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Looking for an Intel solution for the first time

Q

Quake

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
204
I've been an AMD "fanboy" for the past years but I came to the conclusion that they lost the race. So here I am.

I currently have an Nvidia Geforce 460 GTX and I was wondering which CPU will match my processor, I have just been following AMD so I'm a bit lost.

My current system is:
AMD Phenom II X3 710 @ 3 Ghz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia Geoforce 460 gtx

I'll use the system to play Assassin's Creed Revelation, Battlefield 3, Just Cause 2... But I know Assassin's creed Revelation is CPU heavy because the last time I've checked, the GPU usage was only at 50%.
 
I'll start: What kind of budget are you looking at?

Without knowing, I recommend the i5-2500K and a P67 or Z68 motherboard.
 
For gaming I am going to have to agree with skizzled the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K and a good Z68 board. I like the Asus p8Z68-V Pro (Gen3) , Gigabyte Ga-Z68Xp-UD4 and the MSI Z68 GD65 (Gen3) they are all good boards that can help you get the most out of the processor and the your video card.
 
Need a lot more info:

1. Budget
2. What parts you will be reusing (other than the GPU)
3. What parts you need
 
Welcome to the dark side...
Forever, your destiny, will it guide.
 
If you repost this over in the General Hardware forum, and answer the stickied questions, you'll get some good advice and help locating good deals.
 
If you have any intentions on overclocking, you'll need a 2500K, 2600K or 2700K if you go with LGA1155, which gets a recommendation from me. It's a great socket set which will give the best price to performance ratio.

If you will be gaming and not using a lot of CPU taxing applications otherwise, i5-2500K all the way. You can get a decent HSF for it and get to 4.5GHz easy as pie. 4.7 is achievable, but if you're wanting to hit the 5.0 barrier, you'll need an i7-2600K or 2700K, for over a hundred dollars more than the 2500K.
 
The 2500k all the way i was a big AMD fan but have turned to the dark side now :) muhahahaha! im loving my new setup in the sig :) payed about 960$ for everything due to HDD prices thru the roof.
 
DejaWiz said:
Need a lot more info:

1. Budget
2. What parts you will be reusing (other than the GPU)
3. What parts you need
Click to expand...

1. Budget: building a system around the Geforce 460 GTX video card (OCed at 800;2000), perhaps around $400~$500

2. It seems the only part I'm going to reuse are the Hard drives and the video card. I have a 460W power supply which I don't think will handle the new CPU. The current system has DDR2 sticks.

3. The parts I need are: CPU, MOBO, RAM, (Power Supply).

If the 460W power supply I currently have will be handle the specs, it will be great.
 
See my sig. Perfectly good for all your gaming needs. Might want a modular PSU though.
 
Do you want to have the ability to overclock

If so then
CPU wise the 2500K is the only sane choice, non-k models are very limited on overclockability $220
MB wise you will need a P67 or Z68 board to change the multipliers. The GA-P67A-D3-B3 at $105 looks like a good compromise between price and features while maintaining a decent brand.
ram wise get a 2x4GB kit of DDR3 for $30 (if you are really penny pinching you could go 2x2GB but it's not worth it IMO. Don't worry too much about speeds and latencies as long as it's at least 1333. Make sure it's 1.5v to avoid unnecessary voltage stress on the memory controller.

total for that lot should be $355 at newegg (prices may vary over time and retailers and will be considerablly more expensive in other countries :( )

I'll leave PSU issues to someone else but I suspect that even if that PSU is honestly rated it will be too small for comfort with that GPU. I'll leave the PSU reccomendations to someone else.

If you don't care about having the ability to overclock you can probablly shave quite a bit off the budget by going with a non-K processor and a H67 board.
 
According to http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine, the system is gonna consume 383 watts, which is less than what my system is currently consuming now. So perhaps, I don't have to change my power supply.

And about the motherboard choices, is it better to take one that implements UEFI?
 
Is it a good quality 460W? If so, you might be okay, but if it is of marginal quality I wouldn't fool around, but would just go buy a good 520W or 620W (like the Antec High Current Gamer series). No reason to pay extra for UEFI - it is nice, but certainly not a requirement since the only functional feature (large drive support) is also supported by Gigabyte (who is about the only mainstream manufacturer that doesn't use UEFI).

Without knowing your specific motherboard needs, how about something like this:

$219.99 Intel i5-2500K
$114.99 GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
$29.99 G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB DDR3-1600
$74.99 Antec High Current Gamer 620W PSU
$25.99 CollerMaster Hyper 212+

There are probably 10 other motherboards in that price range that would work just as well, so feel free to pick whatever looks good to you. Any board from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock will all perform pretty much the same, so the only real discriminator is features you feel you need. You could go even cheaper if you take a P67 board, but doesn't sound like you need to go any higher.
 
Last edited:
It's a CoolerMaster 460W power supply. I know it's a "quality" one but I didn't have a problem with it as of now.
 
Forceman said:
Is it a good quality 460W? If so, you might be okay, but if it is of marginal quality I wouldn't fool around, but would just go buy a good 520W or 620W (like the Antec High Current Gamer series). No reason to pay extra for UEFI - it is nice, but certainly not a requirement since the only functional feature (large drive support) is also supported by Gigabyte (who is about the only mainstream manufacturer that doesn't use UEFI).

Without knowing your specific motherboard needs, how about something like this:

$219.99 Intel i5-2500K
$114.99 GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
$29.99 G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB DDR3-1600
$74.99 Antec High Current Gamer 620W PSU
$25.99 CollerMaster Hyper 212+

There are probably 10 other motherboards in that price range that would work just as well, so feel free to pick whatever looks good to you. Any board from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock will all perform pretty much the same, so the only real discriminator is features you feel you need. You could go even cheaper if you take a P67 board, but doesn't sound like you need to go any higher.
Click to expand...

FYI Go to Microcenter if you have one. The i5 2500k is $179 and you get $50 off the mobo. You will have the mobo and cpu for under $250 which is killer right now.
 
What do I don't like about Intel is that they release a lot of sockets. With AMD, it's simple, AM3 processors were compatible in AM2+ sockets.

So my question is: is the LGA 1155 socket a good investment for the future?
 
Current LGA1155 boards will most likely support ivy bridge processors when they come out next year, beyond that noone knows.
 
I've been seeing conflicting info

On one hand i've seen motherboard vendors claiming to add support for "22 nm processors" (aka ivy bridge)

OTOH i've seen claims supposedly leaked from intel that ivy bridge on current chipsets a special firmware update that can't be applied by end users will be needed.
 
plugwash said:
I've been seeing conflicting info

On one hand i've seen motherboard vendors claiming to add support for "22 nm processors" (aka ivy bridge)

OTOH i've seen claims supposedly leaked from intel that ivy bridge on current chipsets a special firmware update that can't be applied by end users will be needed.
Click to expand...

Oooooh, I see what you meant by that.

Sorry, I was figuring that it was a blanket statement stating any and all current 1155 boards might support IB, when in fact there are some that already have the BIOS updates that will support it. That is, if the intel rumor about an oem-only update is false regarding H/Q/P/Z 6 series chipsets.
 
WBILLC said:
FYI Go to Microcenter if you have one. The i5 2500k is $179 and you get $50 off the mobo. You will have the mobo and cpu for under $250 which is killer right now.
Click to expand...

Damn it! We really need a MicroCenter here in Wichita. It's not work the gas and time to drive up to Kansas City!

That is a killer deal though, I'm having to buy a used 2500k and mobo from people on here to stay within my $300 budget...
 
I forgot to add my location in the profile. I live in Canada so unfortunately we don't have MicroCenter. But that deal looks too sweet to pass up.
 
Btw, I know we should never wait for the next big thing in electronics but in this case, is it better to wait for Ivy Bridge?
 
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