Gump and the saga of the 7850 aka motherboard upgrade

[Gump]

As noted in my earlier thread, I've recently upgraded to the AMD HD 7850, and it's a fantastic card, but there's one small issue; my CPU is a bottleneck. Massive bottleneck. As in, It cost me $70 3 years ago bottleneck. Unfortunately, AMD's latest Bulldozer/Piledriver line and focus on hexa/octa-cores just don't align with my gaming interests. (It's worth noting that the Phenom II 965 isn't large enough of an upgrade to justify spending $100.) With that in mind I'm jumping ship to Intel for my next upgrade (Most likely a 3570k), which means: New motherboard! Yaaaaay!

Fine denizens of the computers forum (so probably HeK), I employ your advice on motherboards. Here's what I need:

Budget gamer range: $100, dependability, socket 1155. I won't be crossfiring, so I only need one PCI-E slot.
PCI-E 3.0: 7850 is PCI-E 3, and I'm keeping this card for a while, so I might actually start needing that bandwidth a few years down the line.
SATA 6gb/s: Any recent mobo should have this but I'm getting an SSD so I don't want its performance to be hindered.

Again I'm probably getting a 3570k. No way I can wait for Haswell either, and the $140 i3 isn't going to futureproof me. I'd rather spend the extra $70 and get something that won't need upgrading for a few years, along with the 7850.

[Vandamguy]

MSI Z77A-G41 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

think this fits all your criteria. $90 + $8 shipping (no tax?) is under budget

[HeK]

6 gb/s sata, usb 3, and pci-e 3 are all stock features of a Z77 board.

Get one that fits within your price range from a decent manufacturer and you should be golden.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Gump]

As for processors also considering just getting the i3 3240. I can use that $70 on other PC peripherals I'm getting in the near future, but Google's failing me and not really giving me anything good. For the value, Are the higher-end i3's relatively comparable to the 3570k in gaming? AFAIK most games still don't take advantage of more than 2 cores.

[Mission Difficult]

If you happen to live anywhere near a Microcenter be sure and check them out. They list most of their processors for $80-100 less than Newegg but you have to pick it up from the store. Last time I checked they had the i5 3570K for $170.

[Vandamguy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_...processors

The i3-3240 doesn't have support for PCI-e 3.0. You're instincts were correct to go with the 3570k, all the better if you can find a cheap one like MD said.

[Gump]

Nope no MC's near me. FYI I'm in Oregon right now but also may be traveling between to Northern Cali. Closest one is way southwestern Cali and it'd be more in gas money than savings.

Just the other day Slickdeals had a 3770k for the price of a 3570k at Microcenter. I'm holding off on ordering until BF so maybe there'll be some good deals on stuff then.

[HeK]

It's really hard to suggest a CPU under the 3570K pricepoint. The 3550 and the 3470 come close in performance but with little price difference and no overclocking ability, they are not worth the savings. Unless you can find a 2700k or 2500k at a substantial discount, the 3570K is your best buy.

[Gump]

That's exactly why I'm posting here, I was aiming for the ~170 price point but it seems it's either $150 for an i3 or $220 for an i5. Very frustrating. AMD has CPUs around my price point; too bad they're shit for gaming. I really don't need what the 3570k offers, chiefly, gaming. I'm not rendering 1080p videos or unzipping 2TB files or anything stupid like that. Pretty much all I need is for it to not bottleneck the GPU. I'm fairly certain the i3 can do that, but it doesn't have PCIE-3 support...do I really need it? Decisions, decisions.

[HeK]

I really don't need what the 3570k offers, chiefly, gaming. I'm not rendering 1080p videos or unzipping 2TB files or anything stupid like that.

That's really more of an i7 over i5 advantage, where you really make use of the hyper threading and larger CPU cache.


The i7 is performance, i5 is mainstream and i3 is budget. Do not go i3 if you are primarily going to be gaming, it is a bad idea.
In the i5 range, the performance/price spread is very narrow. You get the best return on your dollar from the 3570K, and that is not taking into account the extra gained from overclocking.

[rilnac]

you will get better performance out of an e8400 than an i3

[Gump]

Okay okay I'll get the 3570k. have anything else to say? otherwise I'm going to sit on this for a couple of weeks until BF hits. Currently on the lookout for an SSD, monitor, mouse (and of course cpu + motherboard.) My spidey senses are tingling for a Sandy B sale so maybe I'll snag a 2500k for $150.

[Gump]

There were no good deals on BF so I'm still holding my breath for the mobo upgrade. Is the Z75 acceptable? Considering I don't plan to SLI, something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157304

...or is there tangible benefit to going up 10-20 for something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813138352 ?

[Vlambo]

HeK is gonna tell you to go Z77. I can't remember why, but just do it

[HeK]

HeK is gonna tell you to go Z77. I can't remember why, but just do it

Z77X.

It's the newest and the fastest. Supports all the latest features.
For the price difference, you are silly not to.

[Gump]

Yeah, but *why* is the z77 the fastest? What do I want from it that the z75 doesn't have? All Google will tell me is that it supports some sort of SSD speed-up feature. I'll never be running more than one GPU, I don't want massive overclock potential (it looks like the 3570k does that well enough on its own), etc.