During gaming my screens will go black, speakers will buzz and I'll have to restart my computer. Its not temperatures because this can happen just after a game is launched and it hasn't had enough time to heat up and will most times play fine for long hours. Ive updated drivers and virus scanned and i think its the motherboard since ive also had trouble with the ram. I have 2 ram sticks and they will only work in certain slots even if i swap the sticks slots around to what the other was in it won't work.
So im looking for another motherboard that will work with my build, you can find it on my profile. I got my current motherboard for about $140 2 years ago and something in the same range would be good if not something cheaper.
I'm thinking not a gigabyte again either since I've had touble with mine and my roommate has been through a few as well.
ok, I looked at your profile.. and I am going to recommend the asrock z77 extreme4.. I have it, and its pretty nice. I got 4.8 stable overclock today on air. But the freature I really like is the xfast ram.. its easy and sets all windows temp files to the ram... I have 16 gb of ram so it doesnt come close to using all of my ram, but its fast.. The snapiness is pretty amazing for everyday use.
Now the MSI gaming board has superior sound, but I would rather have the ram function... If the MSI has both, go with that.
yeah about the Asrock Extreme 4 i read manny good reviews about it, its cheap, but for that price you get a nice 8+4 powerphase design. so yeah good thing to look at also.
The extreme4 has a digital 8+4 power design. The MSI has a 6 phase power design, but that only matters if you want to overclock past 4.0. I really think the trade of is just the sound card for some of the asrock features. The review I just read though says that you have to be an audio expert to tell the difference between the audio output... I think the asrock extreme4 is the clear winner.. now if this was the mpower.. then that would be a different story.
I have this Intel Core i7 2600K Processor LGA1155 3.4GHz CPU for my processor. I had a 12 month warranty on my motherboard from the store but im not sure about the manufacturer ill have to go digging through some papers.
I'm not too interested in overclocking since everything runs nicely. You mean the MSI has a better soundcard on the board and the ASRock doesn't, is that even an issue since I have my own soundcard?
Not at all. You might like the z77 extreme 3 or the asrock pro sereies. They are a bit cheaper and have good features, but arent designed for the same overclocking.
If really dont want any overclocking, get the asrock Pro3 for $90. If you want 4 sata3 ports you can get the Pro4 for $110. The are good boards and have the great asrock features.
If you want some mild overclocking, get the asrock extreme3 for $110, but it only has 2 sata3 ports. The extreme4 has 4 sata3 ports.
After reviewing the motherboards available, there isnt a reason to spend more if you dont plan to overclock, especially since you already have your own soundcard.
Well you have a i7-2600K cpu, so that means its an unlocked cpu, i know you not interested in overclocking, but i would still recommend, that msi or that Asrock extreme 4 for the price point.
Those pro series are indead cheap, but cheap at Asrock means low quality parts, like weak vrm´s and not the best capacitors.
The asrock pro series actually have great customer reviews and reliability records, but they definately wont support any decent overclock.
I am with you that he should overclock since he has the "K" processor, its pretty much free performance. The extreme4 with a coolermaster 212 evo is pretty cheap and will get teh processor up to 4gh easily enough..
But if he doesnt want to overclock, then the pro series is teh way to go. Its good quality... just not in the same league as the parts made for overclocking.
Do what feralshad0w says and get a pro series for not overclocking or the extreme4 for overclocking. I have the mATX version of the pro4 and i can get a very stable overclock at 3.8ghz on a 3470.
I think I'll probably get the extreme 4 and have a look at overclocking in the future but its going to take me a while to save up for a board. I think im currently using 4 SATA ports so a difference of $10 isn't too big a difference to bother with a pro. Thanks for your help
i would realy go for the extreme4 yeah for that extra 20 euro you get a full Vreg 8+4 powerphase, and with that i7-2600K its realy a great cpu, its unlocked, and its realy worth it playing with oc in the future.