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How much of an influence does a decent motherboard have on performance? There are plenty of motherboards available that are cheaper and more expensive, I just have no idea how much to spend.

This is what i'm looking at:
ASUS P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 DDR3 PCI-E3.0 LGA1155
Intel Core i5 3570K Ivy Bridge 3.40Ghz 6MB 77W LGA1155
8GB DDR3 1600MHz
OCZ AGILITY 4 128GB SATA III 2.5" SSD with a mounting tray
ASUS XONAR D1 7.1 CHANNEL PCI SOUND CARD

I'm going to hang on to my 4850 for the time being as it can still play games pretty well, and i'm not too worried about gaming anymore. This is more to make editing photos much easier. Do you guys think it'd be better to go cheap and get an mATX mobo and a higher spec CPU, or stick with what i've got? Or should I go AMD?

I would define a motherboard like this:

The brand does not define performance it defines:
-Build quality (e.g. Capacitors used) -> Lifetime
-Layout quality (Ports, Heat-Management)
-Support

The chipset defines:
-Performance BUT
getting a chipset from the same series with a higher version number, does not result in a better performance. Most of the time they are just required because they support more features you might want like USB 3.0. This is the point where one could save money.

Unless you want a dedicated sound card, you could just try to get a mobo with 7.1 integrated. Not sure about this though.

I'd only ever buy a big brand name mobo from a decent vendor, so quality and support aren't big issues, and I don't have enough devices to warrant additional connectivity. I'd like a dedicated sound card as i've spent a bit of money on speakers and headphones and would like to get the best I can out of them. But then again the last time I used onboard was over 4 years ago, so i'm sure it's much better than it was. I guess that's another option, fork out more on a nicer mobo and flag the soundcard all together :s. I wish there weren't so many options.

My main concern is that I can grab these instead (for example):
Intel Core i7 3770 Ivy Bridge 3.40GHZ 8MB 77W LGA1155
ASUS P8B75-M INTEL B75 DDR3 USB3.0 SATA3 PCI-E3.0

For only $20 more (i'm assuming i7 > i5). I'd personally prefer an ATX motherboard just to allow for better airflow within the case which isn't a big deal, i'm just a bit apprehensive of taking the cheapest motherboard available if it'd just end up bottlenecking the more expensive parts i'd end up buying with the spare cash.

Well the main difference between the two board is the B75 and Z77 chipset (the motherboard is build around them). B75 is the lowest range, Z77 a lot more higher. The B75 has only one SATA 6GB/s port which will be required by your SSD, this might be a critical point in case you want to add more SSDs in the future. The rest of the features (SSD Caching, more Overclocking control) are really just redundant.

Make a picture yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_115...ridge_Chipsets
I would try to get a motherboard with a Q77 chipset, you might be able to get an i7 as well then.

Please get a SSD from Intel, Crucial, or Samsung. Crucial's 128GB M4 should be similar priced to that OCZ and you don't have to worry about firmware issues.

Crucial m4 is where I'd put my money if i didn't already buy a Kingston SSDNow V200 (was significantly cheaper and still suits my needs).

I can grab this samsung one for the same price: http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/comp...p?partid=16954

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patrickssj6

Well the main difference between the two board is the B75 and Z77 chipset (the motherboard is build around them). B75 is the lowest range, Z77 a lot more higher. The B75 has only one SATA 6GB/s port which will be required by your SSD, this might be a critical point in case you want to add more SSDs in the future. The rest of the features (SSD Caching, more Overclocking control) are really just redundant.

Make a picture yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_115...ridge_Chipsets
I would try to get a motherboard with a Q77 chipset, you might be able to get an i7 as well then.

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I haven't been able to find any Q77 chipset boards in NZ, I don't think they've been released here yet :s. At this point i'm thinking about holding onto my Audigy 2 and getting a mobo with decent onboard (Z77 chipset) just in case it doesn't work.

+1 Crucial M4 SSD's.

This is what i've ended up going with:

SAMSUNG 830 SERIES 128GB SATAIII SSD
Lian-Li HD-321 Dual 2.5" HDD/SDD to 3.5" Drive Bay Adapter

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 Ivy Bridge Motherboard
Intel Core i7 3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4Ghz 8MB 77W LGA1155
Mushkin Blackline FrostByte 996995 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600

I don't know if you planned on ever upgrading the CPU, but you should know that LGA 1155 is officially a dead platform now. There is no more potential, what you see on the market is what you get. LGA 2011 still has one refresh left, 1155 does not.

Just throwing that out there.