How's this cheap upgrade?

Singular1ty

Singular1ty

Singular1ty

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11 Oct 2009
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33
Hey guys, planning to upgrade soon. I'm thinking about the i5 4670k and Asus H81M-Plus Micro ATX. I play Arma 2/3, DayZ Mod and Standalone, Minecraft, Dota, Rift, and others. Since my current memory is 4Gb ddr3 dual channel I'll reuse that for now and upgrade to 8gb later down the line. I'm going with a micro atx board because it's cheap and I don't have much extra space in my case. Currently I've got,

AMD x6 1055t @ Stock
Gigabye GA-78LMT-S2P
4Gb DDR3 Memory - Kingston I think
Radeon R7950 Black Edition
CoolerMaster Silent 500w Modular
Crucial M4 128Gb SSD - OS
2x 500Gb disk drives
1x Samsung BluRay drive

Basically what I'd like to know is that gaming performance won't be hurt too much by cheapo memory for the moment, or if anyone has any suggestions for a cheap upgrade. Also I've had my ssd for ~3 years now, should I be worried it might start to flake out soon?

Thanks.
 
With K series processors you need a Z87 or a Z97 chipset to overclock ideally.

Nothing wrong with H series stuff just better off with a non K series processor with them.

Memory will have near zero impact on performance speed wise, capacity should be ok for now.
 
I'd be looking at more RAM ideally, as soon as possible really. 8GB is the sweet spot right now
Mrjobby makes a good point with the chipset, get a Z97 mATX board
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
Total : £78.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Also you'll want a CPU cooler (check it fits in your case!) You can overclock then, and Arma/DayZ loves the CPU
SSD should be fine, run a quick health test, but should be absolutely fine
Also, get the newer i5 4690k over the i5 4670k :)
 
If you can get a Gigabyte B85M-D3H rev 1 (because I know this clocks 4670k's with the F9 bios) go for one of those. Cheaper than Z97 but has a full set of overclocking options in the bios along with decent cooling of the motherboard components. My wifes one clocks my 4670K to at least 4.4Ghz. That was just a quick setting of the multiplier and vcore to prove it could be done and I have no doubt it would have done more. I only paid £48 (it's £53 now) for this board which, for the price and features on the board (will even do crossfire) is a steal. The only downside is it's probably limited to DDR3 1600 as I didn't try clocking the ram. Proof that it clocks:-

 
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Does it ship with the F9 BIOS??

I have seen on other shop forums people buying various H81/B85 motherboards, which do support overclocking of the G3258 only to find the BIOS version is too old and that they need an earlier socket 1150 CPU to upgrade the BIOS. It was a bit like that bargain Z68 motherboard many retailers like OcUK were selling for £35. Some supported IB out of the box,others did not.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Does it ship with the F9 BIOS??

I have seen on other shop forums people buying various H81/B85 motherboards, which do support overclocking of the G3258 only to find the BIOS version is too old and that they need an earlier socket 1150 CPU to upgrade the BIOS. It was a bit like that bargain Z68 motherboard many retailers like OcUK were selling for £35. Some supported IB out of the box,others did not.
Click to expand...

That won't matter, as the B85 chipset supports the i5 4670k out of the box anyway, whatever the BIOS version
 
It shipped with the original release bios installed and I updated to F9 which was the latest available back in March. The latest now is F13 which I haven't tried but I do have F9 saved should anybody want it. We weren't talking about G3258's or DC though, which would obviously need a bios update.
 
Thanks for the advice guys :).

I'll probably go with pastymuncher's Gigabyte board, as it's micro Atx. Also for the 4690k. I agree 8gb memory would be best, I don't need it at this time. I assume aswell, the Retail 4690k comes with a stock heatsink/fan? Again I can upgrade that if/when I oc and need the extra cooling.
 
Hmm, in that case you'll want the 4670k, as the 4690k won't be supported out of the box normally in B85 boards without a BIOS update, which you need a supported CPU for
They are pretty much the same CPU anyway, so no worries there - only thermal interface material has been upgraded
 
Actually I looked at the Gigabyte website at the B85M-DS3H cpu support list, it does say rev 1.1 supports the 4690k, and for an extra £6 I may as well right :). Plus free game. Can I find out what revision the board I'd buy from ocuk is?
 
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Wrong board. The Gigabyte B85M-D3H is the one we have and it definately does not support DC out of the box. It would need a flash to the F12 bios to support a 4690k. The DS3H is a inferior board with no vrm cooling. This is the one we have.
 
Singular1ty said:
Oh okay, my bad. Does the one you linked support 4690k out of the box?
Click to expand...

pastymuncher said:
Wrong board. The Gigabyte B85M-D3H is the one we have and it definately does not support DC out of the box. It would need a flash to the F12 bios to support a 4690k. The DS3H is a inferior board with no vrm cooling. This is the one we have.
Click to expand...

Rev 1 which is what we have as I said above, does not support 4690K out of the box. 4670K, yes. There is bugger all difference from what I can see between the 4670k and 4690k anyway. I still have top i5 in the cienbench thread with my 4670k.

Rev 2 of the board which is also out now, should support 4690k out of the box but I can't say for sure that it will clock one. This is why I said get a rev 1 as it clocks the 4670k with the F9 bios.
 
Thanks, I've decided to go with the 4670k + the Gigabyte D3H.

Question. In the past when I've upgraded my old Gigabyte board to a new one, Windows 7 would boot fine. But that was keeping the same CPU. With this upgrade, will Windows complain and I have to reinstall?
 
Windows 7 is pretty good when it comes to upgrades but as you are coming from AMD to Intel I would do a fresh install. You are going to have loads of drivers and stuff that are not neccessary anymore still on the drive which could lead to conflicts. I always do a fresh install when upgrading anyway.
 
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