I3 OR I5 Set up Help

[Russell Dent]

Dear people

Im looking for sum advice on upgrading my current pc system up to a I3 or a I5 depending on the Money side i ave a few questions :-

I prefer using Asus Motherboard cause i find them easy to build with.
Do i use a Micro Atx or Full Atx board
I ave a Antec 1200 Gamer case with a H50 cooling.
But I ave no idea What A gud I3/I5 Motherboard is?
Whats the different between the p55 chipset and the h55 chipset ?
Is it true that the I3 cpu is the new duel core chip and the I5 is the new Quad core.

My Budget is £300-£350max but i need the motherboard Ram and Cpu for all that, thank you I hope you lot can help.

 

[Martin Vrba]

Hi Russell,

Do i use a Micro Atx or Full Atx board

it doesn't really matter, but I prefer full-size ATX boards so the components have a bit more room... I usually only use mATX boards in HTPCs...

But I ave no idea What A gud I3/I5 Motherboard is?
Whats the different between the p55 chipset and the h55 chipset ?

H55 was primarily designed to be used with only onboard GPU and i5 CPU (except 750/760)... but again, it doesn't matter because better H55s too have 2 PCI Express x16 slots (like P55s)... I recommend Gigabyte boards (bought quite a few of them this year and didn't have a single issue), but ASUS is not a bad choice either

Is it true that the I3 cpu is the new duel core chip and the I5 is the new Quad core.

not exactly... all i3 and i5 CPUs are dual cores, ONLY i5 750/760 are quad cores... these 2 are very desirable, since they are basically identical to i7 CPUs, but they are cheaper and you can also use cheaper LGA1156 boards... HIGHLY recommended :good:

if you have any other questions, please ask

 

[Douglas Aird]

But I ave no idea What A gud I3/I5 Motherboard is?

I bought an Asus P7P55D Pro for my first-ever self build back in January and have had no problems with it. Bios was easy to set up, I haven't felt the need to overclock but there are plenty of options available. When I built it the i3 wasn't out so I went with the i5 750 which I'm very happy with.

I've just been checking on Overclockers and that mobo doesn't seem to be available now - nearest equivalent would be this one (£105 inc vat) -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-389-AS

Main difference is that my mobo supports both Xfire and SLI.

Core i5 750 at Overclockers = £155

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-299-IN

The memory I bought doesn't seem to be available now but these are similar and cost £76 (I went with OCZ modules) -.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

My Budget is £300-£350max but i need the motherboard Ram and Cpu for all that, thank you I hope you lot can help.

£105 + £155 + £76 = £336 but you could probably find cheaper by shopping around. I bought my components from Overclockers and Novatech and have had no issues with dealings with either company.

Good luck.

 

[Kevin Barnes]

I have the i5 on a gigabyte M with the H55 set and have zero complaints, this thing is a screamer. Inside are 6GB of mem and I'm using the chips internal video "card" (stretch that word) and I have no complaints about the graphics, games...

I run all the popular race Sims and also Adobe CS5, dreamweaver, all with out the slightest glitch.

 

[kikie]

Some of you have had more luck with Gigabyte then me. I have had 2 Gigabyte motherboards that broke down and I wasn't even gaming on it. My pc has been in the computer store for more than 4 months now to replace the Gigabyte motherboard and the broken AMD processor. It took Gigabyte 3 months the replace a broken motherboard that was still under warranty. I'm still waiting for the processor to be replaced.

No more Gigabyte and AMD for me. My next motherboard will be Asus.