What to do?! 1156 Budget Comp Questions.

[Gatecrasher3]

Hey guys, after reading the forums a bit, it seems like I am not the only one is this exact same pickle.
I'm in need of a new rig but I am very conflicted on what direction to take.
I only need a cpu, mobo and ram for my new build, I would like to have true sli and I would like to keep the price low. I'm going to be doing allot of sun vbox and Dreamweaver type apps with some gaming.

My first problem is the cpu, now should I go for the 1156 i5 720 or the 1156 i7 860, the extra $75 is the one place I'm not worried about spending the extra money, that is if it's worth the extra $75?

Next problem, the mobo. As I said earlier I would like to have true sli or CF but I'm finding it difficult to find a 1156 mobo with a great sli option. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough but...yaa.

Lastly, the ram, because I am trying to save money i was thinking about going dual channel ram, would this be holding back the cpu?

Long story short, I'm just trying not to spend crazy money, I mean after looking at it 100 ways, buying a 1366 rig will cost me $200 more if I get all the extras (tripp chan ram, nice mobo) over getting a 860 midrange 1156 rig.

Any advice would be great, thanks guys.

 

[jae]

I would get the i5-750 and put the rest elsewhere for now (monitor, gpu, ssd). Socket 1156 doesn't support Tri-channel memory.

 

[sgaliger]

I'd go with the I5-750 over the 860, because I just don't think the 860 is worth the extra $$ especially if you OC the 750 which is very easy to do. As far as cross-fire/SLI, yes it is true the just about all (or maybe even all) 1156 MBs will run in 8x8 rather than 16x16 in xf/SLI. However, all the benchmarks I have seen on Anand and other sites indicate that this makes almost no difference in performance, unless you are using a very high-end card (5870 or higher). So, I wouldn't worry about it. I think there was a 16x16 1156 MB out there somewhere but it is very $$$.

 

[larslake]

This website has a great informative article that I'd highly recommend.
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3739#comments

 

[mfenn]

Do you care about USB3.0 and/or SATA 6Gb/s?

I ask because you cannot generally run USB 3.0 or SATA 6Gb/s and x8/x8 SLI/Crossfire at the same time on the 1156 platform. Some boards will let you still run SLI/Crossfire along with USB3.0 or SATA 6Gb/s, but they will be running in x8/x4 mode which is simply not enough bandwidth.

The reason you get into this situation on P55 is because the GPUs are connected to the PCIe controller that's on the CPU (16 lanes). The P55 itself only has 4 PCIe lanes, so there's a bit of a shortage when you've got 2 GPUs, USB 3.0, and SATA 6Gb/s all contending for resources.

 

[Gatecrasher3]

Do you care about USB3.0 and/or SATA 6Gb/s?

well usb 3 no, but i would like to use sata to its max
would that be a problem, sata 6x and sli?

what does everyone think about these three mobos?


http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813188055

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813131405

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813128409

 

[klocwerk]

well usb 3 no, but i would like to use sata to its max
would that be a problem, sata 6x and sli?

No current SATA drives that I know of can saturate the 3.0 SATA, so unless you're planning to get the super fast next-gen of SSD's I'd say don't sweat the 6.0 SATA.

That said, I'm holding off my upgrade until USB3 and SATA6.0 are readily available.