Finally getting around to upgrading my old Intel 1.7ghz dual core that's presently used as a living room PC, mainly for movies and a few games. As it's so close to xmas I won't be doing anything until January. Other components are 'good enough' for the moment and it will have Win 7 64 bit on it. Already got a good PSU in there, haven't used one of the gold ones in years. Shockingly mine not only didn't blow up it still works fine, my great nephew is using it now... ^^

Present aim is to go I5 2500K CPU and 8gb ram, which should be adequate for the next few years.

Graphics won't be expected to run anything more than 1080p. Although enough cash for a 3d monitor might be found later I still haven't been impressed enough to buy one as yet. 6870 graphics should be powerful enough for anything I'm going to throw at it. Also considered a PowerColor HD 6850 SCS3 Silent but not sure about it.

Which leaves the motherboard at which point the simple mass of choice makes this very difficult. Any good options out there?

Old components will be getting donated to afore mentioned nephew, he's hoping to be able to run skyrim on it.

I'd go with knighty on the motherboard, I really don't trust the recent Asus boards having seen what he's experienced with his. The 6870 is a fine card, you can't go wrong with it as it strikes a perfect balance of performance and value.

Looks to be an ideal option, Bacon, thanks

Quote from: Serious on December 22, 2011, 16:57:03 PM

Looks to be an ideal option, Bacon, thanks

no


NO NO NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!


you're not allowed to take advice from bacon, it runs against the long standing tradition on the forum for waiting for him to give (good) advice and then going in the totally opposite direction !

Yeh, better advice is to ignore me and go buy an AMD board