[SOLVED] Is the Gigabyte GA-H81M (4th Gen.) good for K Series CPUs?

Veloci

Commendable
Jun 17, 2019
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I'm looking at the GA-H81M-S1 which can be had for around $40 (Used) and was wondering if this is board is good enough for unlocked CPUs, such as the i5 4670K or perhaps the i7 4770K?

I've read the manual* and seems like this motherboard allows custom clock multipliers and Vcore voltage manipulation, which I think should be enough to handle unlocked CPUs, despite the low-end H81 chipset, correct?

I'm no mobo expert, not by a long shot, and have no idea what I'm doing, really. And my tight $50 mobo budget doesn't help either...

Thanks in advance, lads!

* http://download.gigabyte.asia/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-h81m-s1_e.pdf
 
Solution
If you want to overclock either of those CPUs you need a Z series board. None of the lower end chipset boards have good enough power phase/delivery to handle any kind of moderate to significant overclocking on that platform, especially with anything higher than the G3258 processor which is what the overclocking capabilities on those lower end chipset boards was intended to be for.

Plus, I believe they revoked the ability to overclock on those chipsets via later BIOS updates that made changes to the microcode, but it's been five years or so and I can't remember for certain whether those remained capable of overclocking anything other than the G3258 or not. I think not.

Plus, those CPUs would fry the VRMs on any of those boards if you...
If you want to overclock either of those CPUs you need a Z series board. None of the lower end chipset boards have good enough power phase/delivery to handle any kind of moderate to significant overclocking on that platform, especially with anything higher than the G3258 processor which is what the overclocking capabilities on those lower end chipset boards was intended to be for.

Plus, I believe they revoked the ability to overclock on those chipsets via later BIOS updates that made changes to the microcode, but it's been five years or so and I can't remember for certain whether those remained capable of overclocking anything other than the G3258 or not. I think not.

Plus, those CPUs would fry the VRMs on any of those boards if you started tinkering around past the boost clocks. At best, they'd likely have throttling problems, on anything more than a dual core. Even at stock configurations you might run into those kind of troubles with those higher end chips due to the TDP and boost requirements.
 
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Solution
Exactly the information I was looking for! I've Googled it a bit and seems like the H81 chipset is only good for locked CPUs. Besides, the single 4-Pin CPU connector on this particular board is another limiting factor as it can only provide up to around 100W, something I completely overlooked.

Thanks a lot!