What motherboard should I get for my build?

C

childofthetao

Posts: 161   +1
Hi, I'm building a budget gaming PC but I don't know what motherboard to get. Here's the parts I'm planning on buying:

Intel Core i5-3570
Corsair Builder Series CX 430
Radeon HD7850

A H77 board will do as the cost of a K cpu and Z77 board (I presume) would cost way more. I'm thinking something around the price of a Asus P8H77-V LE.

Thanks
 
It matters on what brand you buy. Some H77 motherboards come close to low end Z77 boards. Also, the 3570K is just $20 more and allows for you to unlock your system fully as long as you have proper cooling.

If you would like, I can take a look at your build and recommend better components if I see it fit. Just provide me with a budget :).
 
The budget is 600 USD. I can get a HD7850 for 86USD from someone I know.
So all I need to buy from the budget is:

A CPU (intel or amd? I don't know, 4 cores or 8 cores? I don't know)
A motherboard (overclockable) If it fits in the budget.
Ram 8gb
PSU
HD7850 (for 86USD)

I think maybe an AMD FX8350 might a good idea, I'm just not sure. I just want the CPU that would be the best for games, and games that will come out in the near future (that will likely use more then 4 cores).
 
childofthetao said:
The budget is 600 USD. I can get a HD7850 for 86USD from someone I know.
So all I need to buy from the budget is:

A CPU (intel or amd? I don't know, 4 cores or 8 cores? I don't know)
A motherboard (overclockable) If it fits in the budget.
Ram 8gb
PSU
HD7850 (for 86USD)

I think maybe an AMD FX8350 might a good idea, I'm just not sure. I just want the CPU that would be the best for games, and games that will come out in the near future (that will likely use more then 4 cores).
Click to expand...
If you want the best for games and last-ability at this point you need to grab an Intel i5 as it offers the best gaming experience on the market for the money.

If you have 600 bucks to spend minus 86 bucks for the HD 7850, try something like this for size (So roughly 500 bucks).

Option 1 (Roughly $553)
Corsair Carbide Series 200R
Western Digital Blue 1tb 7200RPM
Corsair CX 430Watt
Kingston Hyper X 1600 DDR3 8gb (2x4gb
Asrock Z97 Anniversary Board
Intel Core i5 4690

This is a well rounded budget suggestion for you to complement the HD 7850 you will have. It does about 20-30 bucks above but if you can grab it you will have a great gaming rig that can take alot of upgrades for a few years to come.

Option 2 (Minor changes to bring price down)
i5 4590 (Basically lower core clocks then the above)
Gskill Ribjaws 4gb (2x2gb (Good enough for now but I normally suggest 8gb for gaming rigs).

Option 3 (One upgrade for future proofing a bit more)
i5 4690k (Would bring original price up by about 10-20 bucks more, but would allow in the future overclocking)

These are just some suggestion for you, hope it helps.
 
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hellokitty[hk] said:
I think your original choices were perfect, if you're not overclocking.
Click to expand...

Cool but what motherboard would I get?

GhostRyder said:
If you want the best for games and last-ability at this point you need to grab an Intel i5 as it offers the best gaming experience on the market for the money.

If you have 600 bucks to spend minus 86 bucks for the HD 7850, try something like this for size (So roughly 500 bucks).

Option 1 (Roughly $553)
Corsair Carbide Series 200R
Western Digital Blue 1tb 7200RPM
Corsair CX 430Watt
Kingston Hyper X 1600 DDR3 8gb (2x4gb
Asrock Z97 Anniversary Board
Intel Core i5 4690

This is a well rounded budget suggestion for you to complement the HD 7850 you will have. It does about 20-30 bucks above but if you can grab it you will have a great gaming rig that can take alot of upgrades for a few years to come.

Option 2 (Minor changes to bring price down)
i5 4590 (Basically lower core clocks then the above)
Gskill Ribjaws 4gb (2x2gb (Good enough for now but I normally suggest 8gb for gaming rigs).

Option 3 (One upgrade for future proofing a bit more)
i5 4690k (Would bring original price up by about 10-20 bucks more, but would allow in the future overclocking)

These are just some suggestion for you, hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Yeah it helps, thanks. I already have a case to put it all in so I don't need to buy one.

So a 430w PSU is sufficient for overclocking AND a HD7850? I just want to make sure on that one.

And about those ASrock boards, the fastest PCIe slot died very quickly on the last TWO ASrock boards I bought. I would definitely prefer to pay a little bit over budget to get a different brand, unless they do boards for the same price?

Also, do think for the same amount of money I could build a better computer with an AMD 8350? Games are gonna use more then four cores soon so is that a better CPU to consider for this budget and purpose?
 
childofthetao said:
Cool but what motherboard would I get?



Yeah it helps, thanks. I already have a case to put it all in so I don't need to buy one.

So a 430w PSU is sufficient for overclocking AND a HD7850? I just want to make sure on that one.

And about those ASrock boards, the fastest PCIe slot died very quickly on the last TWO ASrock boards I bought. I would definitely prefer to pay a little bit over budget to get a different brand, unless they do boards for the same price?

Also, do think for the same amount of money I could build a better computer with an AMD 8350? Games are gonna use more then four cores soon so is that a better CPU to consider for this budget and purpose?
Click to expand...
If you have a case and do not like Asrock, consider the following instead:
EVGA 500Watt
1tb 7200RPM WD
Kingston 8gb 1600 DDR3\
MSI Z97 Gaming 3
i5 4690K

That should give you a heavy hitter that is ripe for upgrading in the future. You can use the stock cooler for now and later grab something like a Hyper212 if you want to overclock. This is about 550 bucks from newegg give or take and will provide you an excellent gaming experience for the money!

You can of course make a few components lower if it is still to much for you to spend but it should provide you an optimal gaming experience with your HD 7850.

You could run both an i5 and the HD 7850 on the 430 watt with a bit of clocking but not to the extremes. I would recommend at least a 500watt if you want to overclock which is why I changed the list I gave you before to include that and some changes in components. I would recommend the i5 over the 8350 for a gaming rig because it provides one of (If not the) best value gaming experience on the market!

Just some food for thought!
 
8350 is a pretty junky processor for gaming I don't see any reason you would pick even an FX 9590 over a 4690k, which is pretty much better in every way and uses a fraction of the power.
 
GhostRyder thanks a lot for the help you've given.

I've been talking to my friend and he's convinced himself the best option is an 8-core FX8350. He is thinking of games that use (or will use) eight cores such as star citizen. He doesn't want to be stuck with a 4-core cpu when the 6-8 cores games are released.

Could you suggest another build please? An AMD FX8350 build.

Thanks
 
childofthetao said:
Simply because of the 8 cores, for 8 core games.
Click to expand...
You should convince your friend that those 8 cores are far less useful than the 4690k's 4 cores and that they also happen to take 3 times as much power as well.
If you really just want to open task manager and look at 8 threads, you can just get a 4790k.
 
He will be streaming all his gameplay, does that mean 8 cores are the way to go? In regards to an 8 core AMD vs a 4 core Intel?
 
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Thanks AMD once again for your single core inefficiency. Your inefficiency that drove you to making twice the number of cores to equal Intel's offering.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

The top Core i7(6 core) is ranked 9. (Intel Core i7-4960X [6 core with hyperthreading])
The top Core i7(4 core) is ranked 27. (Intel Core i7-4790K [4 core with hyperthreading])
The 1st AMD CPU is ranked 37. (AMD FX-9590 Eight-Core)
The 2nd AMD CPU is ranked 53. (AMD FX-9370 Eight-Core)
The 3rd AMD CPU is ranked 76. (AMD Opteron 6282 SE)
The 4th AMD CPU is ranked 79. (AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core)
The 5th AMD CPU is ranked 116. (AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core)

The top Core i5 is ranked 123. (Intel Core i5-4670K [4 core without hyperthreading])
The 6th AMD CPU is ranked 128. (AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core)
The 7th AMD CPU is ranked 149. (AMD Opteron 6234)
The 8th AMD CPU is ranked 153. (AMD FX-6350 Six-Core)
The 9th AMD CPU is ranked 174. (AMD FX-8120 Eight-Core)
The 10th AMD CPU is ranked 176. (AMD Opteron 3380)

There are only 7 more AMD CPU's above the top i3 ranking (all of which are 6+ cores). Only one of which is an APU, which by the way is a clear winner where internal graphics is concerned.

The top Core i3 is ranked 227. (Intel Core i3-4360 [2 core with hyperthreading])

BTW I wasn't posting to be clearly an Intel fan-boy. I hope you can see the differences between Intel and AMD core count for what it is. In my opinion if you are not interested in APU's integrated graphics, AMD has very little to offer. Only 17 of 226 CPU's above the ranking of an i3.

But please bare in mind this is only one benchmarking utility that should be used only as a guild-line.
 
childofthetao said:
He will be streaming all his gameplay, does that mean 8 cores are the way to go? In regards to an 8 core AMD vs a 4 core Intel?
Click to expand...
Sorry out of town on business trip so apologies for the delay.

I have an FX 9590 processor which is essentially just an overclocked 8350 and while it performs well for a gamer even if your streaming the i5 is more than plenty especially if you get an unlocked variant and overclock it later.

For straight gaming and streaming, I would highly recommend the i5 for the budget because I can safely say the power will be more than plenty. Heck even on a budget an i3 does some great gaming and that's just a dual core.

FX 8350 is good on a budget where your doing a mix of high threaded tasks (example adobe) and gaming. However I had to overclock my 8350 (now 9590) very far just to get the performance in games the i5/i7 give at stock at times. Even the most highly threaded games perform still better on an i5 in the end or the same as an overclocked 8350.

If your dead set on an FX build, I would be happy to recommend one. However I stand by saying the i5 is much better for his needs and will last longer. People are still gaming at ultra on new GPU's with an i5 2500k and getting the same performance as a new i5 or i7 processor (those are 3 generations old now).
 
In addition the the fact that the FX 8350 has terribly poor single threaded performance, it takes a huge amount of power, and you'll end up with a deceptively expensive setup for a $170 CPU.

Your motherboard needs to have some hefty VRMs or they'll over heat, in some cases they blow out -> you'll need a much more costly motherboard if you're going to overclock or a modestly more expensive motherboard if you do not overclock.

The motherboard will throttle your CPU if your CPU or CPU socket gets too warm, which will likely happen even at stock voltages if it's summer time and you have warm ambients. So you'll probably spend a fair amount on a cooler as well.

So altogether for a 4690k build, you could spend $230 on the processor and $100 on a decent budget motherboard and be able to overclock to something like 4ghz. Or add in a $30 cooler and hit somewhere like 4.5ghz.

For an FX8350, you'd spend about $170 on the processor, $30 on the cooler, and $100 on a decent motherboard, and hope to get somewhere like 4.2ghz. If you wanted to overclock to the 4.8ghz range, you'll probably need to plop down around $185 for the motherboard and $55 for the cooler, and the 4690k would still outperform it in a lot of games.

TL;DR: I don't like the FX8350. Poor single threaded performance combined with atrocious power consumption.
 
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The thing is though the the american prices don't match the British prices, that build above costs more over here, I would LOVE to get an i5 on this budget but I just don't see how I can. The only reason I'm going for the 8350 is it's cheaper.

This build isn't for me, I personally wouldn't buy AMD ever, under any circumstances. I'd wait and save.
 
childofthetao said:
The thing is though the the american prices don't match the British prices, that build above costs more over here, I would LOVE to get an i5 on this budget but I just don't see how I can. The only reason I'm going for the 8350 is it's cheaper.

This build isn't for me, I personally wouldn't buy AMD ever, under any circumstances. I'd wait and save.
Click to expand...
What website, post a link and I can help you a bit better.
 
The site I have found everything on is amazon.co.uk. However there are a couple of other sites which I would compare prices to, I more often then not find the cheapest on amazon.co.uk/ebay.co.uk.

Here is an AMD build I have found that fits the budget, if you can get me an i5 instead for the same price (no Ocing) that would be excellent:

£119.99 - AMD FX8350 Black Edition
£53.41 - MSI 970A Motherboard
£48.43 - Crucial BLS2C4G3D1609ES2LX0CEU 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Ballistix Sport 2 x 4 GB modules
£31.10 - EVGA 500W PC Power Supply
£11.88 - LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x SATA Half Height Internal DVDRW Drive
£40.31- WD 1TB 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive

Edit: Remember no case is needed and 50 pounds must be spare to buy my brothers HD7850. So it should all come to 300 pounds ish
 
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The 8350 is not technically a supported CPU for that motherboard.
http://www.msi.com/support/mb/970AG46.html#support-cpu

It will work though, the reason it's not listed is because that motherboard has 4+1 phase VRMs which is pretty much bare minimum for such a hungry CPU.
The thing is that with such a motherboard you need to rethink your cooling solution, because it's very easy for the VRMs/socket to overheat, which will cause your motherboard to throttle the CPU.
There is good news though, while gaming, because it's an 8 threaded CPU, it's not going to be using a lot of the CPU so you won't be pushing it very hard.

For example if you're running starcraft2, you can expect less than 20% CPU utilization.
I won't ding the FX for that though, it's mostly blizzard's fault.

Sorry I can't really help with British prices.
However, in the US you can get a good B85 motherboard for ~37 pounds. Pair that with a 4670, and in the US you can get a suitable power supply for the equivalent of about 25 pounds if you look for a good deal.
If you don't need it, you could get rid of the CDROM drive.

Anyway my point is that I think you should be able to fit a 4670 build in that budget because in the US you could build an (non overclocking) i5 system for about the same price as an 8350 system.
 
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Guys, the there's been an increase in the budget, the budget has increased by 100 pounds, 450 is now the limit. (With 50 spare for the HD7850)

With this increase I would like a 4670K with the ability to OC, I would like a board with OC Genie, because I can't spend the required amount of time to manually OC it. I think this would mean a better motherboard and better PSU?

Edit: So basically I just need a recommendation on a mobo and PSU.
 
Last edited:
childofthetao said:
Guys, the there's been an increase in the budget, the budget has increased by 100 pounds, 450 is now the limit. (With 50 spare for the HD7850)

With this increase I would like a 4670K with the ability to OC, I would like a board with OC Genie, because I can't spend the required amount of time to manually OC it. I think this would mean a better motherboard and better PSU?

Edit: So basically I just need a recommendation on a mobo and PSU.
Click to expand...
Give me a minute...

Ok try this

Gskill Ripjaws 2133 8gb 2x4gb (overkill but it's an amazing price

Corsair builder 500watt bronze

Wd 1tb 7200rpm

I5 4670k

MSI Z97 mate

Hyper212 evo CPU cooler

That comes to around 400 which fits nicely in your budget and should allow great future proofing and decent overclocking. A few alternate suggestions that could be decent upgrades would be these below (however they go beyond the budget).

Msi gaming 3 Z97

I5 4690k

Either way that should provide an excellent machine for the money!
 
You can basicly use the cheapest motherboard you can find. Just that it supports your cpu and gpu and ram. As the motherboard is only the one that "connects" your ram cpu and gpu to work with eachother :D
 
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