Question new mobo choice

[lenjack]

I used to run a 2500k i5 cpu overclocked to 3.8GHz on a Gigabyte P67 board, which I damaged by overtorquing a hsf. Been using a substitute pc, but want to reinstate the original pc, and plan to replace the damaged board. I've found some used Gigabyte candidates on AliExpress, in the $50 range, with free shipping and returns. Can't find the identical board, but did find some P67 Gigabyte boards. Also found some Z68 Gigabyte boards, which I understand will work.

Any advantage to the Z68 boards for a non gamer?. I don't really do anything computer intensive. Would I be best sticking with P67 for conformity? My backups are compatible with dissimilar hardware, so I won't have that to worry about.

System is W10, 32 bits, 4G ram, 240G SSD.

Thanks in advance.

 

[daveybrat]

The Z68 boards are better for overclocking and should have some beefier heatsinks on the VRM's.

 

[lenjack]

Never had any oc'ing issues with previous p67 though, and cpu ran cool, so if there are no other advantages, I might stick with p67. I don't plan on going beyond previous 3.7 or 3.8. Thanks much.

 

[Charlie98]

Interesting... I would think there would be more Z68's available than P67's...

 

[lenjack]

There are, but enough of both, for me to make a choice. I'm so familiar with Gigabyte P67, that even though I can't find the identical Gigabyte p67 board, I'm leaning that way. I can do the BIOS in my sleep, and still have the driver disk.

 

[Muadib]

How much are you paying for a replacement P67 motherboard? They can't be cheap unless you are buying used, because they are rare now. It might be time to upgrade...

 

[lenjack]

$50 used.

 

[lenjack]

Follow up. Very stubborn issue. Attempting to order from Aliexpress. I'm on order page, attempting to confirm order. It wants my mobile number, but no matter how I enter it, it refuses to accept it. I'm US. If I enter 7 digits, it continues to say, "enter mobile number". If I enter 10 digits, with area code, it says "Please enter between 1-8 numbers". Even tried with a land line number. I'm hoping one of you has ordered from them and figured this out.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Follow up. Very stubborn issue. Attempting to order from Aliexpress. I'm on order page, attempting to confirm order. It wants my mobile number, but no matter how I enter it, it refuses to accept it. I'm US. If I enter 7 digits, it continues to say, "enter mobile number". If I enter 10 digits, with area code, it says "Please enter between 1-8 numbers". Even tried with a land line number. I'm hoping one of you has ordered from them and figured this out.

Did you put in your country code? U.S. is 1

 

[lenjack]

Yes. Trying online chat with them. It's like talking to a wall.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Yes. Trying online chat with them. It's like talking to a wall.

we have 100's of 1000's of new and used mb options in the USA and u wanna buy a used item from a foreign country that will ship it to you in 3-8 weeks and provide no customer service?

 

[lenjack]

I'll buy same from US for $50, but where? I don't see it.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

search around, find a substitute, find something similar, pay a little more. Don't you think its worth it for the follow up customer service? You want something as delicate as a mb individually packaged and shipped around the world? imagine how many times its thrown over 6 feet and hits a wall or floor. I'd say at least 5x, maybe 10

 

[lenjack]

Still working on this. Another question. Some of these boards are P67 chipsets, and some are P67A. What is the difference? Thanks again.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

How much are you paying for a replacement P67 motherboard? They can't be cheap unless you are buying used, because they are rare now. It might be time to upgrade...

This!

$50 used.

Oops not that!
$50 is a very fair price, good shopping work OP.

 

[Steltek]

Still working on this. Another question. Some of these boards are P67 chipsets, and some are P67A. What is the difference? Thanks again.

There isn't a P67A chipset, only a P67. Several manufacturers (I remember Gigabyte and MSI specifically) used P67A in their model names, but were still using the plain P67 Express chipset.

The P67 did have that defective SATA controller at release that Intel had to fix via a hardware revision, but the chipset remained the P67.

 

[lenjack]

I remember the revision. It was the B3 stepping. In my search, I'm careful to look see that the mobo for sale is a B3 stepping. Thanks for the P67 vs P67A clarification.

 

[Arkaign]

The *6 series chipsets eg H61, B65, P67, Z68 were S1155 released alongside the Sandy Bridge 2000 series CPUs.

You can also use a more updated *7 series board, which may be preferable if you find the right price. Z77 especially would be nice, though if you don't want to OC, then B75 is more than fine. (B75 will let you set multiplier to max turbo MP, but no further).

Hopefully this info will be of use, I find the Bios and I/O of the 7 series boards to be preferable to the 6 series. UEFI era was beginning with the 6 series and some of the boards like my old P67 Pro were a little twitchy to work with.


Almost forgot : 6 series was limited to PCIe 2.0, 7 series brought PCIe 3.0

 

[lenjack]

My old gigabyte board that I damaged (P67A-UD3P-B3), and am trying to replace, had the older standard BIOS, but I was quite comfy with it, and the replacement used $55 p67 boards I'm looking at, have the older bios as well, which wouldn't bother me. I had no problem oc'g my 3.3 2500k to 3.8, and that was good enough for a non gamer.