Best motherboard for Intel Pentium G3258

[alienaxuz]

Hello everyone, I want to know which is a good and cheap motherboard for the Intel Pentium G3258 CPU, I want one that allows overclocking and one that comes with the necessary update to be able to run the CPU. Preferably, I want an H81 because I'm on a budget. Thank you in advance. I have read several articles and I know that you can overclock with H81s and that some need a BIOS update to run the G3258, I want one that is already updated to run it.

 

[TechyInAZ]

The only board that I can guarantee you will run the G3258 out of the box is the Asrock H97M anniversary edition board.

 

[alienaxuz]

The problem is I can't afford anything that's not an H81 :/

 

[giantbucket]

it's a trap! the G3258 is cheap, but overclocking means you need a proper $$ heatsink and a proper $$ motherboard, which will probably undo whatever cost savings you had by buying the G in the first place. personally i wouldn't risk a non-Z board. i've seen too many manufacturers put a disclaimer that they can't guarantee OC'ing in the future as Intel *MIGHT* release microcode to disable OC'ing on non-Z boards. and if they do, you have a cheap basic board that can't do anything that you want.

 

[alienaxuz]

I found a B85 for a good price, is that better than an H81?

 

[giantbucket]

not a lot of extra features between H81 and B85. here's a handy table:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1150#Original_Haswell_chipsets

you can basically look at it as: (1) Z chips for OC'ing, (2) Q87 chips for business, and (3) everything else for general purpose

what's the cost difference (for you in your country) between a Z87/Z97 board, and your budget?

 

[alienaxuz]

I live in the US, a z87/z97 costs about $50-75 more than an H81, I just don't have that money. I guess I'll have to settle for an H81.

 

[giantbucket]

how big of a chunk of change is that out of the total spend of the entire computer you're building? are you buying other parts that you can save money on to justify a Z board, or is everything else being reused from a previous build? i know, $50 is still $50, but sometimes looking at the whole build puts it in perspective a bit more.

 

[alienaxuz]

I spent about $500 including a wireless card, keyboard, os, and dvd drive (things that people don't usually include in their builds) and I only have about $55 left for a motherboard. I'm thinking about going for the H81 and then buying a better one down the road when I can no longer run the games I want at the settings I want.

 

[giantbucket]

personally, i'd skip on other parts like the wireless card and dvd drive for the short term. those can be added later on without tossing money out the window. doing a mobo swap means the old one is then useless / scrap (unless you build yet another machine using it), and a pain in the butt to redo all the assembly and wiring.

mind you, that's only because i'd be somewhat nervous about one day the H-series boards having OC'ing removed through some update that i can't reverse. it's a risk. who knows, it might be OC-able forever, or it might get neutered within a few months.

here's another thought: let's say you buy the H81 and G3258, you OC it a good amount, but then after a while the games or apps are bottlenecked by the cpu setup. you likely can't OC the chip that much further even with a new mobo, maybe a few percent? you'd gain more by swapping the G to an i5 or i7, but would either of those be OC-able? or would you at that point be ok using a non-OC i5/i7?

that's also a viable plan. OC the G until you hit a wall, and then swap the CPU but keep the mobo.

 

[UnderAttack]

G3258 is a nice cpu for limit budget
try msi h81 - pcc for motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130731&cm_re=h81_p33-_-13-130-731-_-Product

 

[alienaxuz]

The problem is I can't skip on those, they're a necessity for me. I'll just run stock clock speeds until I feel like I need an upgrade and then upgrade the CPU, mobo or GPU as needed.

 

[aliasoink]

Hello everyone, I want to know which is a good and cheap motherboard for the Intel Pentium G3258 CPU, I want one that allows overclocking and one that comes with the necessary update to be able to run the CPU. Preferably, I want an H81 because I'm on a budget. Thank you in advance. I have read several articles and I know that you can overclock with H81s and that some need a BIOS update to run the G3258, I want one that is already updated to run it.

You can get an MSI Z97 PCMATE board along with an INTEL PENTIUM G3258 processor both for $80 at MIcrocenter. You must pick up in the store, and there is a mail in rebate on the board. If you live near a Microcenter, it's worth it to check out this deal. I built a computer with this motherboard and processor and it works great together. The motherboard allows for overclocking the cpu also.

 

[Bigwood daddy]

I use ASUS h81M-v3 and it works perfectly out of the box with intel g3258. this motherboard comes with bios version 2003 which does supports the g3258 and it also have two heat sinks, which makes it handle the overclocking very well.