What motherboard will be suitable for my son?

[Wolters]

Hi,

My ten-year-old has just bought Camtasia Studio and downloaded Google SketchUp, but he is now complaining that the current LGA 775 with an Intel Core Duo processor has difficulty to deliver a smooth performance owing to the higher demands these applications are placing on his Windows 7 PC.

So therefore I have promised to upgrade to something more suitable. I do alreay have a new CPU at the moment, an Intel i5 3570K, but I now need some advice choosing a motherboard that goes well with this processor. A friend of mine recommended MSI Z77 A-G43, but after reading a negative review somewhere, I am hesitant…

As he is NOT gaming a lot, or for the most part playing Minecraft, so there will not be any overclocking.

I am not looking for anything high end, but would rather put my money on quality and stability, thus avoiding lower cost budget models.

We already have an SSD which will function as the C-drive and 16 GB of DDR3 memory (Corsair Vengeance 16GB - DDR3 PC-12800 - 1600MHz Low Profile ). We will also re-use the Windows 7 – 64-bit license that we have.

I would be very grateful for any suggestion that can make this transition successful!

Thanks!

 

[Wolters]

Maybe I should add that I am looking for an ATX-board (we have a Fractal Design R3 case), and a Radeon HD6850 - 1GB that we would like to re-use.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

I really like the value from the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 but here is a nice peice from Tom's about boards under $160 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,3254.html

The Intel® Core™ i5-3570K is a great processor that you will do well with and if you need a little extra performance down the road you can simply overclock it. I would try to pick up a good 3rd party cooler before you do.

 

[Wolters]

Thanks a lot! Could you tell me abit more about the differences, quality wise between ASRock and Asus (which is the only make I am currently familiar with)? As I mentioned, I would rather pay some extra for good quality, knowing that I woun't have any headaches in the future, than for a board which can be tinkered with to the extreme!

 

[dannyritz]

If you're only looking at the Asrock Extreme 4 and the Asus P8Z77-V LX on that page then I'd go with the extreme 4.

The asrock has 12 phase voltage regulator as compared to the 6 on the Asus. That means there are 12 power circuits working to provide power to the CPU. The more circuits or phases the less each has to work to provide power which should mean more stability and less heat.

You should google both boards and read the reviews.

I'm using an Asrock Extreme 4 and am quite happy with it.

If you want to know more about motherboard voltage regulators here's a link
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-The-Motherboard-Voltage-Regulator-Circuit/616/4

 

[crazypotato]

Since you are not going to overclock, I would just recommend a H77 board.

 

[smorizio]

asrock and asus were at one time the same parent company. asrock do make a good low cost mb. asus is looking into buying asrock and making them a new asus house brand. when your mb comes in and you start building it. have a good high power flashlight and a magnifier glass. when you lift off the cpu cover check for bent pins. depending how well it shipped you might have none or a whole lot of them. msot new builders dont install there cpu in right and can crush the cpu pins on the mb.