New motherboard in not too distant future

[MasterBlaster76]

I know the CPU and RAM from my current board won't play ball - I wouldn't want them to anyway - but what about things like PCI Wireless Cards, PCI USB ports and PCI-E GPUs? Do the new motherboards have the same PCI and PCI E slots as the old ones do?

 

[MattW]

Yes.

 

[Chewie]

A new motherboard should have enough usb ports anyway without requiring a pci card with more

 

[MasterBlaster76]

A new motherboard should have enough usb ports anyway without requiring a pci card with more

Cheers. I asked because I recently added a PCI USB card to my system and would want to use it in the new system. Also I'm looking at a PCI Wireless card - that would obviously need to work in the new system.

 

[Abhas]

You might be able to get a new motherboard with a built-in wireless capabilities, so you won't need that PCI card.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

PCI/PCI-E are standards anyways (which either haven't changed much or are backwards compatible). It should all work just like that.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

You might be able to get a new motherboard with a built-in wireless capabilities, so you won't need that PCI card.

Would you say that built in wireless cards, or at least PCI ones are significantly better than their USB counterparts?

PCI/PCI-E are standards anyways (which either haven't changed much or are backwards compatible). It should all work just like that.

Thanks for that and long time no see mate!

Any motherboard suggestions? I'd rather stay with Intel than go to AMD although it seems that AMD CPUs might be cheaper.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

No problem! Yes I know, been busy elsewhere, not been able to spend much time here!

I'm not sure; I'm not following recent trends too specifically but the general picture is that if you want to chase outright performance, Intel is the way to go. If you're happy with "just enough", you can take AMD and save a few bucks!

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Well, you know what it's like when you upgrade - you want something that's gonna piss all over the latest games for a few years at least - would AMD do that?

 

[Abhas]

I've heard AMD has had it's hardware compatibility problems in the past. Not sure where it stands now. Also, performance of their i5/i7 challengers is not upto the mark.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I've heard AMD has had it's hardware compatibility problems in the past. Not sure where it stands now. Also, performance of their i5/i7 challengers is not upto the mark.

Sounds as though it'll be best to stick with Intel then. Are there performance gains to be had by pairing Intel with Nvidia, or doesn't it make much difference whether you use an Nvidia or an AMD with an Intel processor?

One other thing - I don't do editing or photo stuff or anything like that; I only use my system for gaming/surfing/watching movies/listening to music, so would an i5 suit me or should I push for an i7 if possible? The difference in price is noticeable. If an i5 would suit, could you make a mobo/CPU suggestion?

Ideally, the mobo will have built in wifi and lots of USB ports, but the latter isn't as important as I already have a USB PCI card. Budget of around ?100 or less for the mobo and around ?200 or less for the CPU (the closer to ?150 the better). DDR3 RAM seems dirt cheap at the moment, so I'll probably just stick with Corsair. I have an Audigy 4 soundcard, so I'll just add that to the new configuration. Lastly, my PSU is a Corsair TX650v2 - should that be sufficient power for the new configuration and beyond? After the mobo/CPU my next upgrade will be a GPU but not for a while.

My case is something like this:

so it ain't small.

 

[Chewie]

No point in getting an i7

650W is plenty

 

[MattW]

Intel Core i5-3470S Processor with 4 Cores / LGA 1155 Socket / 6 MB Cache / Box Version: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories and http://www.amazon.co.uk/P8Z77-V-Mot...1_9?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1386648269&sr=1-9 perhaps?

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Intel Core i5-3470S Processor with 4 Cores / LGA 1155 Socket / 6 MB Cache / Box Version: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories and Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard (Socket 1155, 32GB DDR3 Support, ATX, Intel Z77 Express, USB 3.0, CrossFireX Support, Dual Intelligent Processors 3): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories perhaps?

Looks good and it certainly has a lot of USB ports! I can't figure out whether it has onboard wifi and what the mbps rating is if it does have it.

Incidentally, I'm seeing a few 'Mini-ITX' motherboards around - do they fit in a standard PC case?

 

[MattW]

Ah, turns out that model doesn't have WiFi - basically all the 'P8Z77-V' models do except the one I linked to. This one does but is a bit more expensive, it's might be easier to get a lower spec motherboard and add a PCI-E wireless card.