GIGABYTE GA-H61M-HD2 Micro ATX?

[mode101wpb]

I am piecing together a possible new build, might be doing it over a few months since I am on a tight budget, so I am looking at this Mobo. Never had a Micro ATX, but like smaller form factors on my desk.

Thinking of pairing it with a 3570K

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4390#ov

All around general use, some gaming mainly FPS.

 

[Charlie98]

If you are looking to OC that K-chip, I think you need to go to a Z68 board, or, better yet, something newer like a Z77 board.

I like Gigabyte boards, I have 2 mATX running right now... no problems whatsoever.

Just as a matter of conversation... the H61 is pretty old tech... if you aren't OC'ing you might be better served with a B75 or H77 board, at least those fully support USB 3.0. But the H61's sure are cheap!

 

[artkaye]

My current build used this mobo with an i3-2100 processor; old techy as just mentioned. It is quite good, but you may have to upgrade as I would be doing soon to take advantage of better video output - dvi & hdmi.

 

[SPBHM]

think about H61 as a cut down Z68, they removed the 2 sata III ports, locked multiplier OC, the possibility of splitting the CPU PCIE lanes for 2 VGAs and some other things, but the basic performance (CPU), the sata II and USB 2.0 performance should be the same...

the board you want should be fine for gaming or anything, as long you don't need a lot of PCIE slots (most with a single VGA and nothing else don't), or you don't use sata III, USB 3.0 and OC.

as already mentioned, B75 is almost as cheap as h61 but adds one sata III port, native USB 3.0
and ideally you would use a Z77/Z75 (or even P67/Z68) because it would allow you to overclock the CPU by changing the multiplier

 

[Skott]

That mobo was a popular budget board a year or so ago. You won't be able to OC that cpu on it either. Personally, I'd keep the cpu and step up to a better mobo so you can overclock it but that's just me.