Intel i5 & LGA1155 questions / clarifications...

custardy

phoodless wrote: »

Thanks GeoffX

I have been looking at the Asus P8H67-V R3 because:-

a) It's slightly cheaper than the P67's (though not by much)
b) It has a legacy IDE port on it (Can use my legacy HDD as a backup / spare drive )
c) It gives HDMI/DVI/VGA output

I was also toying along the lines of a Sapphire HD 6850 but not sure if this is overkill for me and to just see what the onboard graphics can do ( not really into hardened game playing )

Also found a basic comparison of the SandyBridge Intel's at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#Desktop_processors

does the HDMI work with a GFX card in place?
a few i looked at disabled the HDMI when a GFX card was used
so its only really a feature if you plan to never fit a GFX card

PZH

custardy wrote: »

does the HDMI work with a GFX card in place?
a few i looked at disabled the HDMI when a GFX card was used
so its only really a feature if you plan to never fit a GFX card

Not sure.

But, IF I decide to get a GFX card (And I am still unsure/not decided/not convinced whether I will need one or not), the card I was looking at had a HDMI output anyways.

custardy

phoodless wrote: »

Not sure.

But, IF I decide to get a GFX card (And I am still unsure/not decided/not convinced whether I will need one or not), the card I was looking at had a HDMI output anyways.

was in the same boat and actually bought a mobo with HDMI
I wanted to see how it performed over that vs the GFX card i eventually got (GTX 460)

PZH

custardy wrote: »

was in the same boat and actually bought a mobo with HDMI
I wanted to see how it performed over that vs the GFX card i eventually got (GTX 460)

So I assume the GFX did a far better job ?

custardy

phoodless wrote: »

So I assume the GFX did a far better job ?

yeah but the onboard was surprisingly capable
it was outputting to a 50" screen
i was running HD media via XBMC through a seperate AV amp
plus running the PC 22" screen
browsing XBMC on the 50" was a little sluggish and there was the odd slight judder on playback but you could live with it
with the GTX 460 the playback is silky smooth and the audio sounds punchier
however if i was on a budget or only watching movies occasionaly then i could have lived with it,but the media playback was a major reason for building this machine

PZH

custardy wrote: »

yeah but the onboard was surprisingly capable
it was outputting to a 50" screen
i was running HD media via XBMC through a seperate AV amp
plus running the PC 22" screen
browsing XBMC on the 50" was a little sluggish and there was the odd slight judder on playback but you could live with it
with the GTX 460 the playback is silky smooth and the audio sounds punchier
however if i was on a budget or only watching movies occasionaly then i could have lived with it,but the media playback was a major reason for building this machine

Sounds promising then that I might be able to save a few quid (at least initially) and use the on-board GFX.

Out of curiosity, what CPU were you running with that ?

custardy

phoodless wrote: »

Sounds promising then that I might be able to save a few quid (at least initially) and use the on-board GFX.

Out of curiosity, what CPU were you running with that ?

nothing fancy. core2quad 8400 @ 2.8ghz
Im having issue with my mobo locking the FSB and preventing a proper overclock
a change of mobo should see it well over 3ghz as i have a well cooled set up

PZH

Was doing a bit more research over the weekend and apparently Windows 7 32-bit can only "see" about 3.4 Mb RAM - so anything over this is a bit of a waste. (But will still get 4Mb)

Think I've decided on the wish list (Everything but the GFX card - going to wait and see with that one) - but eBuyer are out of stock on a few items

Anyone had any dealings with "Tekheads" ? - they get good reviews and all items that I want are in stock :T

custardy

never used them
generally bounce between Ebuyer and scan(with free next day delivery on Scan)

PZH

custardy wrote: »

...scan(with free next day delivery on Scan)

It's quoting me £7.99 (plus VAT) for delivery