Lost in the forest of motherboards

[RoyB]

I need to replace an ageing system that I use for sw development, no gaming.
I haven't been keeping up with hardware technology at all so I'm a bit lost.
My basic requirements are simple:


*Core I5 or I7 compatible, probably a mid to upper range I5. Current CPU is an old socket 775 Core II Duo but I may as well upgrade that too.
*Prefer ASUS or Gigabyte - they're readily available where I am, others not so much.
*Will use a Samsung 840 Pro SSD so whatever it requires (AHCI, fast sata I guess). Disk I/O needs to be excellent to outstanding.
*I have 8 gb of memory from an ASUS P5G41C-M, if I could re-use it that would be nice. If not, oh well.
*Onboard graphics fine if performance is moderately good. No gaming FPS requirement, hardly ever do anything graphical except Visio and image editing.
*Two (or more) HDMI or DVI ports for multiple displays
*Bonus points for reliable onboard hardware RAID but not essential. I have a pair of old SATA drives that I currently use with SW raid mirroring for valuable files
*Gigabit ethernet
*USB 3 (and 2)

That's' all I can think of. The old ASUS has served me well but the performance of the 840 Pro SSD is atrocious on it with no AHCI and slow SATA, hence the upgrade.

I'm sure there are lots of candidates. I just don't have the knowledge, time or stamina to wade through all the descriptions and then make an uninformed guess.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers;
RHB

 

[jinayhvora]

which CPU do u have? what socket?

 

[RoyB]

Currently I have an old socket 775 Core II Duo but I may as well upgrade that as well as it appears that socket 775 has gone to the socket graveyard.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd look to the 3570K (1155 socket) or the 4670K (1150) as a base for the rig, what else will you be doing with the rig

 

[RoyB]

I'd look to the 3570K (1155 socket) or the 4670K (1150) as a base for the rig, what else will you be doing with the rig

As mentioned above, no gaming, mostly sw development and web access, most important criteria are disk i/o performance with the Samsung 840 Pro that I have (which I guess means AHCI and fast SATA ports), gigabit ethernet (I've got 100 Mb fibre internet as of next week) and preferably built in graphics supporting 2 or more monitors, +usb-3.
Bonus points for decent hardware raid.

Thanks for the CPU recommendation. 3570 sounds good to me and is available locally. Next step is to reduce the hundreds of possible motherboards down to something reasonable. I as looking at ASUS P8H61-M LE but it seems to have only 1 DVI port rather than the two DVI or HDMI that I need.

 

[jinayhvora]

most motherboards don't have 2 DVI ports, for that u need a discrete GPU
and if u're going for the K version of the CPU and are planning to overclock u need a Z77 board