Do I need to upgrade from z67 to z77 for Sandy to Ivy?

[belligerentz]

I have an Intel Core i5 2500k and a BIOSTAR TZ68A+ LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

I plan on upgrading the CPU to the i7 3770K. Will my motherboard work, or do I need to upgrade to a Z77 board?

 

[gary1]

Nope. But why do you want to upgrade. The performance gain is very very minimal.

 

[belligerentz]

Streaming via xsplit, video rendering. http://www.youtube.com/belligerent23

 

[gary1]

Ah, I see, well go ahead then. Only thing Z77 really brings to the table is PCIe 3.0. And official support for 1600mhz RAM.

 

[belligerentz]

What does PCIe 3.0 do? I was also thinking about getting the GTX 660 Ti when it comes out to upgrade my GTX 460 768mb

 

[gary1]

It theoretically expands the bandwidth of the PCIe slot to 32 gb/s from 16gb/s. But NO single card can use 16 gb/s yet. So don't even worry about it. Unless you're going tri SLI with 680's or something.

 

[belligerentz]

Okay, so I'm good to upg my cpu and gpu without changing boards for sure? Not even BIOS update? cause *** that I'm not doing a BIOS update.

 

[gary1]

You may have to do a BIOS update haha. Nobody knows yet since it hasn't come out yet.

 

[belligerentz]

Well people have been testing it. It comes out to buy next monday, right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbfPQLGJUEk&feature=plcp

 

[gary1]

Yep, but he used a Z77 board, guaranteed compatibility. Z68 support IVY, but some may need BIOS flashes.

 

[belligerentz]

I have no idea what a BIOS flash is or how to do it

 

[belligerentz]

ah it looks quite simple http://www.pcworld.com/article/187437/how_to_update_your_bios.html

 

[gary1]

Yeah, there's also a USB method, just read your manual and check the website for more details. (Don't know BIOSTAR)

 

[belligerentz]

Best answer selected by belligerentz.