1155 Recommendations

I prefer Gigabyte (what I'm used to) but im looking for a board mainly for overclocking, and benching. Im not looking for a ton of features. Just a good benching board that when im done doing what needs to be done, can jump in a case and be used sparingly.

I will be using a videocard, so dont know if I need P67, Z68? No idea. Never touched any...thanks.

for benching i would probably go with the gene-z or extreme
i just got the msi z68a-gd80, still waiting for a chip.
it was the best price .. possible performance board for me

What are you benching to and how long do you need to hold the load? A $149 ASRock Extreme 4 P67 B3 will be fine.
I'd prefer that 160 dollar Gene Z though. It IS MATX. Be aware.

Straight up all the way benching, MIVE would be my choice.

I think you'd want P67, as a couple of the phases on Z68 are for the iGPU, where as on P67 they're all for the CPU. Not sure though.

Knufire said:

Straight up all the way benching, MIVE or GA-UD7 would be my choices.

I think you'd want P67, as a couple of the phases on Z68 are for the iGPU, where as on P67 they're all for the CPU. Not sure though.

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Z68 sacrifices the VTT phases and they become iGPU phases. You're always 2 chokes down when you buy Z68 vs P67 as far as your CPU proper is concerned given similar VRM layout.

Will a P67 be able to update to Ivy?

I'd be benching for max cpuz, and all the other 2d benches mainly. Might do some 3d stuff. But not much.

GoD_tattoo said:

Will a P67 be able to update to Ivy?

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Current word on the street is no.

Gigabyte's do: http://www.gigabyte.us/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1048

P67-UD4 was a nice and cheap board when I used it.
You don't get PCIe 3.0 but if you don't want to break the bank is not too bad at all.

Here's my opinion...

Unless you've located a super high binned 2600K or 2700K... Don't go blowing a bunch of money on a super high end board.

With SB... You just don't need all the adjustment afforded by something like the MIVE.

Unless you've got a super high binned chip, there are litterally only 4 CPU related adjustments you'll be using.

1) Multiplier.

2) BCLK (If you're going for all out clocks)

3) CPU VCore

4) LLC

I've been super disappointed with SB... It's seriously BORING to overclock.

Get something with a good power section in it, and call it good.

Just my two cents.

Boring to overclock so you can get it done faster and get to pwning noobs?
I'm not complaining.

Agreed- get something with a good power section and move on. The UD7 from Gigabyte has something like 24 phases. If you want some overkill power section, there's your man. Do you need it? I doubt it. You'd have to find a cherry 2700 that took like 5.8Ghz to really push them all. I still say that $150 and 169 board I mentioned would do you fine. I know a guy who was 5.5 on air on that Extreme 4 cheapo board. The CPU died. Board didn't. That says something. Sometimes a cheaper board (started at 200 but its older) gets you to the same bus stop as the shiny flashy one and you'd never know the difference.

Once you try SB btw you'll want that as your permanent rig over your 1156 setup. Don't expect this just as a bencher. It'll become your mainstay PC. I upgraded from 1366 and I still feel like I'm much faster.

Keep in mind the CPU is a 95W cpu. When you push it, even to 1.42, the max artificial load pull is 130W. You'd need a very substandard board not to handle that. Intel suggests not exceeding 1.4 anyways (obviously we is crazy overclock peoples so we do).

Convicted1 said:

With SB... You just don't need all the adjustment afforded by something like the MIVE.

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Ya but it's an awesome board even if it is overpriced. I have to say this because I own one.....
It IS solid, if pricey. Never given me so much as a cough of a hard time versus some boards that are just evil IMO. Very nice board. Too expensive. Especially with X79 out. But very nice. And I find its fine tuning options in bios unsurpassed as of yet in my lookin' around and building for friends etc.

That 1156 is my work rig. Which hopefully will be update soon to a new X79 setup.

The 1155 will be just for benching and messing around. I mainly only use a laptop at home. I game at work if I need to. X2 5850's..If they scaled better, I'd throw a third one in that I have sitting around...

How's this one?

GA-P67X-UD3-B3

or

Asus P8P67 B3

If you want an 1155 Gigabyte board that is good for benching without too many extra features I would go with Z68XP-UD4. That is their best board for the $$ IMO.

However if you are planning on benching 3 GPUs you will have to go NF200 and UD7.

GoD_tattoo said:

I prefer Gigabyte (what I'm used to) but im looking for a board mainly for overclocking, and benching. Im not looking for a ton of features. Just a good benching board that when im done doing what needs to be done, can jump in a case and be used sparingly.

I will be using a videocard, so dont know if I need P67, Z68? No idea. Never touched any...thanks.

Click to expand...

For SB overclocking I had much better results with ASUS. All gigabyte boards turned into more of an annoyance, especially at the rate that you will be hanging/BSODing with benching. The Gigabyte post sequence made me want to shoot myself in the face. I did throw one UD-7 out the window... just saying.