Upgrading to Intel Core i5-3350P

[lawicko]

Hi everybody.

For many years I've been using my old Asus M2N32 Deluxe mobo and it served me well until recently. I reached the point where the reliability became the issue and I was forced to find the second hand replacement for it. Today, the replacement seems to have some kind of failure and became really unstable. These boards are still available second hand and relatively cheap, but they are not getting any younger and I think the reliability will become more and more of an issue in the near feature.

So, the time has come for the upgrade, and seeing the Intel Core i5-3350P being recommended as the high performance gamer's pick for the several monts now, I will need a new mobo with LGA 1155 socket. There are a couple of requirements:
1. Needs to support 2 way SLI
2. Needs to come with wifi and bluetooth

Since I use Gigabyte gpus I went to their website and found this:
GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WIFI
I'm aware that there are some new chipsets available since Z77 was released, so my only doubt really is should I look for something newer than Z77, what do the new chipsets offer that Z77 don't have. Or do you know of any other mobo that meets my requirements and can recommend it?

 

[lawicko]

Seems like this was rather uninteresting question after all, not getting any answers I have ordered this Gigabyte mobo and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

 

[Supahos]

Wish I had seen this when it got posted, it would have been better to build a haswell rig, you can guy a 3.1ghz i5 haswell for roughly the same price as the 3350p (notice my build in my sig). I love my build and otn't get me wrong it does what i want it to, but if I built one today I would go haswell since the price premium isn't much. You will be happy with everything once you get it in.

 

[lawicko]

Thanks Supahos, I'd probably stick to my original plan anyway though. I did some research on my own and found that upgrading to haswell at this point wouldn't make any difference for me. It's not the performance I'm after, but reliability, therefore a well tested LGA 1155 processor presents a better value per dollar than any haswell currently on the market. Up to this point I was using AMD Phenom II X2 550 with 2xGF460 in SLI on that old Asus mobo and it run all the games I wanted smoothly in full hd, I mean when it didn't hand and/or present the blue screen

As a side note, getting that Gigabyte mobo shipped to Dublin, Ireland, where I live was an absolute nightmare. It seems to be normal that these rarer products are not in stock here in Ireland at all, and there was only one retailer selling it on amazon.co.uk, and he didn't ship to Ireland until I convinced him by paying additional 10 british pounds for the mobo Even after that he came back to me asking if I know any budget couriers that could actually transport the board from UK to Dublin, I sent him ups link, hehe, and now it looks like it's on the way.

 

[Supahos]

good to hear, I won't upgrade my system to haswell (or broadwell, or haswell refresh) but if I built one today it would be haswell. Nothing wrong with what you've built... do remember to go into bios and change the multiplier to 37 on all 4 cores (will only do 3.5 ghz with all 4 running but will do 3.7 with only 1 or 2 active). I'm still on the stock fan and prime get me to maybe 75C (still 25C under TJmax). This will give you a nice little boost and won't hurt anything.

 

[lawicko]

Thanks for that tip, I actually got myself a brand new Zalman LQ320 with that so I can safely apply it!

 

[Supahos]

Then you should certainly have no issues. Enjoy the new build, we'll be here if something pops up

 

[lawicko]

Then you should certainly have no issues. Enjoy the new build, we'll be here if something pops up

Hi again, I decided to share my progress and general thoughts about this motherboard.

First of all, let me stress that the wifi/bluetooth module is absolutely not worth it. You are better off with the standard version and usb bluetooth and wifi. This is because the module actually comes as pci-e x1 card, but the bluetooth will not work unless you use internal usb cable to connect it with one of the usb2.0 outlets. This is why I feel cheated - there is no gain what so ever to have this module, you need to reserve one usb outlet for this functionality anyway, which means you actually loose 2 usb 2.0 outlets! Additionally this cable was not shipped with my motherboard, although it says in the instruction that the cable should be in the box. This, however, may be because my board doesn't look new on the first place, I'll have to have a chat with the retailer who sold it to me. I quickly looked at the amazon and I wasn't able to find a replacement cable, so I don't think it's a standard cable. I would not use it anyway as I have my usb bluetooth from my previous build, but I don't think it's a fair play from Gigabyte.
To make it even worse, there are no instructions in the manual on how to set the bluetooth up, so I had to look it up on the internet. Also my module looks different than what can be seen on their website, the usb connector is different or missing, just to add to the confusion with the missing usb internal cable. I checked and I have the latest revision 1.1 so I don't know why that is, very confusing.

Other than that, there is some confusion over memory channels naming in the manual, but I don't think it's a wifi model specific. The manual first says the channels are like:
Channel A: slot 2 and slot 4
Channel B: slot 1 and slot 3
And then they suggest that when using only 2 modules for best performance use slot 1 and 2, which obviously doesn't make any sense.

All in all I regret I didn't buy the standard version without the wifi/bluetooth module, it's cheaper and I would have it a lot faster (actually it's possible to buy it in Ireland, contrary to the wifi/bluetooth option). To end this post on a positive note, I'm just running prime while I write this post and the processor doesn't go higher than 49 centigrades I hope this helps someone to make their choice.