Should I get a 2600k and what board to pair it with?

[mcfly]

As above, I'm thinking about getting a 2600k I can buy it through work which will give me 20% off of retail.

It's an old(er) socket but I guess they're still 'up there' right?

Also what would be a good board to overclock it? (bang per buck)

[Nagoshi]

It's not older socket, it's just "older gen" in the way that the newer Intel chips still runs on the same socket but are barely faster than the old gen.

Got a budget or features you want? Id recommend a black Gigabyte board. I really like my Z68XP-UD3P. I know a few who has the Z68X-UD3H (or similar boards) and they seem to like it.

[mcfly]

Well, at the top limit I'll have around 3-400£ Though ideally if I can get it cheaper it will be a bonus as I may put the leftover into my next gfx purchase.

All I really want is a good oc'in board with sata 3 and usb 3 and for the rig to last a while. I bought my Q6600 a good few years ago now and would want the new rig to last at least that again.

[Nagoshi]

Tbh I believe blowing $3-400 on a top-end board without doing any kind of competitive benching is stupid. Unless you really want that flashy stuff, a $150-200 board offers the features you need (SLI/CFx, SATA3, USB3).

My board is ~$180-190, got it on sale, and it does all of the above. Got my 2500K to 4.9GHz on a breeze, too.

[mcfly]

Well its 3-400£ for the cpu, board, and ram. Anything left over will go towards a decent nvidia gfx. Though with works discount I should be able to get the first three @£300

Not going to be doing anything competitive, just want something quite fast and that will last a while.

Cheers

[Dil-tech]

I can tell you from experience, going from a Q6600 to Core i5/7 is a pretty substantial difference. I made that jump (with literally the EXACT same mobo and processor clock) a few weeks ago, except I went with a i7 930 and the x58 platform (the price was too good to pass up). Even with it just clocked up a little bit past 4 ghz it was worth every penny on the upgrade.

If you can afford it without spending too much in the process, go for it. What you do have to ask yourself though is if hyper-threading is worth the extra cash spent in your present case.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...-8150-review/6

That review should help make up your mind a bit as it even shows each chip overclocked so you can really decide if HT is worth the extra $100'ish to you.

One thing I'd like to point out though, do you need standard pci slots at all? If the answer is yes, The ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 (or 6) will be the board of choice for you. They handle overclocking EXTREMELY well, and still have a few standard pci slots. Price wise, they're reasonable and they have any feature you'd be likely to need.

[Urbanfox]

Originally Posted by Nagoshi

It's not older socket, it's just "older gen" in the way that the newer Intel chips still runs on the same socket but are barely faster than the old gen.

Got a budget or features you want? Id recommend a black Gigabyte board. I really like my Z68XP-UD3P. I know a few who has the Z68X-UD3H (or similar boards) and they seem to like it.

+1. These boards are awesome.

[leekirlew]

Originally Posted by Dil-tech

I can tell you from experience, going from a Q6600 to Core i5/7 is a pretty substantial difference. I made that jump (with literally the EXACT same mobo and processor clock) a few weeks ago, except I went with a i7 930 and the x58 platform (the price was too good to pass up). Even with it just clocked up a little bit past 4 ghz it was worth every penny on the upgrade.

If you can afford it without spending too much in the process, go for it. What you do have to ask yourself though is if hyper-threading is worth the extra cash spent in your present case.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...-8150-review/6

That review should help make up your mind a bit as it even shows each chip overclocked so you can really decide if HT is worth the extra $100'ish to you.

One thing I'd like to point out though, do you need standard pci slots at all? If the answer is yes, The ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 (or 6) will be the board of choice for you. They handle overclocking EXTREMELY well, and still have a few standard pci slots. Price wise, they're reasonable and they have any feature you'd be likely to need.

+1 here for the board and tbh unless you're going serious overclocking move to ivy bridge (3rd time ive said this today =p) better at stock and = clocks + pice 3.0