Building a new RIG - TE's solutions for Newbies & Decoding the Maze!

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terence_fdes

terence_fdes

wizened Dinosaur
Innovator
The following is an replication of another thread that I have initiated elsewhere about my "search to find the BEST soultions" for a new RIG that I need..... I had discovered a new find which no one had mentioned on TE

Two Z68 mobo's having a built-in SSD

1] Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD [Rs 16250/-]
This uses an Intel 20GB SLC SSD 311 series module

2] Asus P8Z68-V PRO [Rs 13550/-]
This uses an 18.6GB SSD

http://www.techenclave.com/cpu-mobo...rds-with-built-in-ssd-201754.html#post1956073

and the earlier start of my Quest
http://www.techenclave.com/pc-buying-advice/help-finalising-my-rig-40k-200250.html

To sum up this discussion [which remains inconclusive at this stage of "Whether these built-in SSD's are worth it & have they been tested by anyone in India/TE?"]...... FRANKLY SPEAKING I AM GROPING IN A BLACK HOLE .... and still searching my way through this maze.

The Z68 mobo's with built-in SSD's are only 2 (from Asus & Giga) as listed at the start; and these (ssd built-in) are among the most premium of all the varied features of the Intel 1155 series... How best can these be used or are they just gimmick's??

And today after more than 4 weeks of limitted R & D into the new RIG that I want to build for myself.... I am as lost as ever as to "picking the BEST mobo from just Asus & Giga" that will fully suit my needs.

I have yet to come across a singular detailed analysis & tech-report about DECODING THE Intel Socket 1155 series with all their Flavours & Iterations. I wish I could have done this excercise myself although I do not have the technical expertise ..... and even then collating info of this magnitude [leave aside the testing & benchmarking] would take me another 2-3 weeks & I just do not have this time & space; so....

..... Just to give you an insight:-

Asus has in its Indian Avatar H61; H & P67 & Z68 subdivisions [each having 4-8 mobos]..... WAIT now the USA site also has 2 additional Q67 & C206 series !!!!!

Gigabyte also has all the 6 main subdivisions as above, BUT just in their Z68 stable they have a whopping 22 mobo's!!!!! .............. I seriously wonder that "How many of these 22 Z68 mobos are really available in India at any given point of time in any city" ????

Granted that all of them offer from "entry-level to work-station" iterations, but the sad part is that there is NO CLUE WHATSOEVER TO a novice on how to "decode all these crazy iterations.

Not Asus or Giga offer a "sort-table" for user's to pick the features that they want and then "display" the results..........

So to cut a long story.... On TE I often find that most newbie's [and I am one of them} are forced to depend on the recommendations of a few regulars who merrily push the same "component & brand" down most users for weeks or month's.....Why?

To illustrate:
Cabinet: Why is the NZXT Gamma still being pushed - WAKE up guys and recommend usb 3.0 front side ports at least ? I would not like to spend 2K on trash today - when there are so many usb 3.0 options [in cabinets & devices that one will use over the next few years]?

Mobo's for the Intel: Why Intel when both Asus & Giga have so many flavours within the same budget?

Monitors & Display ports: HDMI 1.3 & 1.4a is the present & future ? How many of you consider these? or so many other things.....like SATA 6GB/s; dual-bios;

So at TE, what usually happens is that MOST who wish to build a RIG go by "popular recommendations" without being patient & aware that for the same amount of money - so many newer options do exist that will offer each one VFM & future-proof solutions withingn their budget [for each of the assembled components purchased].

Please, I beg of you all those "regular guru's" at TE, my angst is not against your "zhat-phat" solutions.... [and I know your defence would be that these are "time-tested" components and also the availability of these at even mofussil areas in India]. If companies offer so many "Flavours" of their components, then we have a collected responsibility to DEMAND that these be made available to us here in India - even if we have to go through a "waiting period" of a few days or weeks. I have the highest regard for TE as a premium forum/site who can achieve this dream.

I would personally like to seek and search for the BEST components that are available even for a 10-15K budget person.

Just to illustrate again [I am an old fogie lol] ..... more than 8 years ago [which is like a century in the computer world].... I spend more than 3 months searching the streets & gullies of lammy to get the "best" components for my RIG & mind you those days the "Internet" was not so easliy accessible to all & yet two of my prized finds were a VIP cabinet that had 9 slots at it's front [from top to bottom] to fit in any amount of drives..... I used the bottom most for my Audigy front panel and other's for a dvd-rom & dvd-writer & internal 2 other HDD's were accomodated too. But the other find was a cheap portable internal & detachable 5.25" drive that I could pull out my 200GB HDD anytime from the front. Lastly, I was also able to procure an Asus Mobo A7N8X-X in Mumbai just 1 week after it's global launch. This rig has served me excellently these past 8 years!!!

Point is "amazing solutions" exist and we need to share this information with all.

I hope I will not be black-listed from TE for this tirade of mine. We all need to educate ourselves constantly and share this knowledge with other's. Let us not always depend on hearsay and to this end I raise a toast to all you guys on TE who labour & work tirelessly ...... just push yourselves a little bit more.....and race and catch up with all the REAL developments & solutions that are available.

I have been an AMD Fanboy for years and I thank TE today for awakening me to realise that "today" Intel is a better option and it is in this path that I am re-educating myself today.

With regards

TERRY - a dinosaur in the "geek world"
 
I'll give a quick lazy reply to your post.

It's not true that suggestions that are given are "out-dated" and the same old components are being shoved down to new users without looking at other alternatives.

The fact is, that for the given price point and needs of the person buying the components, there are no better alternatives that can be suggested.

From the examples that you have given,

NZXT Gamma - I don't see any other cabinet which is more VFM than Gamma at 2k. Ofcourse there are newer cabinets that have front USB 3.0 ports, but they cost 3k+ at the very least. If the buyer doesn't have the budget, then it doesn't make sense suggesting them an expensive case and sacrificing performance on core components. If the buyer has a budget which can accommodate a more expensive cabinet, it is definitely suggested. Also, another factor is that even if you have front USB 3.0 ports on your cabinet, you need to have USB 3.0 headers on your motherboard to be able to use them. This feature isn't generally available on cheaper motherboards and only the higher end ones have it. In the Intel side, I don't know of any H67 board available here that has internal USB 3.0 headers. I have seen it on a few AMD Llano A75 boards though.

Intel motherboard - I believe you are talking about the DH67-BL motherboard that is widely suggested. Again, at the given price point, Gigabyte and Asus simply don't have better boards. The Intel DH67-BL board is the cheapest H67 motherboard with 4 ram slots and USB 3.0. The Gigabyte and Asus boards in the same price range have only 2 memory slots with no USB3.0. They cost almost 1k more than the Intel board. So again, that makes the Intel DH67-BL board more VFM than the others. Also just because it is Intel, it doesn't mean it is of bad quality. Intel does make very good motherboards.

Gigabyte does have a couple of H61 motherboards with USB 3.0 and even Sata 6gbps ports via controllers. But since the price is similar to the Intel board, it makes more sense to go for an H67 board rather than H61.

Other needs are definitely taken into consideration looking at what the buyer needs. Newer boards generally have SATA 6gbps ports unless the buyer is getting H61 chipset boards or lower end AMD boards. Again, the budget of the buyer is the reason to go for cheaper boards and skimp out on these features.

After looking at what the buyer needs, we also need to check about the availability and pricing of the components in India. As you yourself have mentioned, not all components are available here locally and for quite a few, you really have to search and look around. Also, for rare components, pricing would also be an issue.

Newbies won't go around searching for components since they mostly wouldn't know where to look and also won't have the patience for it. They want to know the specific model numbers and go to the shop expecting it to have all of the components that are suggested and be done with it. A widely available, tried and tested component would obviously be preferred over those that aren't so easily available.

I completely agree with you that any person who asks for an advice, be a novice or advanced user, extreme low budget or extreme high budget, whatever it may be, they should always get the best components they can get for their budget. And that is why you can see everyone suggesting good quality PSUs to any system. People generally neglect the importance of PSUs and end up buying cheaper, lower quality PSUs which in harms their systems in the long run. But we can see everyone generally highly insist on making the buyer get good quality PSUs. And this goes for other components as well.

I'm not saying that what everyone suggests is always correct or there aren't better alternative out there. Many times, not everyone is aware of the new stuff available in the market so they suggest what is known and tested. Only after someone spreads the word about a new better component does everyone come to know about it. People like you who are inquisitive find something new and share it with everyone, and that gets passed on to others.

TE is a community and only survives with the help of everyone. As you mentioned, we need to educate ourselves constantly and share knowledge. This comes only by sharing and learning from other people's experiences. We learn stuff, share our knowledge and pass it on to other members. That's how everyone learns. :)

EDIT:

As for your specific needs, I believe not many people here have used the SSD caching on Z68 motherboards. Knowledge in the forums is only limited by the experience and knowledge of the members. Someone who has had experience with it may be able to shed light on it.
 
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To terence_fdes:

I understand that you want the newbies to get the best possible peripheral for their money, but you cannot always compare products on the price-to-feature ratio, there exists things such as availability, after sales service, performance of products etc

When I started looking for the components for my new rig, I was very excited as I as noted the model numbers of the components which gave most feature for the price range, but when I inquired about them no one even knew about their existence, all suggested me to go for the tried and tested, and I went for it, and since have never looked back

It can be easy for you to get the desired rare product because you live in big metro city like Mumbai, but for someone like me, who lives in a small city, even though I have fairly good knowledge about computers it was almost impossible to get the motherboard I wanted because none of the local dealers knew about, and the ones who agreed to source it, demanded about 20-25% more for it.

Even if you talk about the reputed online dealers such as PrimeAbGb, SMCInternational, TheITWares they also don't have the almost all products of a manufacturer and keep only the ones which are popular

Case in point: There was this rare Jetway motherboard which I almost liked very much, but couldn't find it anywhere, no reviews, no user reviews etc. It was available on ebay and I was almost going to purchase it, but then it clicked me to check for reviews again for a last time. So after thorough searching of Google I found a review on American site which said that it had problems with memory voltage and many RAMs didn't worked with it. It saved me a haste purchase of 8900 rupees

To sum it up, in India we don't have luxuries of Amazon, TigerDirect, Newegg etc to get the desired product and so as we should not fall into trap of the shopkeepers, we have sites like TE which educates a novice and helps us choose new products, the best products

If you see my signature, almost 80% of my products are the one recommended by TE members, I am happy with it, and also happy to recommend to other TE members

Ajinkya
 
Thank you @viralbug & Allrounder799 for your views. I am in total agreement with all that you have said.

However, my doubts still remain with one really crucial isssue - "Motherboard Suggestions". A quick glance at the 3 main brands thows up these facts [AND THIS is Just for the Intel Socket 1155]

A] ASUS : Z68 = 7; H61 = 4; H67 =6; P67 =6; Q67 = NIL [Totals = 23 mobos]
- Global site also has C206 [for workstations] & Q67 series !!!!
B] GIGABYTE : Z68 = 22; H61 = 20; H67 =20; P67 = 16; Q67 = 1 [Totals = 79 mobos]
C] MSI : Z68 = 15; H61 = 12; H67 = 14; P67 = 16; Q67 = NIL [Totals = 57 mobos ]

Now isn't this a veritable nightmare and "Help in Decoding the Maze" is what I am refering to.
With Asus it's easier to analyse their lot since they have fewer mobos.
However with giga - it's a nightmare [their coding/classification is so complex]. Why have they launched 79 mobo's when easy availability might be of just 8-10 of them. Surely all the rest were not created for academic purposes?

None of these brands have a "search feature" on their website wherein interested persons could pick and chose the "options that they want" and see the results [a comparision feature exists - but this is not the same].
Now suppose anyone of us discovers a hidden gem in them [which is not among the easily available] then what?

I totally agree with @allrounder that in most places in India it is very, very difficult to procure any non-popular model. No dealer will keep all of the available production models in their stocks. So then is there a way to get in touch with the companie's authorised dealers and directly order from them?

Of course I am sure that somewhere..... on the net we may find reviews of each of the available models and if it has been tested & benchmarked satisfactorily then why not go in for it? I remember that years ago - I was among the first guys in Mumbai to have procurred an Asus Board [A7N8X-X] just a week after it's global launch [I checked out the test's done and was satisfied]. This board later became the most sought after for the AMD Athlon procs is another story.

So let's see how we can pool in our resources and help each other much more in discovering better options.

Lastly - on my own personal note. I started my quest on TE to R&D and build my next RIG - It's almost been a month and each day throws up newer insights [I started from AMD A8-3850 to Phemon to Now Intel i5-2500K] and wanted an integrated GPU based mobo to start with for a few months at least [meanwhile, I managed to get my 8 year old-rig working stably again, which is also making me lethargic and not wanting to rush in to spend my money on the new one - I want to be totally satisfied with each and every component that is finally chosen].

However for the past few days I am rethinking - cut down on costs on those high-end mobos and instead include a discrete GPU [Nvidia is my choice]. I am also thus far sticking to the Z68 series owing to their remarkable features [Intel HD Graphics | Smart Response | Quick Sync | Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics ] all of these are not available in the P67 series of mobos.

Again thanks to all the TE regulars for "ghumaoing my bheja" and making me aware of various possibilities.
 
^^

You can blame Intel for releasing so many chipsets so rapidly, for the flummox'ation which is happening.

;)
 
asingh said:
^^

You can blame Intel for releasing so many chipsets so rapidly, for the flummox'ation which is happening.

;)
Click to expand...

Thanks mate .... I like that :)

Meanwhile let me share something that I found about decoding the Gigabyte Intel Socket 1155 boards.

QUOTE

With so many boards, though, it can be a little confusing as to what is what. There are only really a few things you need to know when it comes to the naming. If the model number carries a H then you're looking at a board with onboard video, exactly like the Z68X-UD3H-B3 we looked at today. If a board carries the UD label instead of just the D label then it's an Ultra Durable board and carries all those yummy features associated with the UD label. Then there's just the numbers after the UD or D. As you climb up in numbers you're looking at higher end boards, UD2, UD4, UD5 and UD7.
GIGABYTE has got a Microsite for the Z68 platform and if you want to find out which model is exactly for you based on features, I'd highly recommend you look at the page which compares all the models; it will really help when deciding which board to buy.

GIGABYTE Z68X-UD3H-B3 (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review - Final Thoughts :: TweakTown USA Edition

I am at work now and unfortunately I cannot open up that link Error 404 - "Sorry, we cannot find that page!"

ATTENTION MODS:

Do we have a separate thread where this issue can be discussed "decoding the Gigabyte Intel Socket 1155 boards" ?

I do not know if any such one exists already on TE meanwhile I will post a new one within the nest hour or so
 
Intel has made it confusing with 4 different chipsets.

But Gigabyte has gone totally crazy by introducing so many motherboards. :S
 
viralbug said:
Intel has made it confusing with 4 different chipsets.
But Gigabyte has gone totally crazy by introducing so many motherboards. :S
Click to expand...

Kindly refer to the new thread at TE for answers to "gigabyte's decoding"
http://www.techenclave.com/cpu-mobo-corner/gigabyte-intel-1155-mobos-decoding-models-201892.html

and further - this is the best microsite link to unravel the Z68 from Gigabyte
GIGABYTE Z68 Series Motherboards

Note however that this is the global link and some models may not be available for us here in India.
 
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