Scapping my PC come tax refund! Mobo, CPU Help needed.

[Deafyx]

So I posted a few days ago about trying to find out what was keeping me from getting the full utility out of my GTX470. I figured it was my CPU, and I was correct for the most part. But I came to find out that my mobo could use a upgrade as well.

Tax refund is coming in a tad larger than I expected, so I am going to take this years, and just upgrade my parts that are in dire need.

Currently I am running a 23' 1080p Acer Monitor, Antec 902 case, and a PNY GTX 470 with a Logitech G15 and G9. So those parts of my build is set, I just need some recommendations for a CPU and a Mobo that are both good, and worth 200 US each. Also, looking to get some DDR3 Ram as well to replace my 8gb of DDR2 that is currently in my set up.

So Im asking you guys at MMO, what are some good pick ups for a CPU, Mobo and DDR3 Ram?

All I want it to do is play my games on Max settings every time with little to no lag at all times. I have no knowledge of Overclocking at the time, but its possible I can get some help to learn it from a friend of mine. So OC'able or not, doesn't really matter, just a plus.

I'm currently running a Phenom x4 9750 2.40 GHz and some mobo that came in this HP when I bought it.

EDIT: Side not, I am not using the side case fan so recommendations for that is good too.

[Aria807]

If you have a microcenter around, get i7 875k.

[Deafyx]

If you have a microcenter around, get i7 875k.

Links and prices would be helpful.

Thanks.

[qw4]

This is what I use:
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103727
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128441
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145260 x2

I would also add that overclocking that CPU is very, very simple.

[Deafyx]

This is what I use:
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103727
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128441
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145260 x2

I would also add that overclocking that CPU is very, very simple.

That CPU was what I was aiming for back when I was on a budget.

The mobo is new for me.

And I also like the ram since I know Corsair is a reliable company.

Any other ideas?

[Asera]

Inb4 a million i5 2500K recommendations.

Chances are by the time your refund comes in, they will be back on the market with fixed motherboards, so that would be your best bet. Unless you want to JUST get a CPU that will fit in an AM2 socket to replace that Phenom... but you said CPU + Mobo + RAM, sooo yeah. Best bet is an i5 2500K.

[qw4]

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115224
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131665
RAM x2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145326

[Deafyx]

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115224
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131665
RAM x2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145326

Yikes. The cost of the ram is more than the mobo it self!

If I was to be leaning towards the i5 2500K, what mobo and ram should I be looking at?

[qw4]

I would just do some research on motherboards in general. I would never buy a motherboard online. Ever. There are just too many issues that can occur and you can see it plain as day in reviews on newegg. No other products have such low ratings. It's because so many are DOA or messed up when they get them in the mail. Do yourself a favor and find an electronics store that sells computer parts and research the boards they have. We have Fry's here, but I don't know if you have one around you.

[Deafyx]

I would just do some research on motherboards in general. I would never buy a motherboard online. Ever. There are just too many issues that can occur and you can see it plain as day in reviews on newegg. No other products have such low ratings. It's because so many are DOA or messed up when they get them in the mail. Do yourself a favor and find an electronics store that sells computer parts and research the boards they have. We have Fry's here, but I don't know if you have one around you.

I plan to get one in stores for those reasons mentioned. I always look at the reviews on Newegg, and I cant begin to tell you how many comments I have read about DOA boards...pretty shitty.

I also do not have a Frys near me sadly. Closest thing that I could I really think of, but does not carry many products and most of the time they have outrageous prices, is Best Buy.

[Saithes]

I would just do some research on motherboards in general. I would never buy a motherboard online. Ever. There are just too many issues that can occur and you can see it plain as day in reviews on newegg. No other products have such low ratings. It's because so many are DOA or messed up when they get them in the mail. Do yourself a favor and find an electronics store that sells computer parts and research the boards they have. We have Fry's here, but I don't know if you have one around you.

Remember, the general population of users who buy products on newegg and have no problems won't take the effort to write a review of the product. So the majority of the reviews on newegg are from those who had bad experiences and doesn't include any of the good ones. Which is why Newegg's reviews are shoddy and shouldn't even be referenced to. Not to mention 99% of the reviews are written by inexperienced users.

[DarkBlade6]

CPU Core i5 2500k: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e%20i5%202500k 230$
Mobo Gigabyte P67A-UD3P: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3649#ov 150$

You will have to wait like 1month before retailer get re-released P67 mobo

RAM 2x2GB Corsair Vengeance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-343-_-Product 60$

[oorbs]

I would just do some research on motherboards in general. I would never buy a motherboard online. Ever. There are just too many issues that can occur and you can see it plain as day in reviews on newegg. No other products have such low ratings. It's because so many are DOA or messed up when they get them in the mail. Do yourself a favor and find an electronics store that sells computer parts and research the boards they have. We have Fry's here, but I don't know if you have one around you.

im sorry but i would not listen to these guys, PERIOD. buying a deacent mobo online is the ONLY place to get one, you plan on going to a store, w here they have maybe 3 diff ones in stock MAX, and pay 1.5x retail price? rofl newegg mobos are fine, i have personally built at LEAST 8 computers buying solely from newegg and had NEVER had ONE bad part, EVER. like some other dude said, 99% of people get working prodcuts and NEVER post SHIT on newegg HEY LIKE MYSELF! obviously the people with the bad ones are going to post something about their messed up hardware where as everyone else is too busy jerking off to WOW, myself included, again.

[Deafyx]

How much do these boards go for when they get back on the market?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131682

At the moment, so far without the mobo, this is what I have for my set up.

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/Sh...mit=ChangeItem

EDIT: I just saw some other CPU cooler called the V8. Sexy looking.

[Saithes]

How much do these boards go for when they get back on the market?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131682

At the moment, so far without the mobo, this is what I have for my set up.

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/Sh...mit=ChangeItem

Originally the ASUS P8P67 Pro was $189.99 at most retail e-stores and dpt stores. It's an amazing board by the way

[Deafyx]

Originally the ASUS P8P67 Pro was $189.99 at most retail e-stores and dpt stores. It's an amazing board by the way

Thanks for the info. I am looking to add this board to my purchase hopefully

[gmike]

If you really want the best, then you should wait until Intel fixes the P67 boards. Buy a i5 2500K. Don't buy any other cpu, expecially an older i7 because their slower in performance. The i5 2500K(4cores) @ stock settings matches the i7 980X (6cores), and the i7 980x costs 1000$. You can find reviews on the 2500K online that confirm this. BTW WoW performance is affected by cpu frequency so, you can overclock the 2500K to get more performance, especially since its easier to overclock the 2500K than any other cpu ever before. Most ppl have gotten at least 1GHz more out of it @ the stock air cooler.

Heres a link that will tell you everything you need to know about WoW performance done by Tom's Hardware. It will confirm everything im telling you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ance,2793.html


Now regarding the motherboard. The best ones out there are the ASUS P8P67 OR GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3. You can try finding these in store, but most computer stores dont carry many highend boards, and they also overcharge like crazy. Your best bet is Newegg. Don't be intimidated by the bad reviews, most of the ppl who buy from there don't even bother to post if they've had a good product. Plus Newegg's has the best services with defective products (inclusive), unlike any store can offer.

Heres a link for ASUS's new EFI bios, this make overclocking and doing other things in the BIOS super easy and simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEMDscJyHew

Now for the RAM, this will be a little tricky. Right now you can get 4GB for a very decent price. Really the ram you choose doesn't matter that much as long as its not value ram (aka low quality ram). The tricky part is that the quality (speed) of the ram will affect your overclock ability. Generally the higher the speed the better the overclock ability on the 2500K. Id recommend that you first buy the cpu and the mobo and then focus on the ram (because these are more important). But heres what id recommend.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231444

If you have the money, then go for

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231434

[Saithes]

Now for the RAM, this will be a little tricky. Right now you can get 4GB for a very decent price. Really the ram you choose doesn't matter that much as long as its not value ram (aka low quality ram). The tricky part is that the quality (speed) of the ram will affect your overclock ability. Generally the higher the speed the better the overclock ability on the 2500K. Thats why id recommend that you first buy the cpu and the mobo and then focus on the ram (because these are more important). But heres what id recommend.

While you're right in every other aspect, RAM will not hinder a Sandybridge CPU in overclocking not nearly as much as its predecessor on LGA 1366 or 1156. The reason being is that the multiplier is the main source of overclocking on Sandybridge, which has no ties to the RAM at all. Standard DDR3 1600 with 9-9-9-24 gets more bandwidth than an LGA 1366 Core i7 with the same and Sandybridge is only dual channel. The RAM really doesn't make all that much difference as far as Overclocking a 2600K/2500K and performance on a 2600K/2500K.

[qw4]

I plan to get one in stores for those reasons mentioned. I always look at the reviews on Newegg, and I cant begin to tell you how many comments I have read about DOA boards...pretty shitty.

I also do not have a Frys near me sadly. Closest thing that I could I really think of, but does not carry many products and most of the time they have outrageous prices, is Best Buy.

It's not that they have a worse rate of failure than at a store, it's that it's way cheaper, easier, and faster to return a bad board to a store. Price is also an issue, I'm sure. I paid the exact same amount for my motherboard at Fry's as the price on Newegg. But I'm assuming that's because Fry's gets bulk rates and is able to do that sort of thing. Best Buy is not really the kind of electronics store I'm thinking of. Your only option may be to go with Newegg, then.

[Deafyx]

If you really want the best, then you should wait until Intel fixes the P67 boards. Buy a i5 2500K. Don't buy any other cpu, expecially an older i7 because their slower in performance. The i5 2500K(4cores) @ stock settings matches the i7 980X (6cores), and the i7 980x costs 1000$. You can find reviews on the 2500K online that confirm this. BTW WoW performance is affected by cpu frequency so, you can overclock the 2500K to get more performance, especially since its easier to overclock the 2500K than any other cpu ever before. Most ppl have gotten at least 1GHz more out of it @ the stock air cooler.

Heres a link that will tell you everything you need to know about WoW performance done by Tom's Hardware. It will confirm everything im telling you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ance,2793.html


Now regarding the motherboard. The best ones out there are the ASUS P8P67 OR GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3. You can try finding these in store, but most computer stores dont carry many highend boards, and they also overcharge like crazy. Your best bet is Newegg. Don't be intimidated by the bad reviews, most of the ppl who buy from there don't even bother to post if they've had a good product. Plus Newegg's has the best services with defective products (inclusive), unlike any store can offer.

Heres a link for ASUS's new EFI bios, this make overclocking and doing other things in the BIOS super easy and simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEMDscJyHew

Now for the RAM, this will be a little tricky. Right now you can get 4GB for a very decent price. Really the ram you choose doesn't matter that much as long as its not value ram (aka low quality ram). The tricky part is that the quality (speed) of the ram will affect your overclock ability. Generally the higher the speed the better the overclock ability on the 2500K. Id recommend that you first buy the cpu and the mobo and then focus on the ram (because these are more important). But heres what id recommend.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231444

If you have the money, then go for

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231434

I have basically quit WoW. I rarely log in, and when I do its just to tank something for my gf, or just to some sort of holiday achivement. I do know that WoW is more CPU based anything. Game that I plan to start playing is Starcraft II, Diablo III, Bulletstorm and Crysis. So my PC is being upgraded as a "Total Gaming PC" not a WoW PC :P

As far as the CPU goes, Im solid on the i5 2500K. The motherboard I have chosen the ASUS P8P67. As for the Ram, I would like to keep it at 8gb since that is what I currently use, just 8gb's of DDR3 instead. Just feels awkward going from 8 to 4 gbs.

Thanks for the in depth input!