Need help choosing an Ivy Bridge motherboard for under

[Elliot B.]

• I'll likely be buying a 2500 (Sandy Bridge) or a 3350P (Ivy Bridge)
  
• The motherboard must have at least 6x SATA ports and at least 6x rear USB connectors
  
• I will not be overclocking my CPU
  
• I will be using my 2x 4GB PC3-10660 1333 MHz RAM chips
  
• I have a case that can fit an ATX motherboard
  
• I have a separate video card (Radeon 7870)
  

The following are, from what I can gather, my choices:

It seems the following either don't fit the above requirements or are too expensive to me: H67, P67, Z68, Z75, Z77.

Any thoughts?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

i know this is just a little over your 60 pound budget but it meets all your requirements, and I can tell you from experience I just recently got a micro ATX version of this board and it is an excellent board for its price. it's at least a look http://www.amazon.co...60527419&sr=8-1

you could probably find it cheaper somewhere else as well :)

[Elliot B.]

i know this is just a little over your 60 pound budget but it meets all your requirements, and I can tell you from experience I just recently got a micro ATX version of this board and it is an excellent board for its price. it's at least a look http://www.amazon.co...60527419&sr=8-1

you could probably find it cheaper somewhere else as well :)

Simply too much, mate. I have to put an upper limit somewhere :/

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Simply too much, mate. I have to put an upper limit somewhere :/

true, I'll look a little more

edit: also, what sites do you prefer to get the parts from, because like i said, you could probably find better deals as amazon tends to over price these kind of things

[Andre S. Veteran]

Since they're all functionally equivalent I'd go for the one with the best apparent build quality - all solid capacitors, good layout on the board. Or just go by user ratings.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

am I correct on seeing that you will only be using 2 ram sticks? if so, how does this one look http://www.amazon.co...4/ref=de_a_smtd

and like i said, if you prefer somewhere beside amazon I'd probably be able to find you a better board for cheaper since amazon tends to over price their computer components

[remixedcat]

asrock z77 pro 3... 65USD

[Elliot B.]

asrock z77 pro 3... 65USD

?73.49 ($116) here, which is way over my ?60 budget :(

[Brandon H Supervisor]

asrock z77 pro 3... 65USD

remember King is in the UK, that board on Amazon.co.uk is the same price as the first board i posted (was gonna post that board myself as a second option but didn't for this reason)

[remixedcat]

i must have gotten a good deal on mine then... sorry about that

[+PeterUK MVC]

I don't think you need to upgrade just yet.

[Elliot B.]

I don't think you need to upgrade just yet.

Sure going from a 1st-gen i5-750 to a 2nd-gen i5-2500 (?145) or 3rd-gen i5-3350P (?133) isn't worth it?

As you can tell from my posts, I just can't decide.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

i'd say upgrading from the 1st gen to the 3rd gen is worth it, though that could just be me

[Elliot B.]

i'd say upgrading from the 1st gen to the 3rd gen is worth it, though that could just be me

True, but ?178 (?133 CPU, ?45 motherboard) is also a lot of money.

It's a tough call.

[Snake89]

Take a look at this mobo: http://www.amazon.co...0534592&sr=1-22

here's the specs: http://www.asrock.co...=Specifications

On the Rear IO it got 4 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, more onboard connecters in case you want to add more,

5 SATA2 3.0Gb/s

3 SATA3 6.0Gb/s

So it got everything you want an room for alot more upgrades.

[+PeterUK MVC]

Why not wait for the Haswell processors?

[Elliot B.]

Why not wait for the Haswell processors?

The previous-gen prices will hardly drop in price when the Haswell are out, and they will also not drop for a long while. Also, I don't buy second-hand, so that's out. And the Haswell CPUs themselves will be expensive.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

King is right, right now really is the prime time to buy a current gen i-series cpu

[Andre S. Veteran]

The previous-gen prices will hardly drop in price when the Haswell are out, and they will also not drop for a long while. Also, I don't buy second-hand, so that's out. And the Haswell CPUs themselves will be expensive.

If the Sandy->Ivy Bridge transition is of any indication, Haswell shouldn't be any more expensive than the current generation.