68 if there was little price differential.

2) boiler1990 makes a good point, the 2500K will be your best performing option, and it is 2/3 the price of a 2600. You need the "K" variant of 2500 or 2600 to be able to OC.
And, yes, OC is easy, you get 4.0+ just by changing the multiplier.