Help me choose a cheap 1155 board!

[squelchy451]

hi. These three boards are $50-55 and I'm not sure which to choose. I'll probably be pairing these up with a i3-2120

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/H61M-P23--B3-.html#/?div=Overview
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/H61M-E33--B3-.html#/?div=Basic
http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LECSM/

If there are any other mATX boards for ~$50 shipped that's better than these, let me know.
I do plan on overclocking, but since I"m a noob, I'll probably use the mobo supplied OC tools.

Thanks!

 

[AbdullahG]

Unfortunately, you cannot overclock your i3, or you at least have very little room to do so.
They have a lock multiplier.
The only chipsets for the LGA 1155 platform that allow overclocking are the P67 and Z68 chipsets, not the H61 or H67 chipset.

Basically, you cannot overclock, but if you still want to buy one of the listed motherboards, go for the ASUS (higher quality and better experience overall).

 

[Fitseries3]

you CAN oc with any 1155 chipset board however it is very limited. ~110bclk max.

with z68 you can use FSB straps to OC a locked multi cpu. still limited but very possible to get most cpus to 4-4.2ghz

 

[Yo_Wattup]

you CAN oc with any 1155 chipset board however it is very limited. ~110bclk max.

On H61?

 

[Fitseries3]

IF the bios supports it. i've had a few h67s that had option for OCing and they allowed a small OC with non K series cpus

 

[hat]

you CAN oc with any 1155 chipset board however it is very limited. ~110bclk max.

with z68 you can use FSB straps to OC a locked multi cpu. still limited but very possible to get most cpus to 4-4.2ghz

So essentially you can push the FSB higher at the cost of QPI latency?

 

[Jetster]

Exactly

 

[entropy13]

Cheapest LGA 1155 boards (H61 chipset) are from Biostar, ASRock, Foxconn, Jetway, ECS, EMaxx and one from Gigabyte.

 

[Fitseries3]

So essentially you can push the FSB higher at the cost of QPI latency?

when using the different straps you can set incrimental OC's of the fsb

IE: 100, 133, 150, 166, 175

shouldnt add much latency, just allows you to up the bclk while keeping pcie freq in check.

 

[hat]

About for far can you go and keep it stable? Surely not as high as 175...

 

[Fitseries3]

175 is a stretch. i've seen 4ghz on most cpus but dont take my word for it.

 

[hat]

Seems like even 133 is a stretch then, cause 133x31 is around 4.1GHz. Looks like 1156 is still a better option for me.

 

[Fitseries3]

i stuck with 1156 due to the high prices of 1155. boards are hard to find though... as well as cpus.

if used is ok for ya... i've got a good list of people/places that have good stuff for decent prices. just PM me

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Seems like even 133 is a stretch then, cause 133x31 is around 4.1GHz. Looks like 1156 is still a better option for me.

a 4.0ghz SB i3 should still beat a 4.5ghz 1156 i3. I think.

And besides, think of the upgrade options!

 

[hat]

I just read a review where the i3 2120 reliably beat the i3 560 in every test, and is around a whopping 25% faster on average... and it has way better power consumption. This is making me want to go 1155 instead... but there's a chance I'll get stuck trying to OC that 2120.

Fits, can you give any more information about that 1155 overclocking? Any solid results, any how-tos, anything like that. If I can see some reliable info that convinces me I can indeed stably push something like the i3 2120 to 4GHz or more with these boot strap tweaks, I just might go with SB instead of the older 1156 platform for my upgrade I'm considering. Right now Google is only telling me what I already know... no multiplier clocking, FSB can go to 110 at the very best before crapping out, yadda yadda...

 

[Fitseries3]

thats the thing.... anyone who is an OCer will go for the K series chips because they think its the only way to OC 1155 chips. very few people have tried OCing the lower end chips so there is hardly any data on it. some people on XS have screenshots but XS is down for a few days due to upgrades.

the review you read.... was it comparing the cpus at stock speed or OCed?

to be completely honest, unless you get a K series cpu, its quite possible you wont be able to OC hardly any at all depending on the board and cpu. its a 30/70 split here. i cant really say yes OR no. YES you can at least 200mhz but its also very possible that you could use fsb straps on z68 to do far more. not many people have even attempted this because the K chips make it so easy that even a total noob can OC these chips.

if you compare say, i3-2120 running stock speed VS i5 650 running 4.5ghz, you would most likely see the older setup running faster with more bandwidth in all areas. not sure though, because NO ONE EVER compares past generations with new hardware.

 

[Solaris17]

a 4.0ghz SB i3 should still beat a 4.5ghz 1156 i3. I think.

And besides, think of the upgrade options!

your kidding right?

 

[Fitseries3]

another reason not to get 1155 is the fact that due to the new ivybridge chips coming out soon, there is a whole new line of motherboards coming out with the z77 chipset.

any board you buy today is guaranteed to be old news here in about 2 months.

 

[hat]

your kidding right?

I don't think he is.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_2.html#sect0

 

[hat]

thats the thing.... anyone who is an OCer will go for the K series chips because they think its the only way to OC 1155 chips. very few people have tried OCing the lower end chips so there is hardly any data on it. some people on XS have screenshots but XS is down for a few days due to upgrades.

the review you read.... was it comparing the cpus at stock speed or OCed?

to be completely honest, unless you get a K series cpu, its quite possible you wont be able to OC hardly any at all depending on the board and cpu. its a 30/70 split here. i cant really say yes OR no. YES you can at least 200mhz but its also very possible that you could use fsb straps on z68 to do far more. not many people have even attempted this because the K chips make it so easy that even a total noob can OC these chips.

if you compare say, i3-2120 running stock speed VS i5 650 running 4.5ghz, you would most likely see the older setup running faster with more bandwidth in all areas. not sure though, because NO ONE EVER compares past generations with new hardware.

I don't really want to be the pioneer of z68 non-k overclocking... I don't have the money to not get really upset if it doesn't work out so well.

 

[Fitseries3]

I would if I had some money.... All I really am trying to tell you though is that if you want low dollar ocing, 1156 is your best bet. That's what I'm doing. I have a 655k that I'm rather content with.

 

[squelchy451]

um thanks guys for helping me choose the motherboard, which was the main point of this thread. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll need to overclock any time soon because I only have a Radeon 6670. Unless I upgrade to a 6850 or similar, the i3 would do at stock speeds for now.

 

[Fitseries3]

sorry, asus trumps msi any day.

 

[cadaveca]

when using the different straps you can set incrimental OC's of the fsb

IE: 100, 133, 150, 166, 175

shouldnt add much latency, just allows you to up the bclk while keeping pcie freq in check.

There is no "Straps" on 1155. You can OC "locked" chips as they still allow increase of multi by 4 steps(ie, 20 multi can be set to 24).

Which makes the rest of your info a bit, well, wrong. Sure you're not thinking about 1156?

Also, 110 MHz BCLK is very rare, due to PCIe and BCLK being tied to each other. SKT2011 breaks this tie, and allows for "straps".

 

[JrRacinFan]

You can OC "locked" chips as they still allow increase of multi by 4 steps

What I am trying to understand, is this on ANY chip when paired with Z68/P67 or just ones with Turbo?