Biostar H81MHV3 $40 MOBO Help???

[MakoRuu]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138407

I'm on a very tight budget. (Maybe $300 for parts all together..) And it is not very flexible.

And I'm recycling my GPU and hard drives.

EVGA GTX 650 ti SSC 2GB
300 GB WD Green
1 TB WD Green
Recycling my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit - But may upgrade to Windows 10 for Dx12 purposes.

This little motherboard has an unbelievable price, and pretty good user reviews. But I can't find any more reviews on it other than Newegg.

It is light on the features... But I don't plan on Overclocking, or having any kind of HD Audio Cards or Raid Hard Drives. I only need the SATA peripherals and the PCIe 16x slot that it offers.

I plan on buying an i3 - 4160 to go along with it, and then sometime in the future upgrade my GPU to a GTX 960 or similar. I will buy an 8GB kit of ram for it, and a 450 Antec PSU. And toss it all into a Deepcool Tesseract BF. A nice little rig if I do say so, myself.

I plan on doing some light gaming (1050p). Maybe some DVD burning for the movies I make. General surfing. Normal every day use.

My question is: What kind of scalability would this have? Would it be worth it to swap out the CPU in a year or two when the i5's come down in price?

Thank you for your time, and your experience. Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[atomicWAR]

yeah the socket your getting really won't be getting any new chips CPU wise since the 90 series is out now. Prices may come down on i5 CPU's that work with it but i would just get the best CPU you can for your budget and stick with it till your next mobo upgrade. If possible i would get an i5 now as many new games require four cores, though dual core with hyper threading and some work arounds like using dual core injector have been known to work with mixed results getting games like far cry 4 working. i helped a buddy do just that. anyways point being clock speed is not longer the only factor in gameing rigs. core/thread count matters.

 

[MakoRuu]

yeah the socket your getting really won't be getting any new chips CPU wise since the 90 series is out now. Prices may come down on i5 CPU's that work with it but i would just get the best CPU you can for your budget and stick with it till your next mobo upgrade. If possible i would get an i5 now as many new games require four cores, though dual core with hyper threading and some work arounds like using dual core injector have been known to work with mixed results getting games like far cry 4 working. i helped a buddy do just that. anyways point being clock speed is not longer the only factor in gameing rigs. core/thread count matters.

I've already done weeks of research. And I came to this conclusion over the G3258. The Haswell refreshed i3-4160 plays all the games I plan on playing. Including Far Cry 4 at 1080 on ultra settings with a steady 50 - 60fps. But that's with a GTX 780. It'll be more than enough for now.

 

[MakoRuu]

A 4160 with 8 gig and a 650 will play games ~ 90% of an i5.
Some even closer.
It will work general pc tasking the same.
As for would it be worth swapping out for an i5 when the TIME is right?
Yeah; most games you can run a dozen apps in the background,which the i3 will struggle with.
The price will remain static tho. Has done for 5 years.
Watch ebay auctions, IF you find used 4 series its 90% the price of a new one at finish.
Stump up or go without presently.
You see a small window after crimbo.

Yeah. I've already done weeks of research on the CPU I'm getting. I've settled on the 4160.

Any input on the motherboard, though? I'm told Biostar is crap. But it has such good reviews.. I don't know.

 

[MakoRuu]

It looks crap . its priced crap. It will probably snuff it after 28 months and leave you IN the crap. Buy the lowest asus board you can afford,these ate closer to what they put in o.e.m. builds (with three yr warranty) than less solid brands of crap.

Can you recommend an Asus board that you have experience with?

I've researched a ton of them on newegg and tigerdirect, but all motherboards malfunction.. It's hard to base a purchase on biased customer reviews.

 

[MakoRuu]

It looks crap . its priced crap. It will probably snuff it after 28 months and leave you IN the crap. Buy the lowest asus board you can afford,these ate closer to what they put in o.e.m. builds (with three yr warranty) than less solid brands of crap.

Can you recommend an Asus board that you have experience with?

I've researched a ton of them on newegg and tigerdirect, but all motherboards malfunction.. It's hard to base a purchase on biased customer reviews.

Its hard because everybody who buys cheap motherboards 'amazon' opinion is pretty worthless.
I run a H87m-plus.
But for a build for my nephews for e.g. I would use this one, for 3 yrs.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-H81M-E-DDR3-1333-Motherboards/dp/B00ESETQNG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428208325&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+h81
It will probably last 5.

According to the reviews, this motherboard is not compatible with the 4th generation icore series CPU.

But I will take your advice and try to find an Asus board, and avoid biostar.

 

[atomicWAR]

yeah the socket your getting really won't be getting any new chips CPU wise since the 90 series is out now. Prices may come down on i5 CPU's that work with it but i would just get the best CPU you can for your budget and stick with it till your next mobo upgrade. If possible i would get an i5 now as many new games require four cores, though dual core with hyper threading and some work arounds like using dual core injector have been known to work with mixed results getting games like far cry 4 working. i helped a buddy do just that. anyways point being clock speed is not longer the only factor in gameing rigs. core/thread count matters.

I've already done weeks of research. And I came to this conclusion over the G3258. The Haswell refreshed i3-4160 plays all the games I plan on playing. Including Far Cry 4 at 1080 on ultra settings with a steady 50 - 60fps. But that's with a GTX 780. It'll be more than enough for now.

Not saying you haven't but you asked for an opinion and i gave one with all due respect and you may like to read these:

http://techbuyersguru.com/CPUgaming.php
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2851126/far-cry-4-woes-with-dual-core-processors-point-to-a-bleak-future-for-budget-pc-gamers.html

Now yes dual core w/ hyper-threading can be hacked to work in quad core games as i mentioned. and your mostly right you get 70-90 percent of the performance...sorry its not 90% across the board i did the math myself from various sites. I am not saying a dual core is not feasible for gaming i am just saying it make more sense to get a quad core CPU for gaming at this point as devs are utilizing more and more threads. When i run Far Cry 4 i use all six cores (at about 30-40% utilization per core) of my i7 but not my hyper-threads. Ultimately the choice is yours.

 

[MakoRuu]

yeah the socket your getting really won't be getting any new chips CPU wise since the 90 series is out now. Prices may come down on i5 CPU's that work with it but i would just get the best CPU you can for your budget and stick with it till your next mobo upgrade. If possible i would get an i5 now as many new games require four cores, though dual core with hyper threading and some work arounds like using dual core injector have been known to work with mixed results getting games like far cry 4 working. i helped a buddy do just that. anyways point being clock speed is not longer the only factor in gameing rigs. core/thread count matters.

I've already done weeks of research. And I came to this conclusion over the G3258. The Haswell refreshed i3-4160 plays all the games I plan on playing. Including Far Cry 4 at 1080 on ultra settings with a steady 50 - 60fps. But that's with a GTX 780. It'll be more than enough for now.

Not saying you haven't but you asked for an opinion and i gave one with all due respect and you may like to read these:

http://techbuyersguru.com/CPUgaming.php
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2851126/far-cry-4-woes-with-dual-core-processors-point-to-a-bleak-future-for-budget-pc-gamers.html

Now yes dual core w/ hyper-threading can be hacked to work in quad core games as i mentioned. and your mostly right you get 70-90 percent of the performance...sorry its not 90% across the board i did the math myself from various sites. I am not saying a dual core is not feasible for gaming i am just saying it make more sense to get a quad core CPU for gaming at this point as dez are utilizing more and more threads. When i run Far Cray four i use all six cores (at about 30-40% utilization per core) of my i7 but not my hyper-threads. Ultimately the choice is yours.

I understand that. But I'm not working full time right now. And I desperately need to upgrade from my Core 2 Duo.

It's a not a matter of want, it's a matter of a $70 difference. Unless I can win an auction on eBay for an i5 (which is impossible), the i3 will have to do.

And I do appreciate your input, mate. I didn't mean to seem condescending. But the i3 4160 will play Far Cry 4 out of the box without "hacking" it.

And aside from Dragon Age Inquisition, it's one of the only games that won't start on a dual core cpu without hyper threading. It's not a trend that will carry, trust me. They've already caught enough flak from it.

Hell. The G3258 will play both games at 40 - 60 fps and a decent GPU with a dll injector on 1080p.

 

[MakoRuu]

There may be issues with old stock(same as any brands h81 chipset board), but it should work with the devils canyon 4160 i3 with the correct bios.
Buy one from a trader who knows his stuff or buy the pair as a combo (not on amazon tho-the prices are + $20)
Also note asus motherboards can be bios flashed from a usb port, without need of a supported cpu. Meaning you do not get a catch 22 situation.
But anyways, good luck and I am sure you will find a cheap asus board easy enough.

I'll continue to look for a different motherboard that's not biostar. I just went for the price, and I admit it was an amateur mistake.

 

[MakoRuu]

For that board bios revision 2001 or higher runs i3 4160;
http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/H81ME/HelpDesk_CPU/
Buy board with that or higher bios; sorted.

Motherboards aren't really a strong point for me. But I am learning. I wouldn't know which one had what bios.

How do you feel about MSI?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130731

 

[MakoRuu]

EDIT: Removed for double post.

 

[MakoRuu]

I don't even know what you just said right now. lol