Best ITX Motherboad and CPU for Sub £120?

pumaz · 15 Aug 2012 at 20:58

My son as a Mini ITX system that he mainly uses for COD, CSS and CS-GO. Specs are currently - GA-H55N-USB3, i3 540, 4GB Memory, GTX460 and Windows 7 x64

Unfortunately either the motherboard or Cpu as started overheating, 75% sure it's the motherboard but have no way of testing. And yes it's definitely one or the other!

Anyway I have a budget of £120 to replace these with hopefully similar performing parts. It will also be a good opportunity to move from socket 1156 to the more ready available 1155.

I'm thinking the following would be best given my budget.

Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £56.99

MSI H61I-E35 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £49.99

Thoughts, Can anyone better this?

Bacon? · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:05

Wow thats one hell of a downgrade :/

buzzlightweight · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:05

**edit** missed the CPU bit

Marine-RX179 · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:09

Bacon? said:
Wow thats one hell of a downgrade :/

Downgrade? The G840 is faster than the i3 540.

But I seriously doubt is it the motherboard overheating...may be the CPU cooler got dust completely covering the heatsink?

pumaz · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:12

Marine-RX179 said:
Downgrade? The G840 is faster than the i3 540.

But I seriously doubt is it the motherboard overheating...may be the CPU cooler got dust completely covering the heatsink?

Yeah that's what I thought! or at least as good as

Bacon? · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:14

Ahhh sorry my eyes read it as i7 over i3

Marine-RX179 · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:15

pumaz said:
I'm thinking the following would be best given my budget.

Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £56.99

MSI H61I-E35 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £49.99

Thoughts, Can anyone better this?

The biggest problem with that MSI board is that it doesn't have a PCI-E x16 slot, so cannot use dedicated graphic card.

pumaz · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:18

I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard that's at fault. Idle temps would quickly rise to 60 and when gaming they would continue to rise and the PC would shut down after 10-20 mins.

I did try an i5 760 (known working) and it did the same thing with that. Cooling and cooler are fine and I did a ton of research and it all seemed to point towards the motherboard.

I've given up with them now and just want to replace

pumaz · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:21

Marine-RX179 said:
The biggest problem with that MSI board is that it doesn't have a PCI-E x16 slot, so cannot use dedicated graphic card.

oops, didn't notice that

How about this one?

ASRock H61M-ITX Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 M-ITX Motherboard £59.99

Marine-RX179 · 15 Aug 2012 at 21:39

pumaz said:
oops, didn't notice that

How about this one?

ASRock H61M-ITX Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 M-ITX Motherboard £59.99

That board seems fine.

pumaz · 17 Aug 2012 at 22:02

Quick update.

Ordered and received today

Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor
ASRock H61M-ITX Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 M-ITX Motherboard

Also got a free bag of sweeties, Thanks OcUK