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new motherboard
Terrorizor
Member Posts: 326
in Hardware
I am looking at getting a new motherboard to pair with my i5 2500k.
I am going to stick with ASUS and I want a Z77 chipset, so I was thinking of the P8Z77-V LE.
http://ca.asus.com/en/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77V_LE/
I can't see any reason why to not go with this board but I thought I'd ask to see if anyone noticed something that I didn't.
Comments
You already have a processor but not a motherboard? Are you trying to replace an old motherboard? Did the old motherboard fail?
I got a good deal on the cpu. I figured I might as well go with Z77 instead of Z68, but I plan on using the SSD caching. The rest of the system will come from my old build except I'll buy new RAM
I'm skeptical of what this great deal on the processor was, considering that Ivy Bridge is due to launch later this month for the same price as Sandy Bridge, and Intel doesn't slash prices on discontinued products. They just stop producing them and sell the new parts for the same price as the old.
What else do you have in your system that you're replacing?
If you know what SSD caching is, then it's not for you. It really is about that simple. SSD caching is something that you might buy for a computer illiterate friend or relative, in order to get him some of the benefits of an SSD without needing to be clever enough to choose whether to install something on an SSD or a hard drive. If you know how to pick where to install programs, then you might as well get all of the benefits of an SSD, since you're paying all of the price tag for one.
ok, thanks for all your help Quizzical.
Now is there anyone else that might have some insight into my original question?
How do you expect someone else to know if a particular motherboard is appropriate to your build without knowing anything else in the build? Different motherboard models exist for a reason, you know.
I have a kingston 30GB SSDNow , 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 500GB Seagate Barracuda, ASUS EN GTX570 DCII, 750W Antec PSU, 24x ASUS DVDRW SATA, Antec P160 chassis.
Sure, it will work fine.
With only a 30G SSD, I agree that SRT is the right way to use that, since it's not really going to be big enough to use on it's own (unless you just want to do 1-2 game installs on it).
It depends on what the SSD is. Some Kingston SSDNow SSDs will completely choke if you try to do any random writes, so that you'd be better off leaving it out of the system entirely than using it for cache. Do you know the exact model?
Most of the purpose of the cache will be reads, writes will be done async in the background for the most part and will not greatly impede cache performance.
So you don't think it would cause any problems at all if it's one of the JMicron SSDs that only manages 2 random write IOPS? Kingston kept pushing awful JMicron junk long after all of the reputable SSD vendors moved on to Indilinx, and later SandForce or Crucial.
I had the impression that SRT was supposed to be both a read cache and a write cache. If it's a read cache only, then you lose half of the functionality of an SSD. Am I simply mistaken on that?
I'll take a look when I get home at what version the SSD is. I could potentially use a 40GB Intel X25-V as well but I was planning on using the SSDNow because I already had it and didn't really have a purpose for it.
EDIT: The SSD is a SSDNow V SNV125-S2/30GB
Apparently that uses a Toshiba controller, so it should be fine. Legit Reviews had a review of that particular SKU, and they opened it up to see the controller. It's pretty slow for an SSD, and the sequential writes are pretty slow, period, even compared to hard drives. But the random read and write IOPS are several times what you'll get from a hard drive, so it should be good enough to make performance go up substantially, rather than down.
When the label just said SSDNow V series, I was worried that it would be the dreaded st-st-stuttering JMicron controller. I thought that Kingston had abandoned the simple V series moniker as soon as they switched to a different controller, in favor of V+, V100, V+100, and some other such things. But apparently they switched to a Toshiba controller for a while first, and then changed the name later. Things like this are why I find Kingston's SSD naming scheme completely incomprehensible, to the degree that I simply don't recommend getting a Kingston SSD (even though some of them are good!) because I can't figure out what it is.
For the motherboard, it depends on what you're willing to pay and what features you want. You should realize that some features that the motherboard supports won't work without an Ivy Bridge processor. I'm sure that's the case with PCI Express 3.0, and it might be the case for some others, too. SRT should work, since it was also in older Z68 motherboards. The motherboard doesn't support SLI at all, and only nominally supports CrossFire, while most motherboards in that price range would support both and be able to do it properly. But that's the only real "flaw" that I see in a cursory look at it, and it may be something that you don't care about at all.
Also, I'd ignore the hype about Lucid Virtu MVP. Whether it works with the processor you got or not, I wouldn't use it. The higher benchmark numbers that get reported from using it are basically due to benchmark cheating, not increased performance. It might make things a little smoother for some games, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't typically do more harm than good.
As far as JMicron goes - I don't think he'd be recycling it if performance were an issue. And if he just "got a good deal" on it, then hey, no harm in trying it out as a cache - if it helps performance, great, if it doesn't, just unplug it - you lose no data, don't have to reinstall anything. It's ~barely~ big enough to squeeze a Windows install onto (and that's with stripping out a lot of stuff and moving a lot of cache and temp directories around), and only big enough for a game or two (depending on the game of course). I think SRT is the best use for it, especially since he already has it.
As far as the write speed of the SSD and write-caching - it depends on the SRT mode. The default mode is "Enhanced Caching" which is basically a write-through, and you don't have any write caching. There is also an "Maximized" mode which does act like a write-back cache, but at the slight risk of data integrity.
Thanks for the input. I guess the only other factor that I need to think about is that I have a P8H67-M Pro motherboard given to me, so I could save the money from buying a motherboard at all but then I am back to having no real purpose for this SSD sitting on my shelf. So what I really need to evaluate is will I get enough performance gain by switching motherboards for the overclocking features and SSD caching to justify the extra expense.
EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention when I posted my other hardware, is that I have a WD raptor 10k 72GB HDD as well, which currently runs my game files.
Hmm, I don't think I would buy a Z67/77 just for SRT - it would help some, but I wouldn't pay extra for it, even with your 30G SSD.
*edit* I misread that, it's an H67... I think I would still hold off on the new motherboard and just see how the H67 performs. For a Sandy Bridge, really, you don't ~need~ to overclock for anything that's out right now.
SRT will give you about 30% better performance on your existing HD's, and I suppose that's something, but really, if the choice is between spending $150-200 on a new motherboard just to get SRT (and overclocking), or dumping that same amount of money into a 120G SSD, I'd get the bigger SSD.
just to point out, the motherboard has the H67 chip not the p67 so I won't have the overclocking features either for my 2500k.
For the cost of a new Z68 motherboard, you could get a new ~120 GB SSD and have no use for SSD caching.
On the other hand, H67 doesn't just disable overclocking. It also limits turbo boost, too. I wouldn't get a new H67 motherboard for a gaming system, but if you've already got it for free, that's a different matter. Whether to replace it is largely a question of budget. I'd sooner buy a ~120 GB SSD than a Z68 motherboard, though.