I Have a Few Questions about my processor and motherboard chipsets

Can anyone recommend me a motherboard that supports i7 2600 with PCI express 3.0?. Want to replace my old motherboard, and what is the difference between a Zxx,Hxx, Bxx and Pxx chipset I kinda don't understand ?.
-Dan

 

Why would you replace an old motherboard with another old motherboard? Getting your hands on old motherboard is very difficult and often expensive - I'm looking for an Asus Maximus VII Impact (only 1 generation old) and it's near impossible for a reasonable price. Also, if your current motherboard isn't broken, there isn't any point to replacing your motherboard. Consider getting a current gen motherboard + CPU if you're looking to upgrade.

About intel chipsets:

Z-series: Top of the line. Overclocking, SLI, more SATA ports, etc < Recommended if K-series CPU
H-seres: Mid-tier. No overclocking, a few less ports, and no SLI support. < Recommended if non-K series CPU
B-series: Low-tier. Extremely basic motherboard with only a few ports and very limited features. No overclocking, no SLI, etc. < Not really recommended

 

Oh forgot to include the reason why I want to replace my motherboard, it only supports PCI express 1.0 and my video card supports PCI 2.0. my motherboard Is HP factory and it is slow and had it for 4 years.

 

Get the cheapest H-series board you can find, as long as it's from a reputable brand. They'd never sell an aftermarket board with PCIe 1.0, so just find a cheap one and it'll definitely have PCIe 2.0.

 

SLI support doesn't come from Intel. It comes from Nvidia, meaning that H- and B-series boards can support SLI. Also, H-series boards are not necessarily mid-tier boards. H170 boards are top-tier, typically as full featured as Z170 boards, just without OCing support. H110 boards, however, are much cheaper and for low to mid range computers. B-series boards are considered "business class" AKA low end.

 

Indeed Intel does not care about SLI support, but there isn't a single H-series motherboard with SLI support, so I'm still right that H-series don't support SLI.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2674031/h97-motherboard-compatible-nvidia-sli.html

Also, H-series are Intel's mid-tier chipset, but it's up to the motherboard manufacturer to decide what features to put on top. While not any give Z-series board is better than any give H-series motherboard, an apples-to-apples comparison puts the Z-series above the H-series.

 

Thank you for correcting me. I never noticed that H-series boards didn't have SLI support...

 

Thanks for the help I picked a H board instead of Z due to the price and i had to get a new video card because the motherboard that i got supports Pcie 3.0 and i have a video card that supports Pcie 2.0 (dx11) and i got EVGA GTX 950 my current one that I have is Gigabyte HD 6770

 

Pcie versions are backward and forward compatible. Can run a 3.0 device in a 1.0 slot and vice versa

 

In addition, a PCIe 1.0 16x slot has enough bandwidth for graphics cards, and shouldn't be a bottleneck.