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Changing or Upgrading Motherboard

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Chaosmachine420

Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
I am looking at changing or upgrading if have to from this motherboard has been giving me some trouble in the last 1 year and half. The first if possible find a motherboard that has the same LGA 1156 that will work with the SSD and Hitachi Sata 3 and has 2 pci slots. If not then the most I would like to upgrade if I have to is the CPU and I am now up for trying both AMD or going back to Intel. If I have to upgrade then I would be looking at the I7 if Intel but the speed for both would maybe be the same of 2.8GHZ if not higher . The budget would be about 160 to just change the motherboard but if need the upgrade to the newer CPU socket would be ranging it looked like from 400 to 500 dollars. I do have once concern too for the new motherboards are they all going to PCI-E 3.0 or they staying the same at 2.0 ?
 
Try and find a second hand motherboard as that i7 you have is still quite powerful and will handle all the latest games with ease. If you need more power then by all means upgrade to newer hardware, but your current system has quite a bit of life left in it if you replace the motherboard.
 
You could replace the board, as SMOKEU said, although new high-quality 1156 boards aren't really easy to come by looking at Newegg (there's alot of basic ones available but not ones that would be worth the purchase for overclocking. You could buy a used board, but eBay's a gamble, so unless you have classifieds access that may not be worth considering.

If you decided to move to socket 1155, you could save some cash by getting a 2500K instead of the 2600K if you don't need hyperthreading. If the system was primarily intended for gaming, stepping down to an i5 would make the purchase less cash-hungry, and you could sell your 1156 board & CPU to make up the difference.

Even a 7970 won't saturate PCI-E 2.1 bandwidth right now, so it's not really something you need to worry about in the near-to-mid-term.
 
Asus P7P55D-E LX I am sure about this one since I am having problems with one about the same I am not sure if thats better.

Gigabyte Technology GA-P55-UD4P Rev 10 LGA 1156 Intel Motherboard

Gigabyte Technology GA-P55-UD6 LGA 1156 Intel Motherboard

Intel BOXDP55KG DP55KG ATX LGA1156 DDR3 New Retail Box With Accessories

These are the ones I was thinking to upgrading too because I cant find any that is different. I would also like to add that I am needing power for doing visual stuff for Autocad and Autodesk but I also like doing games so the power is something I kinda need not all the time. I know I have the power but its because I am having trouble with the board booting into the right thing and rebooting without any warrning.
 
The GA-P55-UD4P Rev 10 would be ideal, but for that price you'd be better off upgrading to 1155. The P55-UD6 would be a good board for the price, and would offer plenty of overclocking potential. The Intel board would be stable, but it's not really worth the additional cost over the UD6 for basically the same featureset.

The ASUS "LE/LX" boards tend to have weaker VRM sections (at least with socket 1155 boards) making overclocking more difficult, so I'd skip on that one.

I'd either go with the UD6 outright, or make an offer on it for a bit lower and see if the seller would accept or counter. 100% positive feedback is a good indication the board would be high-quality.
 
I didn't see the prices on the one board but the Asus board I don't know if it has the same problem I am having right now. I was considering either AMD or Intel for the upgrade so either one if they are the best price,high quality, and ease of use.
 
I know i could sell the CPU of the old one but the motherboard I have right now I am not sure since it is having issues. If for some reason ,since it is ebay, I cant get that motherboard I am looking at either AMD or Intel for my next CPU. The motherboard I am not sure anymore about manufactures.
 
Oh, I thought since you posted the link you could buy it on eBay.

In that case, if you're planning to upgrade, I'd suggest either an ASUS P67/Z68 socket 1155 board (non-LX or LE versions for better overclocking as those have weak VRMs), or a Gigabyte Z68 socket 1155 board (expect to pay ~$140 or more for one of the better ones), along with a 2500K CPU. 2500K's are fast at stock, and overclock easily to 4.5ghz or higher with minimal cooling required (a cheap Cooler Master 212+ will be more than sufficient).

You could get an AMD system for around $100 or so less than the Intel build, but AMD's K10 CPUs are comparable to 2007-era Intel parts in clock per clock efficiency, and you'd be limited to 4ghz or lower overclocking with an AMD K10 chip in a 64-bit OS, which you should really be using at this point. If you haven't updated to Windows 7 you probably should.

Additionally, AMD's new architecture, Bulldozer, is handily beat by a 2500K even when heavily overclocking the BD chip (and keep in mind you can OC a 2500K up to 4.5ghz to 4.8ghz fairly trivially), and BD even loses out to AMD's own K10 chips in many tasks. Also, BD chips require a massive amount of power to overclock compared to an Intel chip. BD's come in "8 core" variants, but due to architectural problems and inefficiency, Intel's 2100 dual-core Sandybridge is actually a better performer in most tasks:
I mean, this is kinda embarrassing honestly.


Other than for stability, replacing your current board/CPU with AMD equipment won't actually be better than what you have now. In many cases it would actually be a downgrade. If you can budget it, I'd strongly suggest going with Intel as the extra cost would be worth it, given that you'd be able to use a 2500K for a longer period of time (with moderate overclocking) compared to the shorter usable lifespan of an AMD chip.

Additionally, AMD is largely pulling out of the desktop CPU market, so you won't really have an upgrade path, whereas Intel will be releasing Ivy Bridge CPUs fairly shortly which you could drop into a socket 1155 board.
 
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Oh sorry I was trying to say that I cant be too sure he would accept my offer and if someone else buys it before I can get a chance to. This would be a back up plan for the upgrade if I have to. I am happy to say he accepted and will be paying for the motherboard tomorrow.
 
Well I cant say what got messed up but it looks like they lost my motherboard in the mail. I might need to know now what motherboard to upgrade to now. I will see if they can locate it but in the event they don't I would like a good idea on the prices and everything will cost.
 
Are you planning to upgrade to a newer platform? Do you have a Microcenter nearby?

Personally I'd recommend either an ASUS or Gigabyte Z68/P67-based socket 1155 board and an i5 2500K (see my post above for details on what to expect). Grab a cheap Hyper 212+/EVO cooler as well. You'd be looking at ~$300-$350 for a full platform upgrade that way, and it should easily last you 3-4 years with overclocking the CPU.

E: Good to hear it got to you OK. Hopefully it works fine, etc.
VVV
 
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I do have a Microcenter nearby but I was going to now I found my package on my neighbors door step. I have been sick didn't want to go outside too far to check. I will keep it in mind for backup just in case something happens.
 
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