How limited is this H61 board with i7-3770 Ivy?

[inlawbiker]

I have a basic workstation I would like to upgrade to be my main box... it has a cheap Biostar mainboard (link) that will accept up to an i7-3770S CPU. I have 4gb of 1333 RAM, I will bet another 4gb (total 8gb). That is the fastest memory it'll accept. I will pair it with an HD 7970 3gb and SSD. I'll have to update the BIOS first I believe.

My main use is graphics processing - Photoshop and Lightroom, with some video and casual gaming. I'd like to play Far Cry 3 and 4 on very good quality.

The question is, how much is this board and RAM holding back the system? Will I be OK, or should faster components be added. I have no idea of the difference between a more modern board + memory vs this old one will make.

I don't overclock or game heavily so 10% difference is no big deal to me. On the other hand, I want this system to last a good 3-4 years. What would you do?

Thanks for your advice!
Greg.

 

[Mokyu]

I don't see this working well and definately not going to last 3-4 years considering games now are demanding more than that for good quality

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

The main drawbacks to the H61 chipset (besides a lack of overclocking) is that it'll only support a maximum of 16GB RAM and PCIe 2.0. As things stand today, neither of these issues should present much of a problem, but in 3-4 years? Who knows?

An i7 will be beneficial for Photoshop and Lightroom processing, but not for gaming. Again, this could change in the coming years. I wouldn't recommend the 3770S simply because it's an energy-efficient version of the standard 3770. This is ideal for a 24 hour server, but not when extra grunt is required.

If it were me, I'd replace the cheap and nasty OEM motherboard and get an i7 3770.

 

[mlga91]

Only supports "low" power CPus, none of them uses 95W, which is kinda suspicious, like it has very poor VRMs, if i were you, i wouldnt put anything higher than a i3 on that board, or i'd get a new h81 board and use a i5 4460/4590 or a xeon 1231 v3 if you really want 8 threads.

 

[inlawbiker]

Alright I settled on a compromise. I'm going to re-use as much as possible and make this a 2+ year system instead of the 4+ I got from my Phenom II X6 system.

This crappy H61 board is confirmed to work with the 95w CPU's, Biostar just didn't update their site very well. I got a smaller SSD, i5-3570 (not K) and another 4gb of memory. I will come in just over $300 and more than double the speed of my old X6.

The X6 six cores really make a difference when they're used but for gaming that platform is left in the dust. Even with less cores the i5 is a big leap in speed. Looking forward to it.

 

[mlga91]

A 3570 can work, but is most likely that it will overheat the voltage regulators. That happens very often with amd mobos, people put a 125w CPU when the mobo only supports 95W CPUs, it can boot for some time, but puting some load on the cpu can cause a crash.

 

[inlawbiker]

That is a good point. Reports are favorable but I'll see what happens and post results.

Actually it's not a 95W CPU. The board does support 77W, and he i5-3570 is a 77W CPU. Worst case I'll be buying a new motherboard after all.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

That is a good point. Reports are favorable but I'll see what happens and post results.

Actually it's not a 95W CPU. The board does support 77W, and he i5-3570 is a 77W CPU. Worst case I'll be buying a new motherboard after all.

Sounds good.

 

[inlawbiker]

Here's a quick update on my Biostar H61MGC (rev 6.6) upgrade, a ridiculous board to build a system around. But I had one laying around so I gave it a shot for an ultra low-budget upgrade from a Phenom II X6 1075T system.

The summary is the upgrade was a total success. The BIOS flash was painless and quick and the new processor worked flawlessly the first time. Using a i5-3570 (not K, since I'm not overclocking). I ran Far Cry 3 for a couple hours without crashing. So far so good. In Far Cry 3 I was averaging around 45 fps in Ultra quality with a Radeon 7970 GPU. Now I am always above 60fps and into the 100's in some parts of the game.

If you can live with the drawbacks - no overclocking, No USB 3, 16gb RAM max, SATA 2 only, only one expansion PCI slot (the GPU covers one of them) - you will be fine with this board an the latest Ivy Bridge processor.

I would not choose this board if starting from scratch but if you have one laying around it can be upgraded on the cheap.

 

[inlawbiker]

OK Following up to myself in the interest of anyone doing research. The i5-3570 will boot and work with the H61MGC motherboard, but it isn't stable. Run at load for extended periods (like gaming) the system will hard crash.

Often it wouldn't crash at all and for day-to-day work I bet you'd be fine, but don't risk it. I returned the proc and ordered one of the intel chips on the list that's compatible (i5-3330), which was actually $48 cheaper, enough to buy a new motherboard. I ordered an AsROCK B75 board with about the same features. I guess it goes to show, don't cheap out on the motherboard.

Props to mlga91 he was right.