Upgrade my ASUS Maximus III Formula lga 1156 mobo

[xpender]

Hi, I am looking at upgrading my motherboard, mainly because it does not support SATA III for a SSD dive. My CPU is an i-7 860 running at 4.01GHz air cooled, Mushkin Blackline 16GB of RAM (running at 1600), ATI 5850 video card, Corsair 750W PS and an Antec 1200 case.

I woul dlike to get your opinion on which motherboard I should be using if I want to keep my components the same, and at the same time thinking about the future (like upgrading the CPU to a 2600K, and getting a second 5850).

Thanks for your help!

Xpender

 

[lehtv]

SATA III isn't reason enough to upgrade the motherboard. You would probably not notice a difference between 3gb/s versus 6gb/s for several reasons:

- improved access time over hard disks is independent of bandwidth
- most of the tasks that matter don't saturate the 3gb/s bandwidth
- tasks that do saturate the 3gb/s bandwidth are still performed much, much faster on an SSD than on a hard disk

So instead of buying a new motherboard and CPU, consider spending more on the SSD itself, i.e. buy a higher capacity drive. Or spend it on something else or save it for an upgrade to Intel Haswell. An i7-860 at 4GHz is very fast, you shouldn't have problems with bottlenecking in games.

I would also recommend against 5850 crossfire, it's limited to only 1GB VRAM and subject to possible driver / crossfire profile issues, less stable framerates and increased power, heat and noise. Upgrade to a 7950 which is twice as fast and with triple the VRAM while consuming only a little more power.

 

[xpender]

You are right, my rig is fast. Thh only thing slowing it down is the hard drive. Even if I am using the ASUS "SPEED HD" ( I am using 2 WD 1TB Black), it is slow.

I was thinking that going to a 6GB/s would improve 100 times

But you are saying that nothing out there will be using that kind of bandwith?

So is it just a sale gimmick?

I looked at the SSD for SATA II, and the best one is rated at about 280MB/s
while the SATA III is rated at about 550MB/s.

So I guess I don't understand; if I give it more bandwith, why would it not use it?

 

[lehtv]

It's not a gimmick, it's just not worth upgrading a whole motherboard for. SSD's will very much utilize the 6gb/s bandwidth in many situations but not always. Like I said, access time is independent of bandwidth and that's one of the main benefits of an SSD over a HDD. And as for transfer speeds, the ones advertised by the manufacturer are maximum speeds that you get in sequential benchmarks that don't portray real-world use.

The improvement is substantial enough at 3gb/s, so much so that you would probably not notice a difference between 3gb/s and 6gb/s unless benchmarking. Even if you did notice a small difference, it still wouldn't be worth upgrading a whole motherboard for; the extra bandwidth is more of a bonus that comes along with the new CPU socket.

 

[Blain]

My CPU is an i-7 860 running at 4.01GHz air cooled
...thinking about the future (like upgrading the CPU to a 2600K

I wouldn't think the 2600K would be an upgrade from your i7-860 @ 4GHz. :\

 

[xpender]

Thanks for the great info. I've decided to go with a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB for $174.79

 

[mfenn]

$175 is a pretty good deal on that drive, even if it is a Sandforce.

 

[lehtv]

Yeah, not bad - enjoy your responsive system. Personally I'd have spent another $25 on a Samsung 830.

 

[xpender]

That Samsung card in Canada is $60 more than the Mushkin on the NCIX.ca

For the video card upgrade, I am looking at the XFX 7950 Black for about $340
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150601

What do you think? Anything else as good or better?
Or should I wait for the 8000 series?

I am running 3 x ASUS 24" LCD Monitor in iFinity mode.

Can't complain about my Saphire 5850 from 3yrs ago ($325), other than being a bit loud.:\

 

[mfenn]

That 7950 is way too expensive for what it is. The rule of thumb with picking graphics cards is that you get the cheapest one that has a multi-fan cooler, the GPU you want, and is from a reputable brand. Currently, that means this MSI Twin Frozr 7950.

If you're OK with the performance of a 5850 in Eyefinity, then the 7950 will blow you away.

 

[lehtv]

Agree with above, grab the MSI 7950 from newegg.ca.

 

[xpender]

Checked Newegg.ca, and they are out.

 

[mfenn]

Deals change every day. This XFX is the best deal today.

 

[xpender]

I tried to do a Price Match with NCIX for the MSI card at $274.99, and they said no. Apparently it was below their cost. The best they can do is $314.99

 

[mfenn]

Well, the price on the MSI has gone up at Newegg, so you are out of luck there. You've got to jump on a good deal when you see it. At any rate, the XFX 7950 I linked above is still the best deal.