Need help choosing a Motherboard from ailexpress

[Edwards 446]

So long story short I have killed my board in a attempt to bios update, I want to get a new board but am not sure what is best for me as I want to make sure I can get everything I desire

I have shortlisted Asus P8Z77V LX and P8Z77 LX2 and Maximus gene/formula/ extreme

You may have noticed there is big difference in price from board I have chosen as i want to know if I can even get things I want and need from these the p8z77 boards are 80-90$ and probably have high chance of working optimally or get a refund in case of a broken board

gene is good at 230$ and does mostly want I want but want to make best of my money and formula and extreme sit too close to price point

Formula & extreme have high price 330$ oddly xtreme does everything I need and want but can't fit in my case as it's e ATX but I guess if it really can OC my CPU to new hights it will pay off to get a new case 70$ and cooler 50$ then again these are expensive and I would love to hear your exprices from buying ailexpress in case of a broken product

I don't plan on to get new PC before 2020 and will probably get a volta xx60

If you can help me get a good choice I would be very greatful thank you

Current specs

• Zebronics Desire cabinet (ATX)
• Intel i7 2600non k Sandy bridge & stock cooler
• A dead DH61WW motherboard
• Corsair 700w psu
• GTX 680
• 2x 4 Gb Ram 1333mhz
• 1x 8gb hyperx 1866mhz (never used)
• 1x 500gb ssd samsung Evo
• 1x 2tb HDD
• 2x 1tb hdd
• DVD drive etc

What I need

• ASUS board as they have lowest Rate of failure so chances of a working board are high
• a board that can support a Sandy bride CPU
• A board that has 6 sata ports and one of them being 6gbps ports
• Is ATX form factor
• Preferably cheap enough that in case of a faulty board I don't loose too much money
• A board with 4 ram slots

What I want

• Ability to OC my CPU as some people have achieved as high as 4.8ghz on non k CPU I just need to make beast of my CPU I don't expect it to go higher then 4.2ghz in beast case scenario but this is we're the real value of PC can be extended up to years
• SomeUSB 3 ports makes build future proof for vr

• Abilityto run 1866mhz ram on 1866mhz with a Sandy bridge

Thank you for reading this, forgive any mistakes

 

[INSTG8R]

Have you considered just buying a new BIOS chip off eBay? I did that with my previous ASUS P67 Sabertooth. Much cheaper option then trying to replace an EOL motherboard.

 

[Hood]

I had the P8Z77-V, which is above the LX, but basically the same 4 phase VRM (but with doubler). It worked fine and overclocked my i5-3570K to 4.5 running 2400 RAM. Not sure how high you can go with non-K 2600. A bclock OC is tricky on boards without an external clock generator, as it overclocks everything (bus and RAM speed, PCIe, etc.), which causes crashes if too high. Anyway, the board is solid enough. Good luck!

 

[Edwards 446]

Have you considered just buying a new BIOS chip off eBay? I did that with my previous ASUS P67 Sabertooth. Much cheaper option then trying to replace an EOL motherboard.

I have 3 ram stick at the moment I want to use them all so I can have full 16 gb ram my current board will not support the hyperx or 3 sticks anyway so I must get a new one

I had the P8Z77-V, which is above the LX, but basically the same 4 phase VRM (but with doubler). It worked fine and overclocked my i5-3570K to 4.5 running 2400 RAM. Not sure how high you can go with non-K 2600. A bclock OC is tricky on boards without an external clock generator, as it overclocks everything (bus and RAM speed, PCIe, etc.), which causes crashes if too high. Anyway, the board is solid enough. Good luck!

Thank you so much, can you describe what you mean by bclk OC everything ?

 

[niko084]

Thank you so much, can you describe what you mean by bclk OC everything ?

With modern Intel chips you overclock mainly the unclocked multiplier chips.
Bclk or 'Base Clock' overclocks everything else as well as he states pci/pci-e bus, memory base clock etc, overclocking this route generally gains very little <5%.

The i7-2600 is not unlocked so you can only overclock with the bclk setting, the i7-2600k is unlocked so you can increase the cpu multiplier and hit stable numbers above 4ghz in some cases.

 

[Edwards 446]

With modern Intel chips you overclock mainly the unclocked multiplier chips.
Bclk or 'Base Clock' overclocks everything else as well as he states pci/pci-e bus, memory base clock etc, overclocking this route generally gains very little <5%.

The i7-2600 is not unlocked so you can only overclock with the bclk setting, the i7-2600k is unlocked so you can increase the cpu multiplier and hit stable numbers above 4ghz in some cases.

Do you think it might be possible to OC this over 4ghz in any case

Thanks guys I think I will go for P8Z77-V LX2 seems like best bang for buck and seller is reliable as well it might be too late to put extra cash into system guess I can put it towards the gpu upgrade next year

 

[Vario]

I am sorry to hear you have killed an 1155, they are harder to come by now. Have you looked on eBay? There are 1155 motherboards listed from $50. However, with what you are describing as what you want, you should aim for a Z68 or Z77 board. You could do a Asus P8Z68-V or a P8Z77-V or Z77 Sabertooth.

With a i7 2600, for starters, you should be able to achieve turbo on all cores which would be 3.8GHz. Next you should be able to run +2 multiplier, which would give you 4.0Ghz. Any additional speed would be done with the base clock, you might be able to run a bit more base clock but it will also overclock other things like USB ports, PCI Express ports, etc, and so this could cause your system to be unstable or fail. I'd recommend just getting the 4.0GHz overclock as any additional speed will be barely noticable. If you want more speed, overclock the ram higher. Z77 with i7 2600 should be able to achieve 1866 Mhz with 16GB, depending on ram. With good ram, maybe 2400 Mhz. You do not want to run your ram voltage over 1.65, ideally you want it around 1.5V but a lot of sandy bridge and ivy bridge era overclocker ram kits run 1.65. Overclocking on 1155 is really easy.

 

[Edwards 446]

I am sorry to hear you have killed an 1155, they are harder to come by now. Have you looked on eBay? There are 1155 motherboards listed from $50. However, with what you are describing as what you want, you should aim for a Z68 or Z77 board. You could do a Asus P8Z68-V or a P8Z77-V or Z77 Sabertooth.

With a 2600, for starters, you should be able to achieve turbo on all cores which would be 3.8GHz. Next you should be able to run +2 multiplier, which would give you 4.0Ghz. Any additional speed would be done with the base clock, you might be able to run a bit more base clock but it will also overclock other things like USB ports, PCI Express ports, etc, and so this could cause your system to be unstable or fail. I'd recommend just getting the 4.0GHz overclock as any additional speed will be barely noticable. If you want more speed, overclock the ram higher. Z77 with i7 2600 should be able to achieve 1866 Mhz with 16GB, depending on ram. With good ram, maybe 2400 Mhz.

Thank you I am indeed going for p8z77 lx2 seems like a decent board

 

[Vario]

Thank you I am indeed going for p8z77 lx2 seems like a decent board

Alright sounds good. This looks helpful, theres a lot of different Asus Z77. https://www.custompcguide.net/the-differences-between-asus-z77-v-series-motherboards/

 

[Sasqui]

My prior rig was a Gigabyte Z77 UD5H (rev 1.1) with an i5 3570k@ 4.7Ghz (delidded and water cooled)

Great board, sorry to say I sold it for $150 about 3 months ago, it was pristine. Wouldn't rule that out, it's good for Sandy Bridge too.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z77X-UD5H-rev-11#ov

 

[Vario]

My prior rig was a Gigabyte Z77 UD5H (rev 1.1) with an i5 3570k@ 4.7Ghz (delidded and water cooled)

Great board, sorry to say I sold it for $150 about 3 months ago, it was pristine. Wouldn't rule that out, it's good for Sandy Bridge too.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z77X-UD5H-rev-11#ov

Theres also Z77X-UD3H, what I have. It is a no frills board and I had better overclocking results with my old Asrock Z77E, but it has reliably worked nearly 5 years now.