I'm looking at possibly going from my current setup (FX-6300 on an Asus M5A97 R2.0) to an intel build (i5 4670K on MSI Z87-G45) I wondering on the thoughts of this board and cpu combo, more so for gaming and overclocking.
I built an i7 rig for a friend and in doing so I got some parts that may be easier to use this way, like my Plextor msata boot drive would no longer need an adapter. It would also be nice to have the iGPU to fall back on if my graphics ever went out. I intend to reuse my 8GB Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9, Corsair GS600, and Coolermaster Hyper212 Evo (with a pair of SP120 Performance) I'm wondering more of what kind of overclock is descent on this versus how reachable that is. I'm fairly sure I'm not gonna get the lowered power states due to my PSU, but not a biggy for me. I looked at the z87-GD65 and don't feel the 2 additional sata ports make the $25ish price hike, the only difference I can see between them.
As it stands, http://www.microcenter.com/product/414819/Z87-G45_Gaming_Socket_LGA_1150_ATX_Intel_Motherboard + http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=583302 comes out to around $310 before taxes with $30 off thanks to the bundle. I live maybe 45min away so not a prob and seems this is the cheapest to get the i5. I'm usually an Asus only guy, but I'm trying to keep costs down and simplify things. MSI seems to make the cheaper boards with msata. If there is better, I'm open to suggestion.
I can't promise that you will see an improvement in most games. Most of the work is largely done by the GPU, and so some people might argue that this is a bit of a side-grade.
The i5 and any Z87 is a perfectly good combo, and it might yield performance benefits in games that are much more reliant on single core performance. Additionally, the Z87 chipset is much more up-to-date, in comparison to the AM3+ platform.
Drawing back on my first point, it could come down to the games you prefer. The FX6300 and M5A97 are perfectly good at gaming.
most games I play are like Skyrim (heavily modded), SWToR, and Final fantasy 7 and 8 I got off steam.
I have given thought to a 990FX board but I've been getting annoyed at the lack of chipset updates and the fact there was only 1 board that did PCI-e 3.0, which is a pain to find. If I did go that route, it be board and H100i.
Biggest diffrence between the G45 gaming and the GD65 gaming is the powerphase design. 8+2 vs. 12+2. But the i5-4670K with Msi Z87 G45 gaming is good combination. 4.4 GHZ stable should be no problem.
But i think that you won´t see much of an performance diffrence between your current FX6300 and the I5-4670K unless you play arma II and III or boderlands. those games have realy bad multicore optimization.
As it stands now, my fx-6300 is running 4.4 on 4+2 phase (which I admit has me nervous some days) so the 8+2 is an improvement. Though 12+2 would be cleaner power, 8+2 would be fine. Looking it up Broadwell is supposed like Ivy-bridge from sandy-bridge, so better life expectancy and not a EoL socket. I'm not sure if there will be another FX on the AM3+, let alone if there will be backwards compatibility for AMD's next enthusiast socket.
Another option I have at the same store is a FX-8350 + Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 for $284.98. I've used Asus and MSI but never Gigabyte. But again that comes down to where is the socket going? for $15 I could do the Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0..
This is kinna said for me, I used to be an AMD fanboy, but that ended years ago. I've been on this system little over a year and in that time I had to replace the board once due to faulty 3.3v on the board. I'd like more to upgrade the board and lose the mSATA adapter, but what AM3+ even has mSATA?