Mobo about to depart this mortal coil

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BiggusDoggus

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#214876 1-Jun-2017 10:34

Hey all

So I currently have a Gigabyte B85M-D3H mobo which appears to slowly but surely giving up the ghost.

It keeps going into a reboot cycle into the UEFI dual-bios from cold boots - it doesn't do it every time, but more often than not, and most of the time it only reboots a couple of times before booting up properly.

However, it has now started, every so often, coming up with the blue screen saying that the default bios settings need to be reloaded before rebooting. Not often, but it never used to do that at all.

So not completely day-ruining yet, but the signs ain't good. What is a bit of a pain is the fact that whenever it reboots back into the dual-bios it loses the o/c settings I have for my G3258 Anniversary CPU. It may very well be the case that my messing around in the bios to o/c the CPU has caused these issues, of course.

I have reset the CMOS, updated the bios etc etc with no change. Even with no CPU overclocking the issue doesn't go away.

Anyway, I'm thinking I should start looking at replacing the mobo.

The thing is, I can only afford to replace the mobo - not the RAM and CPU as well. Plus, my current RAM uses 3 slots, so I need to replace the mobo with one which has 4 slots, and is LGA1150.

With that in mind - is this a good option? The reviews of it seem positive, and apparently it was specifically designed for the G3258. And the price is what I can afford:

http://techworld.co.nz/asrock-anniversary-intel-express-lga1150-ddr3-p-49755.html

cheers!

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

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#1793008 1-Jun-2017 11:18

Do a RAM test first. Use both memtest x86 and HCI memtest. Read the HCI instructions carefully, you need to run multiple instances. RAM can cause weird errors.

I got a replacement motherboard from newegg a year or so ago, they're pretty cheap a lot of the time.

davidcole

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#1793012 1-Jun-2017 11:27

Why not replace it with similar from gigabyte? Means your running system wont have to reload drivers or anything like that, and you may just be able to drop it in.

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BiggusDoggus

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#1793021 1-Jun-2017 11:39

davidcole:

Why not replace it with similar from gigabyte? Means your running system wont have to reload drivers or anything like that, and you may just be able to drop it in.

I suspect the B85M-D3H is not ideally suited to o/c'ing the G3258 - so I figure if I'm going to replace the mobo I may as well get a good match for it.

I will, however, take timmmay's advice and test the RAM first.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

BiggusDoggus

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1794057 3-Jun-2017 02:32

timmmay:

Do a RAM test first. Use both memtest x86 and HCI memtest. Read the HCI instructions carefully, you need to run multiple instances. RAM can cause weird errors.

I got a replacement motherboard from newegg a year or so ago, they're pretty cheap a lot of the time.

Ok, RAM fully tested, no issues. So back to my original query - that mobo is a decent replacement?

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

timmmay

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#1794062 3-Jun-2017 07:33

I ran memtest x86 for 16 hours, didn't find a problem. I ran HCI memtest (8 instances for 16GB RAM), it only found the problem after 14 hours of testing.

Buy the cheapest decent brand from newegg's 1150 range. This Asus is NZ$165 shipped, but you might be able to shave a little off that using youshop. More handling increases risk of damage though. Cheapest at PB with 4 slots is the $342 SuperMicro - you could probably get a more modern motherboard, low end CPU, and RAM for that.

andrewNZ

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#1794063 3-Jun-2017 08:00

Is it something simple like a dead bios battery.

BiggusDoggus

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#1794080 3-Jun-2017 09:33

timmmay:
I ran memtest x86 for 16 hours, didn't find a problem. I ran HCI memtest (8 instances for 16GB RAM), it only found the problem after 14 hours of testing.

Buy the cheapest decent brand from newegg's 1150 range. This Asus is NZ$165 shipped, but you might be able to shave a little off that using youshop. More handling increases risk of damage though. Cheapest at PB with 4 slots is the $342 SuperMicro - you could probably get a more modern motherboard, low end CPU, and RAM for that.

Thanks Timmmay.

Is there something wrong with the Z97? Its cheaper than any of the options you have given.

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BiggusDoggus

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Ultimate Geek

#1794081 3-Jun-2017 09:33

andrewNZ: Is it something simple like a dead bios battery.

First thing I did was replace the battery.

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timmmay

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#1794083 3-Jun-2017 09:49

BiggusDoggus:
Thanks Timmmay.

Is there something wrong with the Z97? Its cheaper than any of the options you have given.

I just looked for the cheapest with 4 RAM slots, like you said you wanted. The cheaper ones only had 2.

BiggusDoggus

391 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1796684 8-Jun-2017 14:49

Hey all, I'm bumping this a little.

At this point in time, with my (limited) budget to take into account, I'm considering the following (and yes I realise there are risks with E-Bay, but, as I said, budget restraints, plus I have some funds in PayPal):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Z97-PRO-GAMER-LGA-1150-Socket-H3-Intel-90MB0KZ0-M0EAY0-Motherboard-/201944423644?hash=item2f04d35cdc:g:FZEAAOSwDNdV6D9V

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-Z97P-D3-1-1-/152526042357?hash=item238342b4f5:g:PyQAAOSwSypZAPUW

http://www.ebay.com/itm/read-Description-ASRock-Z97-Anniversary-Motherboard-ATX-Intel-Z97-LGA-1150-/201945145755?hash=item2f04de619b:g:-jAAAOSw32lYu9kW

Thoughts?

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

timmmay

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#1796687 8-Jun-2017 14:59

Sure, buy whichever one that has the features or brand you like the best. If they're the same, buy the cheapest, they're all decent brands.

BiggusDoggus

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#1798433 12-Jun-2017 13:03

So....I've been offered these by a guy at work for free:

http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/GA-P55-USB3-rev-20#ov

http://ark.intel.com/products/41316/Intel-Core-i7-860-Processor-8M-Cache-2_80-GHz

For those playing at home, I currently have a Gigabyte B85M-D3H mobo which is playing up, and a G3258 CPU.

Is it worth swapping these out, even just for the meantime until I raise enough funds for a proper upgrade, or am I really taking a dive in performance across the board?

From what I can tell the G3258 out performs the i7 in single core, but the i7 has 4 cores/8 threads compared with the G3258's 2 cores/2 threads.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

timmmay

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#1798457 12-Jun-2017 13:22

Benchmarks here and here. 860 is slower on a single core but faster on all cores. Performance should be fine for regular stuff like web surfing.

BiggusDoggus

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Ultimate Geek

#1798460 12-Jun-2017 13:27

timmmay:

Benchmarks here and here. 860 is slower on a single core but faster on all cores. Performance should be fine for regular stuff like web surfing.

Thanks timmmay.

I should have specified the usage environment, sorry.

So it's primarily gaming. I currently have a RX470 video card, so the fact the 860 doesn't have onboard graphics is moot.

Also, I'm unable to o/c the 3258 with my current mobo, but I would be able to get a reasonable o/c out the i7, I would imagine.

I currently get around 90-100 FPS in World of Tanks, but Mass Effect Andromeda and Battlefield 1 struggles.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

timmmay

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#1798461 12-Jun-2017 13:30

If your current system is failing, you can't afford a new system, and someone has offered you a free one it seems like a pretty easy choice to me. Check your video card will fit on the motherboard, get the free one, then save for something modern. If you have to turn the game quality down, so be it.

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