SO....

SO.....

The PC was dead. Either the motherboard or the CPU, or maybe both. Problem is, to find out which one it is, you need a spare of each. My initial reaction was to order a cheap replacement motherboard as well as a CPU. First of all I'd replace the motherboard and if all's ok, just send the CPU back.

Of course, the problem is the original Core i7 processors (LGA1366) have more or less been discontinued, having been rapidly replaced by SandyBridge. The cheapest Asus motherboard I could find was a Sabertooth X58, for £160. The only CPU I could find was a 950, for around £240. Ironically, both the motherboard and processor would cost more than if I'd go for a SandyBridge!

I was, as you probably guessed, very annoyed. Worst case scenario I'd be spending around £400 to resurrect the same PC. I toyed with the idea of getting a SandyBridge-E set up, but then again the tech is new, not targeted at my PC use (gaming), and expensive.

Even more annoying was the fact intel would soon be releasing their IvyBridge CPUs, with full PCIe 3.0 support.

A LOT of research later (thank you Mr Jobs, wherever you've resurrected, for giving us the iPad!) and I discovered a few interesting revelations:

1\ IvyBridge processors are socket LGA1155 (ie current SandyBridge) compatible.

2\ Most current P67 or Z68 SandyBridge motherboards on the market will be IvyBridge compatible, some may need a simple BIOS update

3\ ASUS has already released 3 motherboards that have PCIe 3.0 ports already, and have shown the press in private events these motherboards running in full PCIe 3.0 mode (for a fully-functional PCIe 3.0 system, the processor, motherboard, and GPU must be PCIe 3.0. Currently, ATI's HD7970 is the only PCIe 3.0 GPU, and there are no CPUs yet).

4\ My Triple-Channel DDR3 RAM is fully compatible with IvyBridge's Dual-Channel set up, albeit I'd only run 8gb from my total of 12.

5\ SandyBridge Z68 chipsets benefit from two things: a built-in GPU (of no benefit to me), and something called Intel Smart Recovery Technology (SRT). SRT is a rather clever idea: attach an SSD and a platter HDD to the intel controller, and you can set the SSD as a cache to significantly boost the most frequently accessed files on the HDD. You can do this to boost your OS drive, or any platter drive. The only problem is that the SSD will be wiped (there's a slightly complicated workaround to fool SRT in to using a partition). Anandtech have a rather remarkable chart of the gaming benefits of SRT here.

6\ Fortunately, the Antec Kuhler 920 is LGA1155 compatible out of the box.

So I decided to do a little sidegrade. I can't really call it an upgrade as such, but I thought it made a lot more financial and future sense to get a SandyBridge build. I settled on the following components:

1\ Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen 3 motherboard. This is one of their 3 certified PCIe 3.0 boards.

2\ Intel Core i5 2500K CPU. Why Core i5 you ask? The main difference between the i7 and i5 is the number of threads (four i5, eight i7). For a gaming PC, there is absolutely NO difference whether you have four threads, or eight. Some people even advocate turning off hyperthreading all together. If you use your PC for other stuff (video editing, large photoshop file editing etc) then the i7 is a better proposition. The i5 is also £100 cheaper :)

(the K at the end of 2500K means that the CPU multiplier is unlocked, to a max of 57).

3\ Intel 311 SSD. You might remember I have an OCZ Vertex LE SSD already, with the OS on it. The Intel SSD is only 20gb, but is SLC-based, and is specifically built with SRT in mind. Anandtech's article above used this very SSD.

Luckily, the couriers behaved themselves again and my packages arrived on Wednesday as scheduled.

What happens next is a story for next time :)