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microATX Z68 suggestions for i5-2500/k

Joshatdot

Joshatdot

Member
My current is a Asus V2-M3N8200 Barebones (basically a Asus M3N78-VM) microATX system, with Phenom X3 8650 2.3 GHz, 4 GB DDR2-1066. I really like this size of system .. but it can get cramped in the case.

I am looking to upgrade and give this system to my parents or my sister & her kids. I've decided to build around the i5-2500 or 2500k .. but won't be using the inchip GPU .. I'll most likely be picking a HD 6870.

My must haves/wants for the i5 is:

1. microATX (LGA 1155)
2. Z68 northbridge
3. PCIe slot that will not be blocked by a x16 card, for my X-Fi Titanium
4. Budget $100 ~ $130
5. 4x DDR3 slots .. maybe 2x slots

I have picked out a few from Newegg, and wondered what you all thought of them .. or had some other suggestions;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128495
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157252
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130612
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157270

I do not need SLI/XFire, or IDE support. This will be for MMO gaming, minecraft, terraria, Skype/Vent, light photo editing, some video encoding for YT .. and daily surfing, FB, YT, rededit.
 
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I have the ASRock Z68 PRO3-M with a 2500k and a CM 212+. It's currently oc'd to 4.2. No problems with the board. Got it with the Micocenter cpu/motherboard combo package.
 
steptaker said:
I have the Gigabyte board....no problems, very user friendly.
Click to expand...

I have that exact Gigabyte board as well, no problems, either. You should be able to use the PCIe slot with a GPU installed in the 16x slot.

If you intend to use the #4 RAM slot with an aftermarket CPU cooler (read: CM 212+) do yourself a favor and get low-profile RAM or you will have to slide the fan up about 3/8" to clear the stick (depending on how big your RAM is... I have G.Skill Stealth, I wouldn't want to try it with something silly like Corsair Vengance, etc...)
 
Thanks for the tip about the Hyper 212+, as I have on already. I was going to use it in this system, but it was too tall for the case. Peeking at the NE pics, the ASRock does have a tad more space between the CPU & the mem slots .. MSI too.

All things being equal .. the MSI board has less favorable reviews than the ASRock or Giga. I think I'll go with the ASRock Z68 PRO3-M .. maybe the Giga if I go with lowpro mem heatsinks.
 
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Joshatdot said:
All things being equal .. the MSI board has less favorable reviews than the ASRock or Giga. I think I'll go with the ASRock Z68 PRO3-M .. maybe the Giga if I go with lowpro mem heatsinks.
Click to expand...

It's only a small obstacle... once it's installed... no worries... except if you have to pull the RAM card out. I'm sticking with just 2 sticks of RAM myself. The Stealth RAM is what I would call a mid-profile, but, as I said, I wouldn't want to try it with Vengance or Ripjaws, etc.

I have gobs of room in my mid-tower 922 case, I could see where the height of the 212+ may be an issue in a smaller case.

tatonka004.jpg
 
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All these boards will require you to run your sound card right against a dual slot graphics card, unless you want to drop your graphics card to PCIe x8. IMO this is not an ideal solution. There are a few boards made which will separate the two cards by the maximum number of slots while still retaining x16 for the graphics card.

Asus P8Z68-M Pro

MSI Z68MA-ED55

Gigabyte GA-Z68M-D2H

The two slots are configured x16 and x4.
 
Zap said:
All these boards will require you to run your sound card right against a dual slot graphics card, unless you want to drop your graphics card to PCIe x8. IMO this is not an ideal solution. There are a few boards made which will separate the two cards by the maximum number of slots while still retaining x16 for the graphics card.

Asus P8Z68-M Pro

MSI Z68MA-ED55

Gigabyte GA-Z68M-D2H

The two slots are configured x16 and x4.
Click to expand...
My current rig has the PCIe 1x right behind/next to the 16x slot. I do not get any interference and if I did I could stick on a piece of EMI/RFI paper between them. I wasn't sure if I could run a 1x card in a bigger PCIe slot .. good to know!
 
Yes, you can run your x1 sound card in the x4 slot which is physically an x16 slot. 😛

The reason why I suggested the slot separation is that these motherboards have the primary graphics card slot at the very top, and thus any card right next to it may (or may not) block airflow to the graphics card fan.
 
Also beware of NE reviews. Some of the people that post thoughts do not even have the product they spout about and some have no clue of the product after even buying it. Not saying don't look at them just saying take a huge does of salt when reading them especially the negative ones. Go outside of NE for better reviews.
 
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I have that gigabyte board as well in my main rig. I originally bought it as a budget mobo for my backup rig, but it was a breeze to install/operate/overclock with the 212+ and a 2500k, so I ended up making it my main gamer/general use computer and exiling the i7 920 to the guest room for backup duty.

Look at Charlie's pic, he has 2 fans on his 212+. I've had no issues at all with ram, though I'm only using the one fan that it came with.

I run all of my rigs 24/7 on DC (mostly seti with optimized apps, also some correlizer, einstein, and milkyway). This board is the first $100 board I've bought in 3 1/2 years, and thus far I've been very impressed with how well it's held up compared to higher end ones I'm used to.

I highly recommend the ga-z68ma-d2h-b3. It's not the most expensive board out there, but it's been fantastic for me.
 
Joshatdot said:
Only thing I am worried about are the PCIe 2.0 slots .. from all I can read is that they are 8x only?
...
well screw that .. why would you limit both to 8x ?!
Click to expand...

It is a limitation of socket 1155, unless you use a PCIe lane multiplier which gives you more "fake" lanes. With socket 1155, the CPU provides 16 lanes and the motherboard chipset provides... I want to say 8.

Those 8 are used for onboard stuff like USB 3.0 controller, extra SATA ports, etc. Usually you have around 4 lanes left over. You can use those 4 lanes to populate a bunch of x1 slots, or a single x4 slot (which can physically be x16 to hold a graphics card). Alternately you can use them for an x1 and x4, but if you use both, the x4 becomes an x1.

The CPU's 16 lanes can all be used for one graphics card, or can be split x8/x8 to run two graphics cards. Some boards use the full x16 for one, but the chipset x4 for the second card. This supports Crossfire, but does not (officially) support SLI. For SLI you need x8/x8.

Some boards such as my Asus P8P67 Pro have three x16 slots. The first gets the full x16 lanes from the CPU. The second, if populated, will use x8 lanes from the CPU, forcing the first slot into x8 mode. The third uses x4 lanes from the chipset.

The mATX Gigabyte boards with three x16 slots have strange layouts. First uses x16 lanes. Second uses x4 lanes from chipset, but goes down to x1 if you have any card inserted into the x1 slot next to it. Third uses x8 lanes from the CPU, stealing them from the first x16 slot if used.
 
Zap said:
It is a limitation of socket 1155, unless you use a PCIe lane multiplier which gives you more "fake" lanes. With socket 1155, the CPU provides 16 lanes and the motherboard chipset provides... I want to say 8.

Those 8 are used for onboard stuff like USB 3.0 controller, extra SATA ports, etc. Usually you have around 4 lanes left over. You can use those 4 lanes to populate a bunch of x1 slots, or a single x4 slot (which can physically be x16 to hold a graphics card). Alternately you can use them for an x1 and x4, but if you use both, the x4 becomes an x1.

The CPU's 16 lanes can all be used for one graphics card, or can be split x8/x8 to run two graphics cards. Some boards use the full x16 for one, but the chipset x4 for the second card. This supports Crossfire, but does not (officially) support SLI. For SLI you need x8/x8.

Some boards such as my Asus P8P67 Pro have three x16 slots. The first gets the full x16 lanes from the CPU. The second, if populated, will use x8 lanes from the CPU, forcing the first slot into x8 mode. The third uses x4 lanes from the chipset.

The mATX Gigabyte boards with three x16 slots have strange layouts. First uses x16 lanes. Second uses x4 lanes from chipset, but goes down to x1 if you have any card inserted into the x1 slot next to it. Third uses x8 lanes from the CPU, stealing them from the first x16 slot if used.
Click to expand...
Will that eVGA support one 16x GFX card at 16x speed, and one 1x sound card? .. or will the GFX card be limited to 8x speed?
 
I have the Asrock z68m\usb3
Its been a great little board and I recommend it if you can get by with just the 2 mem slots. Also keep in mind that there is no VRM heatsinks so I wouldn't recomend for chasing super high overclocks
 
Joshatdot said:
Will that eVGA support one 16x GFX card at 16x speed, and one 1x sound card? .. or will the GFX card be limited to 8x speed?
Click to expand...

If you use the bottom x1 slot, you will be fine. The graphics card will drop to x8 if you use the second x16 slot. Here's the configuration

1 ---------------- x16
2 --- x1
3 ---------------- x16
4 --- x1

Your graphics card goes in 1 and sound card goes in 4. Done! If you put your sound card in 3, 1 and 3 become x8.
 
I emailed evga afew days ago about that mobo ..

Question:

Comment: I am very interested in the 120-SB-E682-KR .. but I am confused about the PCIe 2.0 slots. Are they both limited to 8x? Cannot one be used as a 16x slot for a video card?

Answer:

Josh, Both are 8x, using only one will not boost it up to 16x. Regards, EVGA
 
O I C, it is hardwired that way. Guess they expect/hope people to buy more graphics cards for SLI.
 
yeah .. lame though .. that would be a great board if otherwise. AFAIK its the only micro that has more than 1 PWM (4pin) fan connectors .. plus all those usb/3.0/esata gubbins in the back, adn i think more headers for usb too.
 
By golly it does .. I didnt see it at first, its right next to the 24pin power.

IMHO, ideally I'd like 3, 1 for the cpu, of course, and 2 more for front & rear 120mm fans.
 
Joshatdot said:
By golly it does .. I didnt see it at first, its right next to the 24pin power.

IMHO, ideally I'd like 3, 1 for the cpu, of course, and 2 more for front & rear 120mm fans.
Click to expand...


Initially I just ran my case fans off the Molex, but recently I got a very nice Lamptron fan controller... now I run them at 40-50% and I don't have to hear them... ^_^ I let the board control the back fan (system) and the CPU dual fans (CPU.)
 
ok .. I am down to 3 choices:
GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 - Ya'll seem to recommend this, and now I am nitpicking. It has an OK amount of USB in the back 4+2 3.0, and only 1 extra fan connector.

MSI Z68MA-ED55 (B3) - Abit more money upfront, but with rebate, its a good deal. Same 4+2 3.0 USB in teh back, but has 4 fan headers (3-pin).

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z - NE has an open box of this for abit more then I wanted to spend, BUT it has alot more extras. It has seven 2.0 + two 3.0 USB in the back, and 2x eSATA. Plus it has five 4pin fan headers.
 
Charlie98 said:
Initially I just ran my case fans off the Molex, but recently I got a very nice Lamptron fan controller... now I run them at 40-50% and I don't have to hear them... ^_^ I let the board control the back fan (system) and the CPU dual fans (CPU.)
Click to expand...

wish i saw this thread a few days ago
i have the gigabyte board too and checking the # of fan hookups was the 1 thing i overlooked.a basic fan contoller for 2 fans is cheap thankfully
+1 for gigabyte board(so far so good)
 
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