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My old mobo died yesterday hence i am forced to retire my Q6600.

Since i wasn't planning to upgrade, i am extremely tight on budget.

I will go for Intel i5 4670 K and need your recommendations on mother board.

My requirement is pretty simple, the motherboard should accommodate - HD 7970, PCI - Xtreme music audio card, 3 SATA HDD and should atleast support minor overclocking.

Since i am tight on budget - i have shortlisted this Gigabyte motherboard

Your inputs will be highly appreciated.

EDIT: Did some research and found out that i need mobo with Z87 chipset if i want to overclock.

The above research raises a query - is there no way possible to overclock if i jump on H81 chipset ?


EDIT On 27th May: My new set up is ready but my LED has no display when i connect it with HD 7970 - i have tried everything (Bios update - driver update) but there is just no display...

When i start my PC - the LED would show 1080P at 50HZ but it wont show any screen updates... I checked the card on other Monitors and its working fine. I am stumped, please help.

I would like to further add, i have 2 back up cards HD 4850 and HD5850 both are working ok on my LED, i am confused nothing like this has ever happen before...

If you can save money at all by not getting an unlocked CPU (since you're considering mismatching it with an H81 board) then do it and put that money towards a board. My wife's new system is a Haswell i5 4430 with a Gigabyte H87M-D3H. the board is great.

edit: to answer your edit, no. No over clock on H81. The H87 board I got has multiplier settings in the BIOS but the CPU ignores them.

derFunkenstein wrote:

If you can save money at all by not getting an unlocked CPU (since you're considering mismatching it with an H81 board) then do it and put that money towards a board. My wife's new system is a Haswell i5 4430 with a Gigabyte H87M-D3H. the board is great.

Hi Derfunk- Thanks for the quick response.

This motherboard (MSI Z87-G41) fits my budget, but is it worth the extra cash, most importantly - will it overclock ?

Never skimp on your motherboard, it's the most important component in your machine. Aim for this one at least:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131983

Asus makes the best boards IMHO. Don't get cheap if you can of course, you will save yourself the trouble later on.

This doesn't support Crossfire or SLI but it's quite decent in features.

If it's to expensive, save on the CPU front. A locked quad will be sufficient, but then again, a locked CPU doesn't need a Z87 chipset, you can go for a H87 one.

Sorry, I can't remember. Do you live near Microcenter. They have the best CPU+mobo combo prices.

I'm not saying you shouldn't upgrade (it's probably time). But you can get a replacement mobo for ~$60. I actually just bought one of these from the same seller last week for $50. Board came well packaged, looked entirely unused (no dust ANYWHERE), and shipping was pretty quick.

What IS your tight budget? This assumedly needs to include CPU+mobo+RAM since you're likely running DDR2 on the C2Q.

Jigar lives in India.

That MSI Z87 board should over clock a K-series CPU. I have not personally had good luck with MSI in the past though lots of folks have.

A 4670K is a good chip but if your budget is tight and your Q6600 overclocks to around 3GHz then you can probably do worse than to pick up a used S775 motherboard only on eBay or similar.

I'm getting the itch to upgrade my Q9550 (2.8GHz stock) but mainly because the old SATA2 platform is holding back my SSD and because I have a 120Hz television hooked up to it. Most games are still GPU limited unless I turn down graphics options far enough to reach 120fps. The Core2 is capable of pegging Crysis3, Hawken, BF4 and Titanfall (my current vices) at 60Hz vsync most of the time. It's only when I shoot for the moon and aim for 120Hz that it lets me down....

If you can afford it, then the 4670 is likely to be as fast as Intel will make for a while. You could hold out for Devil's Canyon, but if you're seriously into your overclocking then you'll de-lid anyway....

Jon1984 wrote:

Never skimp on your motherboard, it's the most important component in your machine. Aim for this one at least:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131983

Asus makes the best boards IMHO. Don't get cheap if you can of course, you will save yourself the trouble later on.

This doesn't support Crossfire or SLI but it's quite decent in features.

If it's to expensive, save on the CPU front. A locked quad will be sufficient, but then again, a locked CPU doesn't need a Z87 chipset, you can go for a H87 one.

Well the model that you are suggesting is available at $200 in India (This is the cheapest of Asus's offering) that's completely out of my budget, MSI Z87 G41 is at $100 which seems a perfect fit for now. Also, i don't want to skip on overclocking, i will do it on the day one.

I read the reviews on newegg seems like its an average product, but i am unable to find anything better in this pricing range.

EDIT: I have one more query - Can i use my existing thermaltake 120 Ultra on socket 1150 motherboard ??

EDIT 2: Well this is confusing - Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 overclocks and this is not z87 chipset - http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gi ... iew,6.html - fits my budget though - how does this sound ?

LGA 1155/1150 is 3mm further between mounting holes than LGA 775. See here and here. Most universal CPU retention brackets will have slotted-type holes to accommodate this. Depending on your cooler's mouting bracket/backplate, you could achieve the same result with a dremmel. If not, that shiny new CPU will come with an Intel heatsink that can tide you over until you've got some money for a good inexpensive aftermarket cooler. I really don't think you NEED to OC right away. I look at OCing as more of a "future-proofing" measure, bump up the performance as the CPU gets older to keep it up-to-snuff with current offerings.

DPete27 wrote:

I really don't think you NEED to OC right away. I look at OCing as more of a "future-proofing" measure, bump up the performance as the CPU gets older to keep it up-to-snuff with current offerings.

I think you are right, it also gives me the chance to get my hands dirty and make a custom bracket of my own.
EDIT: I have ordered the i5 4670K processor - now need to finalize on Mother board.

EDIT 2: Ok - closed on MSI Z87-G43 - http://www.kitguru.net/components/mothe ... rd-review/

Hi Guys, i have a quick question, i have 2 RAM sticks with me, 4GB DDR 3 and 2GB DDR 3 - will they work together (Dual channel) ??? Actually i have no idea how tolerant Haswell is.

Haswell supports 1.5v RAM. You'll probably able to use them both, but not in dual channel i believe.

If you don't really want to upgrade yet I'm sure you can get a used mobo for your Q6600 in the bargain basement for next to nothing.

Jon1984 wrote:

Haswell supports 1.5v RAM. You'll probably able to use them both, but not in dual channel i believe.

That's a bummer

Philldoe wrote:

If you don't really want to upgrade yet I'm sure you can get a used mobo for your Q6600 in the bargain basement for next to nothing.

I already purchased the CPU and Mobo buddy, and also i live in India so shipping and handling would have been a pain anyway.

Your 1x2GB and 1x4GB DDR3 should run in asynchronous dual-channel mode (or is it "Flex Mode" nowadays?), have a wee Google if you want, surprisingly little performance impact in most real-world applications.

New system is ready but i am now facing a new problem, my HD 7970 is not working on my LED TV, there is just no display whatsoever. I tried to update the mobo bios, driver up - nothing is working out.

When the system starts the LED would detect display signal as 1080p at 50hz but would show no information, i tried the card on other system and it is working fine but it just wont handshake with my LED.

Your suggestion will be highly appreciated, below is the full system specs

i5 4670 @ 4 GHZ
6 GB RAM
MSI Z87 G43
HD 7970 (Currently using HD4850)
700 W - Cooler Master PSU
Panasonic 42" LED

EDIT: BTW, i using DVI to HDMI to connect to my LED.

EDIT 2: I also want to let you know that i also tried direct HDMI connection as well but LED just won't show any display. Connecting older cards do work on the same system and LED.

But it works if you connect to the IGP via the ports on the mobo?

Set the output for the TV to be 60 Hz (or 59 Hz). TVs are finicky.

UberGerbil wrote:

But it works if you connect to the IGP via the ports on the mobo?

Yes LED works perfectly fine when i connect it to the IGP via HDMI port in mobo.

EDIT: All the backup cards (HD4850 and HD5850) are working fine except my HD 7970 - also HD 7970 is working perfectly fine in other system when connect to Monitors via DVI to DVI.

Waco wrote:

Set the output for the TV to be 60 Hz (or 59 Hz). TVs are finicky.

I cannot set anything, since there is no display whatsoever.

Jigar wrote:

I cannot set anything, since there is no display whatsoever.

Can you hook up the TV at the same time as another monitor? If you can, you might be able to configure the refresh rate if you have a working monitor as the primary display.

cobalt wrote:

Jigar wrote:

I cannot set anything, since there is no display whatsoever.

Can you hook up the TV at the same time as another monitor? If you can, you might be able to configure the refresh rate if you have a working monitor as the primary display.

Today, I will try to connect the LCD monitor as my primary display and LED TV as my secondary display - lets hope this works - i will get back to you.

Alright patience paid off, for some reason from Boot till full windows load i don't get the picture but as soon as the drivers are loaded my LED pickups the display.

Played some games for testing purpose and new system is working awesome.

Now this workaround will stop me from entering bios and if system crashes i wont see any warnings.

I did update to latest bios from http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/ but that has not help either, looks like if i want to tweak the system, i will have to take out the graphic card every time.

Look in the bios for a setting related to "init display first" or something of that nature.

TDIdriver wrote:

Look in the bios for a setting related to "init display first" or something of that nature.

Its set to PEG - looks like my HD7970 is sending signals during boot that my LED doesn't like. Updating Bios of Graphic card also didn't work.

EDIT:
Mother board BIOS update done.
Graphic card BIOS update done.
The only thing now left is to update the firmware of my LED TV, if that doesn't work, this matter will be an unsolved mystery for me.

Thanks for your input guys, i will update you once i update my LED TV.

I updated my TV with latest firmware but that didn't help either... I am not sure what has stopped from giving me the display, i will post the picture tonight to give you an idea what i am seeing.