Help choosing a gaming mootherboard

[T41CK]

Hello

I couldn't find an introduction thread on these forums

Hi I'm new here and new to the computer world as well. Looking to retire the xbox 360 and look into some serious pc gaming. I feel this is the last step forward when it comes to online gaming.

I here nothing but good thins about this website and every time I search google for advice this website pops up. Looks like a very helpful community to get start with learning and sharing knowledge.....Getting off track here excuse me

Sorry for rant

My question is what motherboard should I get for gaming? Money is not an issue. I would like to get one for years to come, so I've been looking into 2011 chipset

Would these style chipsets be a good choice?


I know that want to to go with intel cpu. Can someone tell why I should or shouldn't go with these cpu's?

Any advice would be most appreciated

Thanks T41CK

 

[jnkweaver]

Asus and Gigabyte are the 2 giants always fighting it out. Asus will throw everything and the kitchen sink in their mb while Gigabyte tries to save some bucks on their boards. Both are incredible boards.
ASRock, MSI, and EVGA make some good boards but I consider them tier 2.
Some people will jump on me for that because ASRock makes some gaming boards with lots of features for little money.
There are alot of fans of different brands. I have used Abit, Asus, and Gigabyte boards in my builds.

 

[str8cuse]

I agree with jnkweaver. Asus is all i've used for year and they have never let me down. When I approach building a new pc I usually start with the CPU and then build my machine around that. Intel is the way to go in my opinion. They are always a step ahead and amd is going through some tough times financially. Which is why i would also advocate using nvidia graphics cards in your build.

cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131818

video
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

those are some of the items i like best

 

[samuelspark]

i5 is for gaming. i7 is a waste of money and actually decreases performance with the hyperthreading.

What motherboard you want depends on if you want to overclock and how much and what features you want

You can use this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html for a graphics card list

 

[jnkweaver]

How to build

First you would need a budget. You say money is not an issue but that is rarely true. I like a bang for the buck machine which falls around $1500
Next you need to decide what you plan to do with the machine. In this case I am leaning towards gaming
Next establish your CPU as your motherboard will be driven by this. I like the Intel Core i5-3570K. It is a good chip that can be overclocked. The next jump would be to the Intel Core i7-3930K which is $350 more and little improvement in gaming
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-4.html

Pick a motherboard. You can look at reviews on Newegg and Amazon etc. I would suggest ATX size.

Pick a video Card. I think $200-$300 is the sweet spot for gaming.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Get a SSD for the boot drive. You will be happy you did
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269.html

Get A Caviar Black Western Digital for your storage. 5 year warranty says it all.

Pick a case. This is very personal and many people have their opinions on what looks nice. My criteria is easily accessible washable filters on all intakes, USB 3.0 on the front that is connected to the motherboard (not a problem now but was limiting a year ago), and alot of mounts for fans. I prefer my cases/computer quiet. I used Antec in 4 builds but my last build I used Fractal Design.

Next a good power supply. Seasonic is the standard but there are others that are good. I don't have the whole list but Antec and Corsair are good.

Pick a good monitor. Dell makes very good monitors. I would say their 30inch is the standard that all others are measured by. I got their 24inch since I don't have $1000 for a monitor.

Last any peripherals like speakers, keyboards and mouse.

Don't forget the OS.

Tools like pick a part are great for showing it to the forum and getting inputs.
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

 

[str8cuse]

i7 is not a waste of money. Hardcore gamers that live stream, record game play etc prefer i7s. He also stated that money is not an issue. running spotify, xsplit, fraps, etc can be pretty taxing on even an i7. just food for thought.

 

[samuelspark]

i7 is not a waste of money. Hardcore gamers that live stream, record game play etc prefer i7s. He also stated that money is not an issue. running spotify, xsplit, fraps, etc can be pretty taxing on even an i7. just food for thought.

Only if streaming, which he said he is not doing, and FRAPS does not use any of your CPU, that's the great thing about it. It does not compress so all you need is a fast HDD.

Just because money isn't an issue doesn't mean you should just spend it because you can. It can be spent toward bill payments and such.

 

[str8cuse]

I didn't see anywhere in his post that said he was not steaming..i looked twice. I'm simply providing feedback to a person that asked for a build with longevity and built for the hardcore gamer. He also didn't say he had bill payments and such either.

 

[samuelspark]

I didn't see anywhere in his post that said he was not steaming..i looked twice. I'm simply providing feedback to a person that asked for a build with longevity and built for the hardcore gamer. He also didn't say he had bill payments and such either.

I meant to say he never mentioned that he was streaming so it is a safe assumption.

Everyone has bills.

 

[T41CK]

Yes veterans and thank you for the fast replies as well.

These are the replies I was looking for.

Yes I do have some kind of budget that I am going for but then again I am buiding this computer in about 7 months time and want to start out with a motherboard first and build my computer around this... Why/ I keep seeing gaming motherboards all over the place. I dont know if there any good but they sound. Please clarify if I am wrong

I WAS looking into this motherboard.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4046#ov

Now I'm going to keep my options open until January 29 2013( this is when I want to purchase my motherboard and cpu

I know there are not many cpu's that are compatible with this motherboard that I've listed above but like I said befor I dont want to upgrade mobo or cpu for years to come

Thank you for all of your replies

BTW all I want is a gaming computer. I've also heard that if you are doing any video editing (which I don't) the i7 will best fit your needs. I don't really know what video editing is but it sounds pretty self explanatory.

I apologize for the dumb questions but I really want to get this right before I just start buying hardware of the shelf

Your replies were great but I would still like some more input

Thanks again vets for all your help T41CK

 

[samuelspark]

Yes veterans and thank you for the fast replies as well.

These are the replies I was looking for.

Yes I do have some kind of budget that I am going for but then again I am buiding this computer in about 7 months time and and start out with a motherboard first and build my computer around this.

I WAS looking into this motherboard.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4046#ov

Now I'm going to keep my options open until January 29 2013( this is when I want to purchase my motherboard and cpu

I know there are not many cpu's that are compatible with this motherboard that I've listed above

Thank you for all of your replies

BTW all I want is a gaming computer. I've also heard that if you are doing any video editing (which I don't) the i7 will best fit your needs. I don't really know what video editing is but it sounds pretty self explanatory.

I apologize for the dumb questions but I really want to get this right before I just start buying hardware of the shelf

Your replies were great but I would still like some more input

Thanks for all your help T41CK

Would you mind waiting until spring 2013 then?

A new generation of Intel CPU's will come out and I expect at least 20% improvement per clock. It will be on a new socket so it will not be compatible with this generation.

 

[T41CK]

Do you think this new cpu will fit a 2011 chipset so I can at least start looking around for my board or are they wanting to come up with something different

I kind kind of wanted to get the ball rolling but if it takes getting a 20% more(i hope) improvement then I might have to wait

 

[str8cuse]

I think it depends on what you want. If you want cutting edge then wait. But the equipment that is available now will play games at full settings for some time to come. so i guess it depends on what titles you are looking at and how cutting edge you want to be

 

[samuelspark]

Do you think this new cpu will fit a 2011 chipset so I can at least start looking around for my board or are they wanting to come up with something different

I kind kind of wanted to get the ball rolling but if it takes getting a 20% more(i hope) improvement then I might have to wait

It's going to be called "Haswell" on a LGA 1150 socket. Unfortunately, I looked it up and it's actually due for release in summer 2013. New graphics cards should be out by then as well.

 

[T41CK]

Thank you for all of your replies, one more thing is is their a place in the forums that I can go and get tons of information about hardware.

I've been reading the sticky's at the top of each sub-forum

Whould this be a good way to get acknowledged Thanks again T41CK

 

[meatball2860]

The gigabyte G1. Sniper 3 is really good because of quad SLI and Crossfire SLI.
And the gigabyte G1. Assassin 2 is good.


And whoever said about the i-7 is in a while the i-5 will be out of date and the i-7 will be superior.

 

[meatball2860]

And for Graphics cards The Asus Rog Matrix HD 7970 and the Sapphire AMD HD 7970.


There really good.

 

[T41CK]

I will look into those mobo's now but I think I have already ran across those and the thing that steered me away was the release date

BUT

I think I can trust anyone on this froum better then I can trust myself(when it come to pc talk)

BTW everyone thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I tried pcgamer.com and everyone on that forum gave me attitude.

So glad I found a helpful community

 

[meatball2860]

pcgamer.com some of them are jerks and they just dog whatever you ask

 

[samuelspark]

The gigabyte G1. Sniper 3 is really good because of quad SLI and Crossfire SLI.
And the gigabyte G1. Assassin 2 is good.


And whoever said about the i-7 is in a while the i-5 will be out of date and the i-7 will be superior.

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

They're both the same generation of microarchitecture. They go out of date at the same time. Not to mention the only difference between the i5 and i7 is HT and a bit larger cache.

 

[T41CK]

So I've been looking at the G1. Assassin 2 and it looks like a good board but when it comes to things like this I ASSUME that beauty is in the inside.

I hear that this board has an easy user friendly bios setup...I really need this due to the fact that I am a COMPLETE BEGINNER when it comes to building a pc more or less configuring my " ? " in the BIOS.

It also didn't get very good reviews on newegg.com. Some of the thing people were complaining about didn't make much since to me.

At the end of the day I could really use this user friendly bios setup.

I am open to all opinions or your inputs on this board and I can't thank you enough T41CK

 

[samuelspark]

All boards are pretty user friendly nowadays. I've built tons of systems recently from many motherboard manufacturers and all of them were really easy to navigate. Most people don't actually ever need to use the BIOS unless they are overclocking. Anyway, I l'm signing off for the night.

 

[T41CK]

All boards are pretty user friendly nowadays. I've built tons of systems recently from many motherboard manufacturers and all of them were really easy to navigate. Most people don't actually ever need to use the BIOS unless they are overclocking. Anyway, I l'm signing off for the night.

K have a good one you have been most helpful
HAPPYNEWYEAR

 

[meatball2860]

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

They're both the same generation of microarchitecture. They go out of date at the same time. Not to mention the only difference between the i5 and i7 is HT and a bit larger cache.

that was my cousin that writ that sorry about the i-7 and the i-5 and he has no clue

 

[aonor]

If money is not a problem, get ...
1. Nvidia Gtx 690 $1000
2.Get a intel i7-3970X gpu $1300
3.Intel X79 LGA 2011 mother board $300
4.Get Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 GB Ram $200
5.Corsair Obsidian 800D Case $250
6.A lot of Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD drives $200 ea
7.A blue ray dvd rw $70
8.Corsair 1000PSU $200