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Post by takeout1113 on Apr 17, 2015 19:23:09 GMT
ASUS has the Z97E board with a lot of serious features for a good price. Possesses the M.2, Sata Express, SLI (2ea PCIever.3X16@8 w/) available for use. The ASUS Z79E has 3ea (2ea usable with SLI in use) PCIeX1 and 2ea PCI slots. Sata3 and USB3 also. The price is great considering it also has 6 phase power filtering for the cpu (medium overclocking stability) and the 8pin CPU 12v power socket. There is also a $20 rebate card from factory which is not a plus in my opinion, but if you believe in them, is a plus, I have not seen much response from rebates unless they are immediately taken off the price at sale. The sale price of 109usd without rebate is over, however, still a deal I think at the 129usd standard fare. The brand name is a big deal for some who trust the most recognized name in motherboards, which lots do. I do prefer them along with ASrock and Gigabyte and in a pinch, Biostar. No experience with others. ABit was nice back in the day, heh. It seems this is a good all around board, fit for future updates, at least till SkyLake comes along in a few months, prob worth waiting if you have something to play on in meantime. You can check it out here: ASUS Z97-E M.2 SLI This was seen first thru Tom's Hardware article in good buys from Newegg, nice series, especially for those of you with limited time to peruse the net and dally about. Not real up on what the newest Sata robbing M.2 is about, seems some can use up to the max I've heard of 4 lanes of PCIe data to run the M.2 connected SSD if it can keep up. This would deem that feature to be more in line with the Haswell E series with the special motherboard usage that have 28 lanes or more PCIe instead of the 16 us commoners get by with on regular Z97 boards on down. THO prices have dropped to under a 200% premium for Haswell E configs so is worth looking at unless like me, pinch pennies and or euros or pence. Most of us Yanks are so centric, sorry. |
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Post by takeout1113 on Apr 18, 2015 20:45:43 GMT
UPDATE: I mentioned I picked up a nice combo duo from Newegg, a MSI Z97 PC Mate motherboard with that wascally Pentium G3258 for about 110usd. I just fired it up with just memory to see that it worked, and look at the bios. Nice. In fact, I was able to overclock it to 4.3Ghz without anything but monitor and keyboard attached, heh. New one for me. It has VERY simple method of overclocking, just push the right button called OC Genie, but I would make sure it is pre-selected to "simple setting" in one of first screens prior to remove any possiblity of a person getting in over his/her head if not experienced with Bios ins and outs just to be sure.
Was using a very cheap Orion power supply supposedly 485W with only 4 pins out on CPU 12V power connector whilst my motherboard has 8 pins, there were no problems with just the 8GB memory stuck in there, and keyboard, with monitor, in case you are in similar situation. Don't try this with a power hungry 775 socket Q9650 as it might just hurt sumtin'. This is a modern 2 core little power sipper cpu, so there was no harm done. (Since then have a nice EVGA 80plus 500Watt Power Supply which works out good).
So I yam happy it works, don't have to rush getting a power supply from Newegg or figure what case to put it in yet, as you get only 30 days to test or they gotta have it back by then in their hands, or you are stuck with them, not 30 days to get an RMA, but in their hands after an RMA was issued, if you talk nice to them, you can get them to pay shipping back sometimes, I say SOMETIMES.
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Post by takeout1113 on May 6, 2015 20:31:32 GMT
Update:
The MSI I bought with the Pentium clockable cpu for 100usd +- is a good motherboard/cpu combo. Am running it with Valve/CoDuty/BF2 games and a few other games I have and it seems to have plenty of punch even using a GTX 460 256bit for gaming AA type games other than that fact it is not 4 cores, heh. Which means I cannot use it for FC4 YET. I will look into workarounds someone will soon come up with in their big craniums for coding mods. But it will be a silent one, I can't tell when sitting next to the mockup case whether the thing is on or off, while running games. Pretty cool.
Will put it in asthetically pleasing case paired with perhaps a GTX960(hope) and put it in next to my big TV and let my Gson play on it whilst I play back here in my Man cave dump/workshop. He likes to play next to me, but that will have to wait till I get this room cleaned up a bit so I can move around, it is my hoarder-looking room, older people usually have at least one to hold 67 years of materials you accumalate.
Back to the Motherboard, the ASUS one, is not on sale anymore, but will keep the reference up in case you see it on sale, and for a regular price of 129usd, that aint bad too, just amazing when at 100usd. To be specific, it is the ASUS Z97E M.2 SLI we are talking about being a good buy. I am happy with my MSI Z97 PC MATE as well, however, it does not have M.2 PCIe SATA connection or SLI for 2 cards like (the ASUS Z97E) one. And I think it has less power regulators, not sure if that counts anymore as some are on cpu die now..... anyone know?
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Post by takeout1113 on May 10, 2015 18:25:50 GMT
The Pentium/MSI Z97 PC MATE combo is on sale till May 11, tomorrow at Newegg for 119usd. I am very happy with mine. Ordered a 960 to go with them for 185usd. What deals. {rubbing hands together, excellent.........}
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Post by takeout1113 on May 20, 2015 3:43:50 GMT
OKAY, UPDATED AGAIN
I am having blue screens of apathy, with the GTX 960 installed. I am running it at stock speeds and everything works great, but trying for 4.3Ghz gives kapoom! no go. Gaming is great in every game tested at stock CPU speeds, just needs a new bios update I think, but I am famously lazy, donno if I will do it unless I see a need for the extra speed. If I am getting 60fps at ultra in everything on high on all games I can play with 2 cores, why flash the bios? Oh well, I will update if I figure why it won't do the OC dance.
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Post by takeout1113 on May 23, 2015 0:42:48 GMT
Update: As to the MSI PC MATE, bargain deal with Pentium K style at 110usd, mine wouldn't work with gTX960 at 4.3Ghz, so I tried and tried to enter manually, but gosh, they just don't tell you.
I got the bios to give me 3.9ghz finally after realizing the archaic method of inputing the cpu ratio they use, goodness, if they could just say in the book, click and input numbers even tho there is no feedback at all telling you the auto setting is selected for entry of manual clocking, My Word, I was beside myself fuming when I finally discovered their little secret. Otherwise, the EASY Overclock Button magic deal is great, but woe to you who have a system that requires a little less than 4.3Ghz or whatever they put on the firmware of your cpu as being clockable to. You click on auto, then enter the number without so much as a blip before hand. I don't like MSI right now. Took me a while to figure out, even read their darn book and I never read them things, they rot the mind...... heh
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Post by takeout1113 on May 24, 2015 19:46:00 GMT
UPDATE
Gonna check out that 159usd i5 4590 socket 1150 for that MSI PC MATE at Frys (US only, I think,) their Memorial Sale and 30th annvi. Secret Promo code business that most won't bother with so there are prob some left... hope gosh I yam skinflint....
EDIT: Did get the i5 4590 for 159$ and am happy. Haven't put it in yet, is Aug 19, yeah, incredibly lazy.... heh. Got no one to nag me, so there ya go....
Going to sell the finished gamer rig to my son-in-law's bro for cheap to help pay for four day Disneyland trip I took the kids on early Aug. What can I say? I yam easy. Took their parents too, my daughter loves Disneyland, like me.
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Post by takeout1113 on Nov 23, 2015 1:26:17 GMT
Final Update:
That cheapo motherboard from MSI (MSI Z97 PC MATE nonSLI ATX) along with the i5 4590 socket 1150 and the MSI GTX 960 2GB video card and 8GB Mushkin silverline memory powered by an EVGA 500W power supply and with Crucial M500 250GB SSD coupled with 1TB Western Digital Green model (note: is not 7200RPM, so for main storage with no SSD for OS and main game, look to blue or black models w/7200rpm) mass storage all in 3rd issue of SATA 6GB/s is working great. Only thing I would change at this point in time would be to go for the 4GB GTX 960 instead of the 2GB which was not available in first several weeks of issue, but gee whiz, ya don't need 4GB for 1080P anyway in that card. The USB 3.0 output from motherboard next to the 24-pin power connector is a bit close, might not work with thicker USB 3.0 connectors on some cases, I am looking at ANTEC 302 here, had a prob, thick connector, but fixed with PCIeX1 USB 3.0 card with that connector on it, shouldn't have to I think.
EDIT: I believe that the Phys-X hype is overrating the value and availability of this feature. I am going to take my 560ti out of my rig with the GTX-970 in it till I get a game that actually has that feature set in it, and use the card for a spare puter for the kids. I thought mistakenly, that the feature was more available in games, seems quite a few popular games do not use Phys-X. It may become more popular, but until then, I will put the extra card to better use.
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