Which motherboard for a i7-4770K

[Bleeding-Edge]

A customer of mine has brought me a PC based on an MSI B85-G43-Gaming motherboard which has an i7-4770K in it. This is the Haswell line of Intel CPU's that came out just after the Ivylake CPU's and its a 4th gen CPU. It seems to me that this CPU wasn't around for long and the boards that support it are fairly rare. The Z87 is the premium chipset for this. I want to find him a 2nd hand board that will support this CPU, any suggestions?

This guy doesn't want anything too expensive as this is quite an old PC but in my opinion it's worth saving, the PC has a fairly feeble cooler on it so an overclocking board probably will be overkill and he doesn't need anything too fancy so perhaps some of the lesser chipsets would be OK for him.

 

[tabascosauz]

What's the issue with the existing B85 board?

4770K is original Haswell (not 4790K) so any LGA1150 board should be able to take one without needing BIOS updates. If more premium is what you're after, H87/Z87 and H97/Z97 should all work.

Obviously, a Z87/Z97 board will allow some OC on 4770K but iirc most 4770Ks weren't that impressive on OC headroom. Also gets hot even at stock due to the crappy TIM so they'll get absolutely nowhere on a dinky cooler.

As for board quality, you should be relatively fine since the FIVR meant VRM requirements were light on LGA1150. But obviously, the boards are geriatric.

 

[X71200]

What's wrong with the board as is? If they're not going to overclock, there's absolutely no point in buying those boards. Even if they'll overclock, there still isn't a point because the boards are today rarer and on common marketplaces like fleabay, go for expensive prices that don't make them worth the while in any means.

Like the only way this could be somewhat worth it is having the board for some 20-30 bucks from Hardforum.

 

[Keullo-e]

I had only two boards with Haswell (G3258), but even with that CPU I had a Z87 Sabertooth as a board and that was awesome. Though like with all older sockets, the better boards are usually noticeable more expensive than basic level ones.

 

[looniam]

if your customer is a grandma that stores and retrieves recipes, check email and facebook with other grammas or the grandkids, the motherboard seems fine.

however if there is a need - i get there are *very sparse* I/Os on those chipsets- then grab some 1866-2133 ram - that the B85 doesn't support; limited to 1333- or you're really wasting alot of your customers money.

 

[Bleeding-Edge]

I just got another gaming PC in, same issue, no booting, I haven't looked at it yet but perhaps its about this time of year that el cheapo Chinese capacitors go bang, after about 10 years...to the day....Hummm
Thanks for the replies so far...why do I do this to myself????????

What's the issue with the existing B85 board?

4770K is original Haswell (not 4790K) so any LGA1150 board should be able to take one without needing BIOS updates. If more premium is what you're after, H87/Z87 and H97/Z97 should all work.

Obviously, a Z87/Z97 board will allow some OC on 4770K but iirc most 4770Ks weren't that impressive on OC headroom. Also gets hot even at stock due to the crappy TIM so they'll get absolutely nowhere on a dinky cooler.

As for board quality, you should be relatively fine since the FIVR meant VRM requirements were light on LGA1150. But obviously, the boards are geriatric.

Have a look at the other post I did today for what's wrong with it, your right about the OC abilities with this chip, it was hot already and the cooler is not great. Thanks for the heads up on the other chop sets that support that CPU.

the boards are today rarer and on common marketplaces like fleabay

Yes thats true and they cost £130++ for an old board...hummmm

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I just got another gaming PC in, same issue, no booting, I haven't looked at it yet but perhaps its about this time of year that el cheapo Chinese capacitors go bang, after about 10 years...to the day....Hummm
Thanks for the replies so far...why do I do this to myself????????

Update the bios

 

[Bleeding-Edge]

if your customer is a grandma

He isn't a grandma but he isn't that bothered about power/speed, he says he used this PC for gaming streaming as its too geriatric to do games on it's own.

 

[looniam]

He isn't a grandma but he isn't that bothered about power/speed, he says he used this PC for gaming streaming as its too geriatric to do games on it's own.

hey, im an old man but somedays i identify as a gramma. i enjoy buying kids ice cream; last summer my neighbor had to put his foot down.

not to be a negative nellie but that set up from the get go wasn't really ideal for gaming, esp since 1333 ram blows chunks even compared to 1600.

i have a i7-2600K on a cheap H61/1333 for a back up and its night and day difference if i toss that in the Z77/1866 board and a mild OC of all core boost=single core boost speeds.

your customer OK w/used - i'm assuming so because budget. i can't off the top of my head name all the Z87/97 board but any decent not bottom of the barrel offering would be an improvement. i know they aren't worried but those default speeds are keeping the guy down. a Nice increase to ~4.1Ghz will hit towards the sweet spot and even a CM hyper 212 can handle that heat.

some 1866-2133 ram and they'll think you got them a new machine. you might get lucky w/~$100 probably luckier w/$125. but that around my neck of the woods.

 

[OliverQueen]

I had only two boards with Haswell (G3258), but even with that CPU I had a Z87 Sabertooth as a board and that was awesome. Though like with all older sockets, the better boards are usually noticeable more expensive than basic level ones.

That's the board that I have in my 4770K based Plex Server. Solid as a rock. Has run 24/7/365 with the occasional repasting every few years with a 120mm AIO that was an original component for it back in, I believe, 2013/14 when I built it. Temps have been consistently in the upper 20C's at idle & no higher than mid-40C's when the Plex Server is being accessed.

 

[gffermari]

I had an Asrock Z87 ITX board with msata ssd at the back. My 4770K was capable of running at 4.5Ghz, but not a hz more.
I think you can find easily many Z87/H87/Z97/H97 mobos on ebay and elsewhere.
There was no competition back then, so almost everyone had Intel based systems.

 

[Bleeding-Edge]

I have now tested the RAM from this PC in another PC, its OK, I tried it's CPU in another PC, it's OK too.

 

[Calenhad]

Just a shame these older components are getting rarer and thus costlier for each day now.

The Haswell is notoriously hot running under max load and overclocked. But keep speed and turbo settings at stock and it is fine.

The challenge is to find a compatible (and working) motherboard for a decent price.

 

[Bleeding-Edge]

Just a shame these older components are getting rarer and thus costlier for each day now.

The Haswell is notoriously hot running under max load and overclocked. But keep speed and turbo settings at stock and it is fine.

The challenge is to find a compatible (and working) motherboard for a decent price.

It really is. I am amazed at how these really old boards hold their value. Still it stands to testament at how good they were to keep going for so long. Amazing really.
I think there is a issue here.
Windows 10 is damaging old hardware using the early versions of UEFI BIOS's. I think I am going to see more and more terminally broken PC's in the near future. These PC's from the age of the new-fangled UEFI BIOS's seem to be fundamentally trashing themselves in serious ways that normally should not happen...
Let's see...

 

[eidairaman1]

It really is. I am amazed at how these really old boards hold their value. Still it stands to testament at how good they were to keep going for so long. Amazing really.
I think there is a issue here.
Windows 10 is damaging old hardware using the early versions of UEFI BIOS's. I think I am going to see more and more terminally broken PC's in the near future. These PC's from the age of the new-fangled UEFI BIOS's seem to be fundamentally trashing themselves in serious ways that normally should not happen...
Let's see...

Funny enough Skt A as well

 

[Mussels]

These days its whatever you can find, it's not like theres large amounts of good boards lying around except by hoarders who want top dollar (all the good value ones sold or died long ago)

Just make sure he has an SSD to boot from - some 3rd and 4th gen boards even had NVME

 

[stinger608]

I have an MSI Z97 Gaming board that I've had for probably 10 years and it's still going strong.
As @Mussels pointed out, it has the NVME slot on the motherboard.

I think that the Z97 boards were much better quality boards than many of the older gen motherboards.

If you can, attempt to find a Z97 for a sane price.

I've actually thought about selling the MSI Z97 board, but I'd imagine you are not in the US considering you referenced the price in pounds vs US dollars.

 

[Calenhad]

I have an MSI Z97 Gaming board that I've had for probably 10 years and it's still going strong.

I have an Asus Maximus VII Hero Z97 motherboard that is still working like it was new. Got a delidded 4770k with a custom loop and a decent overclock since day one. And 2x16GB memory @ 2400MHz. It also have a nvme slot, which is only pcie 2.0x4.

 

[Mussels]

I went and did some research and dug up me old bits from the garage:

The Z97 board i keep thinking of was actually a 3rd gen Z77, i kept getting confused between the builds since they're visually so similar

I had a 4770k with 32GB DDR3 2000, and a 3770k with 16GB DDR3 2400 with really, reaaaaallly similar looking Asrock boards - Extreme 4 or 6's i think. Both were really solid and still work today (Dad has the 4770k, uncle has the 3770k)

3.0 2x NVME slot Aint fantastic by any means since it was made for wifi cards, but it's still amazing to have NVME support at all on the old boards

 

[newtekie1]

Windows 10 is damaging old hardware using the early versions of UEFI BIOS's. I think I am going to see more and more terminally broken PC's in the near future. These PC's from the age of the new-fangled UEFI BIOS's seem to be fundamentally trashing themselves in serious ways that normally should not happen...

I don't think it has anything to do with Windows 10(or 11). I've run Windows 10 on my Z97 system since almost the day Win10 came out and it has run fine for years. Up until just a few months ago when the BIOS went corrupt. I switched over to the backup BIOS chip, and it too was corrupt. Even though this BIOS has never been used with Windows. In fact, other than when I first got the board to test, the backup BIOS has never been booted. It too was corrupt.

Taking the BIOS chips out, both read as corrupt. And when I flashed the BIOS onto the chips, both checked as corrupt immediately after flashing. I suspect this era of BIOS chips just are starting to fail, and we are just now seeing them reach the end of their lives and failing. I bought new chips off the jungle website, flashed both new chips and they checked out fine, and the board is back to booting again.

 

[Mussels]

Oh!

No i ran into that myself, the Specter and meltdown fixes have been corrupting some BIOS'es i've had fun dealing with. The most interesting one i saw was that you could change anything you wanted in the BIOS, it'd save and retain it... but not apply it.

I just learned to reflash the BIOS on really old systems if they exhibit any issues and havent seen it since

I originally learned of it from this thread here, encountered it in the wild and found the intel IME was... partially corrupted? Set to read only? Ignored and reading from elsewhere? Until the reflash