CPU Upgrade advice.

[OilSheikh]

Chnage of mind. Will instead go for a H61 mobo.

Which would you recommend , CAT ?

Asus P8H61-M - £61
ASROCK H61M-S - £51
MSI H61M-E33 - £59

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Chnage of mind. Will instead go for a H61 mobo.

Which would you recommend , CAT ?

Asus P8H61-M - £61
ASROCK H61M-S - £51
MSI H61M-E33 - £59

The Asus motherboard looks better - but what retailer are you using BTW??

You can get an H67 motherboard for around the same price as the H61 ones you listed:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/259261

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265584

With the H67 motherboards you get SATA 3.0 support and the second motherboard has USB3.0 ports too.

[OilSheikh]

To me , Biostar is the same as PC CHIPS!

Found some more :

Ebuyer MSI H67MA-E35-B3 - £76
X MSI H67MA-E35 - £71
eBay MSI H67MA-E45 - £70

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You need to get a B3 revision motherboard as the earlier version had SATA issues which lead to the Intel recall. Be careful with Ebay as you may get an earlier version unless it is stated you will get a B3 revision motherboard.

The MSI H67MA-E35-B3 is £67 on Ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265584

If you can find a few more quid I would suggest getting a motherboard with four RAM slots. However,the MSI H67MA-E35-B3 should do the job.

[scaryjim]

To me , Biostar is the same as PC CHIPS!

Harsh dude. Biostar is a much better mobo manufacturer than PC Chips ever was. Build quality is very good. I wouldn't disregard them so easily, you get a lot more for your money...

[OilSheikh]

I did a bit of a search and couldn't find any cheap motherboard that has multiple RAM slots, USB 3.0 , SATA 6.0 and a UEFI BIOS.

So, I just went ahead and ordered the MSI H67MA-E35-B3 , I3 2100 and a Coolermaster 212 Cooler [ Having the 12 cm fan gives me the option to use my AC fan if the coolermaster one is noisy! ]

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The stock cooler on the Core i3 2100 is not that bad TBH! I use one in a mini ITX build which is on the desk next to me with the case off and only under load can you here it slightly whirring.

[OilSheikh]

Harsh dude. Biostar is a much better mobo manufacturer than PC Chips ever was. Build quality is very good. I wouldn't disregard them so easily, you get a lot more for your money...

I just can't dude. Biostar is at the bottom of anyone's choice for a good motherboard. Even ASROCK are ranked higher than them. I have also noticed that with brands like ASROCK or BIOSTAR, the QFAN is not that effective.

BIOSTAR > INTEL > ASROCK > XFX/ZOTAC/EVGA > MSI > GIGABYTE > ASUS imo.

[OilSheikh]

The stock cooler on the Core i3 2100 is not that bad TBH! I use one in a mini ITX build which is on the desk next to me with the case off and only under load can you here it slightly whirring.

Sounds good. Can always return it if not needed.

[scaryjim]

... Biostar is at the bottom of anyone's choice for a good motherboard ...

Oh, I'd never claim they're as good as / better than established brands like Gigabyte and ASUS. But they (and ASRock) are *so* much better than PC Chips that comparing the two really isn't fair Basically the bottom line is that even cheap motherboards are reasonable quality nowadays: something that just wasn't true 10 years ago...

[OilSheikh]

Got everything today.
I can't believe INTEL reduced the packaging of the processor! Yeah, the processor is based on a smaller fabrication but why the box shrunk too? lol

All this will make up for a good Birthday treat for myself tomorrow : )

[OilSheikh]

Copy-pasting .....


Now, when I first booted up my build, I saw behaviours of short-circuiting as everything kept switching off couple of seconds after I pressed the ON button. On the 5th time, everything booted up OK and I no longer get this issue. But, now during POST, I get a strange type of quick 3 beeps and the numbers 90 91 A3 appear in the lower right-hand corner.

My questions are :
- Why was the short-circuitry happen ? [ I had a P35 motherboard in the same case and no such problems ]
- What is this message in the corner ?
- I also want to upgrade to UEFIBIOS. How do I go about it ?

[Georgio1990]

To be honest id say quad, 90% of games atm play on dual core however, there are few like the frostbite engines that are moving to quad core. Im in a similar boat to u and just upraded from a 4.2 ghz i3 to a i5 760.

[Georgio1990]

Hi Oilshekih, i just installed my i5 chip and im also having the same problems as your having with the short-circuting and quick reboots:S trying to get round it :S

[Queelis]

My questions are :
- Why was the short-circuitry happen ? [ I had a P35 motherboard in the same case and no such problems ]
- What is this message in the corner ?
- I also want to upgrade to UEFIBIOS. How do I go about it ?

1) Short-circuitry often happens because of the backplate, but if you haven't moved the MoBo, then it shouldn't be an issue.

2) Check what the beeps mean in your motherboard's manual (and probably the message).

3) You don't. Either the motherboard supports BIOS (as almost everything pre-P67 does), or it supports UEFI. You can't just change it if the motherboard wasn't built for that.

[Georgio1990]

deffently isnt the backplate as i tested it out with out the computer case :S