Need a New Sandy Bridge Board

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1

Heya, Tek Syndicate! I'm new here, and I figured you guys might be just the group of people to help me out.
See, I bought a PC a few years ago. Inspiron 620. This will be my downfall.

It was never a bad machine, but I've been constantly improving it since I got it - first with network-attached storage and then a full-on rebuild. The only original parts in this machine, by this point, are the heatsinks and the mainboard. It's time for those to go. BUT I haven't been able to find a board that exceeds my current specs by any meaningful amount.

So, basically, I need an ATX/Micro-ATX board that:
Supports Sandy Bridge processors
Has more than 4 SATA ports (preferably, faster ones as I think mine only runs at 3Gbps)
More than 2 DIMM slots
Better PCIe connectivity (maybe for SLI?) Currently I only have 1 PCIex16 slot and a bunch of x1s.
And supports 95W TDP (THIS is why I'm running the S instead of the K.)

Bells and whistles optional, but highly desired - I don't need USB 3.0 connectivity now, but I'm never gonna be able to use it if my PC doesn't support it.
HERE is my board: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-Motherboard-CN-0GDG8Y-GDG8Y/dp/B008B40Q3I/ref=sr_1_1/183-3299419-3333764?ie=UTF8&qid=1455756819&sr=8-1&keywords=inspiron+620+motherboard

And HERE is the case this system will reside in: http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Black-Gaming-Computer-CHALLENGER/dp/B003YVJJ5Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1455756886&sr=8-2&keywords=rosewill+challenger

Now that the important part of this post is over, I figured I'd share some before-and-afters with you guys.

ORIGINAL Specs:
Intel Pentium G630 /w integrated GPU
2x2GB Kingston RAM
500GB Spinning Rust.

Current Specs:
Intel i7 2600s
2x4GB Crucial Ballistix RAM
EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
750GB Spinning Rust
250GB Solid-state storage
2.5TB Network-attached

0905142147.jpg1280x960 444 KB

On the left is the old case. The right is the new one. The keyblade is an Oathkeeper and you'd better believe I superglued that thing onto my case.
Can't even tell.

Thanks, Tek Syndicate! I appreciate all the help you guys can provide.

2

Will probably be hard to still find a socket 1155 motherboard new.
But Z68 or Z77 boards will be your best bet to look at.

3

Hm, that's not a bad idea. Kind of surprised I didn't think to look at boards with different chipsets. Derrrrpppppppp.

Do you have any particular suggestions?

4

Should just save up for zen/kaby lake at the end of this year, it would be pointless to go dual GPUs on a 750ti, and you can buy 6gbps Sata pci-e adapters for your current board

and do you really need more than 16gbs of RAM?

5

Saving for new hardware's certainly an option I've considered, but if I'm at the point that I'm buying new CPUs/GPUs, then I'm just gonna be done with this build and give it to someone I love because it runs excellently. You might say I'm trying to hit a performance ceiling on this board before I move on as a more experienced and well-financed builder.
Plus, I couldn't actually use a PCIe slot for SATAIII functionality since I'd either get bottlenecked by the speed limit of x1 slots or not even be able to use one at all without altering my existing slots to accomodate larger cards. I mean, I guess I could take out my 750 but that kinda defeats the point of a gaming rig.

And no, I don't need more than 16GBs of ram. But, I'd like to go up to 12 since I still have my original sticks laying around and nobody's buying them.

6

Something like

  • Asrock Z77 Extreme6
  • Asus P8Z77-V pro
  • Asus Z77 Sabertooth
  • Asrock Z77 OC formula
  • Asus P8Z77-V
  • Asrock Z77 Fatal1ty performance
  • Asrock Z77 Fatal1ty professional
  • Msi Z77A G45 Gaming
  • Msi Z77A GD65 gaming
  • Msi Z77 Mpower

A list of decent Z77 boards.
Not sure if you can find one of those for cheap somewhere.

1 Like
7

You could just get 8gbs sticks of DRR3, but is just a side rig or something then? if it's your main rig you should probably just abandon it unless you find used hardware that you're looking for on the super cheap, and then just save up for all the shiny new stuff

8

Awesome, thank you. I'll see what I can do.

9

This is my main rig, although I'm a bit of a predicament financially right now. I actually only got up to 8GB RAM thanks to the kindness of a friend; otherwise I'd be running 6.
But, I appreciate your advice. I'm gonna run this thing into the ground, and then when I get back on my feet I'm gonna give it to someone else who'll do it all over again.

10

If you live in Europe, I have a barely used Gigabyte P67A-UD3P-B3 laying around.

Socket 1155, used to house my i5-2500 Sandy before I upgraded to a Z77 board
6 SATA ports (2x SATA3, 4x SATA2)
4 DIMM slots
No SLI support, but it does support 2way CrossfireX
2 PCIe x16 slots, 3 PCIe x1 slots, 2 PCI slots,