New Processor & MB

[jackgreat]

Hi Guys,

I want to upgrade my pc. My current pc's spects are :

- Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHZ
- Gigabyte MB
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM
- 1 TB HDD
- NVidia Geforce GTX 275
- Win 7

Now what I would like to change is my processor, motheboard and hard drive. On the HDD front I am going for a 2TB one. But I need help on the processor & motherboard front.

Primary usage: Gaming and bit of application development

My choice of processor: Intel core i5. Should be enough for me. How about sandy bridge i5 2500. ? Is it good ?

On the motherboard front I am blank. If I am getting a good processor I might as well get a poweful motherboard which compliments it. (around $120). What do you guys recommend? Because I have a graphics & sound card which I will install on motherboard, its not important that motherboard ships with onboard features on graphics/sound front. It it does its fine.

Will be glad if anyone can advice me.

Cheers,
Jack

[Expertz]

You can go with the Asus P8P67-M PRO Rev3 motherboard which is best bang for the buck as well for the Sandy Bridge i5 2500K processor. This motherboard supports the Intel® second generation Core™ i7 / Core™ i5 / Core™ i3 processors in LGA1155 package with memory and PCI Express controllers integrated to support 2-channel (4 DIMMs) DDR3 memory and 16 PCI Express 2.0 lanes. This provides great graphics performance. Intel® second generation Core™ i7 / Core™ i5 / Core™ i3 processors are among the most powerful and energy efficient CPUs in the world.

[jackgreat]

I am more of a gigabyte guy. How is this one GA-P67A-UD4 ?

[Balamohan]

The new GA-P67A-UD4 board is based on Intel's P67 Express chipset and DDR3 as well as offers dual USB 3.0 and SATA 3 support. The motherboard supports the latest Intel CPUs Sandy Bridge. Its basis is the LGA1155 socket. The board does not present itself in the traditional blue PCB Gigabyte, but in a very sleek and modern black PCB. The layout of the GA-P67A-UD4 is quite easy and all connections are easy to recognize and easily accessible. A single mistake, the capacitors are too close to the CPU socket, and could in the installation of large-scale CPU coolers lead to problems. Furthermore, has the GA-P67A-UD4 board through a PCIe x16 port (x16), one PCIe x16 port (x8), two PCI and three PCIe x1 ports. These are four SATA 2.0 and two SATA 3.0 ports

[jackgreat]

The Gigabyte GA-P67-UD4-B3 is not available here. Can you guys suggest me another alternative. Though I prefer gigabyte but you can recommend me boards that would be slightly cheaper or lower to the above. To be honest I dont think I would be overclocking my CPU or so. So any other board which is good should also be ok for me. Ya it should support few good features like high speed usb etc but thats about it. On the cpu front I intent to buy either i5 2400 or i5 2500. I am getting i5 2400 for $210 here. (I live outside the US).

[jackgreat]

I am getting Asus P8H67-M EVO at around $165. How is it ? (The P67 series starts above $220)

[T.J.]

With the release of the Intel 1155 platform, Asus has refined its core technologies to offer motherboards as complete and efficient affordable. Based on the Intel motherboard H67, Asus P8H67 EVO-M is primarily intended for use in type for home theater or multimedia, in fact the powerful integrated graphics processor will allow you to enjoy HD movies in the best possible conditions. Able to accommodate two graphics cards with AMD technology Crossfire, this little motherboard may even turn into a real configuration for games, both compact and muscular.

[jackgreat]

Thanks guys, I got Asus P8P67 Pro.