- Apr 1, 2014
- 10
- 1
- 10,515
Hi there! I bought my PC a while back now, I didn't build it from scratch but over the years I've been upgrading it with new components. With that said I can honestly say that motherboards is what I least know of, since I never "installed" a new board on anything...
Before I explain further more here's my PC specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2300 Overclocked to 3,0GHz
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blue 8Gb (2x 4Gb modules) 1333MHz Dual Channel
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 7770
PS: Cooler Master 650W 80 Plus
HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo Tower Cooler
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 btis
Monitor (if it helps): Asus 23' (1920x1080) Full HD
Only the CPU, motherboard and the HD weren't change over time. For a gamer like myself and a graphics enthusiast, I know it isn't the best rig, but it's solid and has a great price/quality relation, plus I'm a student so I don't get any pay checks.
What I was looking to change is my GPU and motherboard.
For GPU I was thinking in a MSI R9 270X Hawk (if you have any better suggestions with this price range I would appreciate), and for motherboard I just don't know... If it helps, what I do in this PC is watch HD movies, surf the internet and mostly play all sorts of games, alot of multiplayer ones and graphics "beast" ones such as The Witcher 2 (I would like to start playing it on higher settings for a change), Farcry 3, Assassin's Creed, Total war, Mafia 2... Right now, the "heavier" games I own run on High setting for about 40~56fps, I would like to increase this values with this change obvioulsy.
Some questions:
1- What differenciates 600£ motherboards and 100~80£ ones? More speed, more slots, more feautures? (obvioulsy?)
2- Knowing already my framerates, and, me, knowing that my PC runs just fine with my board why change it? Well, first, it's not appealing
second, once I buy another GPU (AMD preference) I would like to make Crossfire with my existing one, and my current motherboard doesn't have the space.
Will I benefit from the Crossfire? Do you recomend it? Will it give me more frames? It's just that I don't want my 7770 getting dust once is out.
3- Since I never put a new motherboard, what can I expect in terms of problems? I mean... will it be smooth like it never happened or I'm gonna have to something with the BIOS or something else?
That said what I want for a motherboard is a funcional one (duh), one that raises my PC standards, one that suports Crossfire (if you recommend), more RAM speed for future update (my current only supports 'till 1333MHz) and a good design.
So what would you recomend between a 50-80ish £ price range (I don't live in the UK, I have to buy it online and pay in € euros, witch is way more expensive).
I was thinking in this ones: Gigabyte Z87-HD3 or MSI Z77A-GD55 (once in sale)
Thanks in advance!
And sorry for the long post.
Before I explain further more here's my PC specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5-2300 Overclocked to 3,0GHz
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blue 8Gb (2x 4Gb modules) 1333MHz Dual Channel
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 7770
PS: Cooler Master 650W 80 Plus
HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo Tower Cooler
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 btis
Monitor (if it helps): Asus 23' (1920x1080) Full HD
Only the CPU, motherboard and the HD weren't change over time. For a gamer like myself and a graphics enthusiast, I know it isn't the best rig, but it's solid and has a great price/quality relation, plus I'm a student so I don't get any pay checks.
What I was looking to change is my GPU and motherboard.
For GPU I was thinking in a MSI R9 270X Hawk (if you have any better suggestions with this price range I would appreciate), and for motherboard I just don't know... If it helps, what I do in this PC is watch HD movies, surf the internet and mostly play all sorts of games, alot of multiplayer ones and graphics "beast" ones such as The Witcher 2 (I would like to start playing it on higher settings for a change), Farcry 3, Assassin's Creed, Total war, Mafia 2... Right now, the "heavier" games I own run on High setting for about 40~56fps, I would like to increase this values with this change obvioulsy.
Some questions:
1- What differenciates 600£ motherboards and 100~80£ ones? More speed, more slots, more feautures? (obvioulsy?)
2- Knowing already my framerates, and, me, knowing that my PC runs just fine with my board why change it? Well, first, it's not appealing
second, once I buy another GPU (AMD preference) I would like to make Crossfire with my existing one, and my current motherboard doesn't have the space.Will I benefit from the Crossfire? Do you recomend it? Will it give me more frames? It's just that I don't want my 7770 getting dust once is out.
3- Since I never put a new motherboard, what can I expect in terms of problems? I mean... will it be smooth like it never happened or I'm gonna have to something with the BIOS or something else?
That said what I want for a motherboard is a funcional one (duh), one that raises my PC standards, one that suports Crossfire (if you recommend), more RAM speed for future update (my current only supports 'till 1333MHz) and a good design.
So what would you recomend between a 50-80ish £ price range (I don't live in the UK, I have to buy it online and pay in € euros, witch is way more expensive).
I was thinking in this ones: Gigabyte Z87-HD3 or MSI Z77A-GD55 (once in sale)
Thanks in advance!
And sorry for the long post.
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