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2550k

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30 Oct 2013
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1,795
Just bought a 2550k.
what mobo can I get away with for a mild overclock but has USB 3 etc..
I don't need more than 2 ram slots and 4 sata3 connectors.
Case suits ATX or mATX so not too bothered about size.
was thinking under £50 if possible.

I read it's not worth getting the Z77 for this but don't understand why not...so hopefully someone can offer an explanation or some useful advice.

I'm gonna swap my lads a10 6800k to this so hope to see some improvement.
 
get a z77 if you can,just incase you go for an ivybridge cpu in the future (all it brings is pcie3,but its not a big deal)

otherwise a z68 board will be fine

asus z68 or z77 v pro if you can nab one for under £50
 
get a z77 if you can,just incase you go for an ivybridge cpu in the future (all it brings is pcie3,but its not a big deal)

otherwise a z68 board will be fine

asus z68 or z77 v pro if you can nab one for under £50

Fat chance of getting either of those boards for under £50 unfortunately.

I can get a refurb P8z77 v for £70 or a maximus gene v for £80 at the moment.
 
I'm looking at this also atm MSI Z77A-GD65, but not sure...
I will keep my eyes open.
Don't want to spend a lot though.
I'm gonna be selling his old stuff and don't want to pay much more out than I'll be getting back for his CPU and MOBO.
 
Can any of the other non Z motherboards be used to OC the 2550K (I know some of the H boards can overclock the Pentium K)

That was a haswell thing, so a different socket altogether.

EDIT - a P67 chipset mobo would also overclock.
 
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It seems all suitable mobos are pretty expensive now so might have gone the wrong way about all of this.
I got the CPU for £82 so will end up with a i5 and mobo for around £150.
I expect around 2 thirds of that for selling my 6800k and mobo so the "upgrade" cost will be £50.

Is it actually worth it ?

Plan to upgrade GPU soon so wanted something that wouldn't bottleneck something like a 290 or 970.
 
It seems all suitable mobos are pretty expensive now so might have gone the wrong way about all of this.
I got the CPU for £82 so will end up with a i5 and mobo for around £150.
I expect around 2 thirds of that for selling my 6800k and mobo so the "upgrade" cost will be £50.

Is it actually worth it ?

Plan to upgrade GPU soon so wanted something that wouldn't bottleneck something like a 290 or 970.

Yep, defiantly worth it. That CPU was a good buy. + If you troll the auction sites, I'm sure you can find a suitable board for less than £68.
 
I say mild, I don't know as I've never overclocked anything...I understand the stock heatsink with this is pretty good and can take a bit of abuse.

Well, I'd still say get a better heatsink. ones can be had for under £20 that are a huge step up, and will give you enough headroom to get to 4.4GHz easy.
 
yeah it's not too hard once you have a look around for some good guides. Listen to new boy and spend around 20 quid on getting a good air cooler. SHould be able to push that chip pretty far
 
I recently upgraded to a 2500k with a p67 sabretooth (got both off ebay for 130 quid) and it's overclocking pretty well*; currently on 5 hours prime blend stable @ 4.7ghz with average full load temps of the high 60s. I'm using a thermalright truespirit 140BW with a completely open case (motherboard screwed to the wall to save space) and it idles about 8-10°C above ambient.

So yes, a decent p67 board will overclock it just fine :)


*I have had it up to 5ghz without much issue, I had just whacked the voltage up high though so not a 24/7 overclock.
 
Had a chat with my lad last night and he decided against the upgrade.
Basically, I have £150 to spend or give him for his birthday and have already bought a 250GB SD for £80 which leaves £70 which was what the upgrade was going to cost after selling his old mobo and cpu.
The thing is though, as he explained...he is happy with the performance of his current PC and would probably hardly notice the difference that the upgrade would bring and so decided to just use the SSD.
My thinking was this:
If I put the 2550K and Mobo in his PC he will still only be using a R9 270 with a 23" 1080p 60hz monitor and would likely not see much of an improvement for the games he usually plays - mostly LOL. but a bit of BF3 & 4 and CS:GO, also some Payday.

He would then need a better monitor and better GPU which would then require a better PSU to see any real difference in his gaming.

IS it really worth it ?
Im not too bothered cos I can sell them on again or actually considering using them for myself to upgrade my A10 5800K

Might just buy him a cooler and OC his 6800K to see if that makes much of a difference but like I say, he is happy with the performance as is so may just leave it alone.
 
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**update**
Decided I was going to use the 2550 myself after struggling with 3D autocad.
funny thing is it doesn't seem to have made a difference - CAD crashes if I try to drag the "view" pane onto the screen.
I haven't done a clean install, just deleted some old amd files and uninstalled some stuff, ran DDU and here I am.
Was looking through the bios on the Gene and at the moment it's info overload, why are there so many settings...does anybody truly know how to adjust everything safely and for a desired purpose ?
I am using the stock cooler for now but will OC soon when I decide to get a decent cooler.
 
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