Mobo upgrade

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BiggusDoggus

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#166368 11-Mar-2015 10:23

Hi all

Quick question please - is this a decent upgrade from my current M2N68-AM Plus (with AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU) please?

Just bought a new SSD and R7 260x video card and it's become apparent my mobo and CPU are struggling to cope with them.

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=415509

And yes, this is pretty much my mobo budget.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

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#1256147 11-Mar-2015 10:49

Well you'll need a new CPU, your Athlon won't fit - you probably know this but haven't mentioned it or what CPU you want. You may need new RAM, or at least check if your current RAM will work on that board.

B motherboards are business oriented. Gigabyte are a decent brand, from my recent reading not as good as Asus but fine, and that's a subjective call. I've ordered a Gigabyte board from newegg, socket 1155 which you can't get in NZ any more, for my older i7 2600K.

That AMD CPU gets 1600 on passmarks CPU benchmark. My 3 year old i7 gets 8500. So yeah your CPU is slow. An i5 4xxx would be a good plan I think.

BiggusDoggus

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Ultimate Geek

#1256210 11-Mar-2015 11:48

timmmay: Well you'll need a new CPU, your Athlon won't fit - you probably know this but haven't mentioned it or what CPU you want. You may need new RAM, or at least check if your current RAM will work on that board.

B motherboards are business oriented. Gigabyte are a decent brand, from my recent reading not as good as Asus but fine, and that's a subjective call. I've ordered a Gigabyte board from newegg, socket 1155 which you can't get in NZ any more, for my older i7 2600K.

That AMD CPU gets 1600 on passmarks CPU benchmark. My 3 year old i7 gets 8500. So yeah your CPU is slow. An i5 4xxx would be a good plan I think.

Thanks - yes, I'll need to change the CPU, and I'll get some DDR3 RAM to replace the DDR2.

I was thinking of an i5 as well.

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#1256221 11-Mar-2015 11:59

Rule of thumb - if you need to upgrade your mobo, then you need to build a new PC.
It's cheaper in the end.

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BiggusDoggus

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1256270 11-Mar-2015 12:55

Sideface: Rule of thumb - if you need to upgrade your mobo, then you need to build a new PC.
It's cheaper in the end.

It's a custom build anyway - as I mentioned, I've only just recently put in a new SSD and video card, and I upgraded the PSU last year.

So the only things left are the mobo and CPU anyway (and of course the RAM).

Not sure if I have missed your point?

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

xpd

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#1256297 11-Mar-2015 13:31

If going for budget build and dont need a gaming powerhouse, then I can recommend a Intel Pentium G3258 CPU - I built a budget box last year with one of these and it suits my needs well - have the same video card as well. Main downside so far though is that it is only dual core, so takes me out of playing some new games.

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timmmay

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#1256305 11-Mar-2015 13:38

xpd: If going for budget build and dont need a gaming powerhouse, then I can recommend a Intel Pentium G3258 CPU - I built a budget box last year with one of these and it suits my needs well - have the same video card as well. Main downside so far though is that it is only dual core, so takes me out of playing some new games.

It's pretty fast for a two core - here. Comparison with my i7 here, and comparison with the old CPU here. The Pentium is around twice as fast as the old one. The i5 4690 is a fair bit faster than the old CPU.

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#1256306 11-Mar-2015 13:39

BiggusDoggus:
Sideface: Rule of thumb - if you need to upgrade your mobo, then you need to build a new PC.
It's cheaper in the end.

It's a custom build anyway - as I mentioned, I've only just recently put in a new SSD and video card, and I upgraded the PSU last year.

So the only things left are the mobo and CPU anyway (and of course the RAM).

Not sure if I have missed your point?

My point is that if you replace a (broken) mobo with an identical one, there are no "extras" to buy, but that if you decide to upgrade your mobo to get better performance, you almost invariably end up replacing almost everything else as well (as you intend to do) - in effect a new build in the old case.
It's often easier (and cheaper) to do the whole upgrade in one step.

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timmmay

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#1256307 11-Mar-2015 13:40

Sideface:
BiggusDoggus:
Sideface: Rule of thumb - if you need to upgrade your mobo, then you need to build a new PC.
It's cheaper in the end.

It's a custom build anyway - as I mentioned, I've only just recently put in a new SSD and video card, and I upgraded the PSU last year.

So the only things left are the mobo and CPU anyway (and of course the RAM).

Not sure if I have missed your point?

My point is that if you replace a (broken) mobo with an identical one, there are no "extras" to buy, but that if you decide to upgrade your mobo to get better performance, you almost invariably end up replacing almost everything else as well (as you intend to do) - in effect a new build in the old case.
It's often easier (and cheaper) to do the whole upgrade in one step.

That's already being done - not sure you read the thread fully.

BiggusDoggus

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1256640 11-Mar-2015 21:38

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I do need to clarify something though please.

This review says the G3258 requires a Z87 or Z89 mobo, which the GA-B85M-D2V does not appear to be:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/pentium-20th-anniversary-series-g3258-processor-review,16.html

Yet the "CPU Support List" on the Gigabyte site includes the G3258.

Is that review site wrong?

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Jase2985

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#1256668 11-Mar-2015 22:11

its needs a motherboard that supports a LGA1150 socket

that mother board you listed would work fine

The Z87/89 refers to the chipset on the motherboard, and im guessing thats how they refer to it in the article when it came out. i think B85 is slightly newer

timmmay

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#1256758 12-Mar-2015 07:14

That CPU appears to be supported according to this.

xpd

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#1256788 12-Mar-2015 08:37

I got one of these for mine - ASUS H81M-E - however its a micro-atx board so only 2 RAM slots.

Take a look here for my build - was a few months ago so pricing has changed a bit.

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Gilco2

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#1256801 12-Mar-2015 08:49

BiggusDoggus: Thanks for all the advice guys.

I do need to clarify something though please.

This review says the G3258 requires a Z87 or Z89 mobo, which the GA-B85M-D2V does not appear to be:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/pentium-20th-anniversary-series-g3258-processor-review,16.html

Yet the "CPU Support List" on the Gigabyte site includes the G3258.

Is that review site wrong?

I have a couple with the G3258 and have Z87 and H95 motherboard series. The only reason for the Z series is the extra overclock settings to make full use of the unlocked G3258. With other series boards you dont get the full overclock options but only the basic overclocking abilities.

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

BiggusDoggus

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1256817 12-Mar-2015 09:00

Thanks again everybody.

So, are we all agreed that, considering my limited budget, the following is at least a halfway decent upgrade?

G3258 CPU http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=855447452

Gigabyte B85M-D3H Mobo http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=415509
(Is there any significant difference between the D3H and USB3 versions of this board? I can't seem to see any)

Along with (starting off with at least) 4GB DDR3 RAM.

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Jase2985

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#1256821 12-Mar-2015 09:10

the D3H has 2 ram slots not 4 like the HD3
the D3H has SPDIF (Optical Audio)
the D3H has an extra PCIE slot

thats about it you need to weigh up if that makes a difference but i would be going for 8gb as the minimum for ram.

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