Microcenter recommendation with i5 4670k

p0rtal

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Jan 28, 2012
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Building a new pc, dead set on the i5 4670k and wanted to know if anyone has recommendations for a motherboard I can grab from Microcenter. They seem to have the cheapest things and are near my area. My last pcs motherboard and processor blew so I need a new case, psu, cpu and motherboard. I was able to salvage 1 of my 4gb ram sticks, ssd and my gpu thankfully. I have a $450 budget in total for all these components and was hoping to spend up to $125 or so on the motherboard. The more usb 3.0 ports, the better. I was able to also save the NXZT Phantom case's fans and liquid cooling system, but Im not sure if they can be used on any other cases. I prefer a mid case, the phantom was just to huge.

I was running an i7 960 for the past few years and thought it was more than sufficient, so i think the i5 4670k will be perfect. I am a casual gamer. Any recommendations are really appreciated, i know nothing about motherboards.
 
the 4670k is great, as well as a z87 msi-gd 45 to go with is (great price) and a 620watt seasonic power supply is a great deal at the moment.

as far as a case, you really have to go based on personal preference rather than recommendations


the motherboard i recommended is simply just a good one, and if you want you can get the gaming edition with a cooler color scheme for like $10 more (just look for gaming in the title) it has many usb3.0, front header usb3.0 and a nice amount of pci, sata and fan headers

 
I personally have not had any problems with the motherboard, and was it ever concluded that the source of the problem was the motherboard? if so, then i understand wanting to stay away from it. if not, i still understand, but your fear of the motherboard is not warranted. Basically, any z87 motherboard will do you good from asus, msi, or gigabyte. these are three of the most trusted motherboard makers out there right now
 
Its about $159 on Micro center which is a bit beyond my budget, but maybe i can stretch it. My motherboard was an x58, that is a z87 so its different but still in the same family. My PSU was faulty and it wrecked the motherboard, but the motherboard was having issues on its own. Some of the USB ports didnt work right, loud static pops when used with a USB DAC for audio needs, some things worked, some didnt.

Its unmerited fear i agree, it looks like a good board. But, all those extra functions are not needed, I use USB dac audio so I dont need all that stuff that comes with that board. Seems overkill for me.
 
I just bought an I5-4670 and motherboard combo from Microcenter. I opted for the Asrock Z87 Extreme3. Cost $307 after tax. It's been running 3 weeks, no issues. I imagine you could find a good PSU, case and ram for the last $150 or so.
 
Research says the 4670k runs hot and needs a good cooler. I had a full size phantom, I want the mid 410 model. I am also looking at that exact motherboard. Did it come with the cpu installed already or did you purchase separate?

-410 phantom mid case - 75
-Z87 mb - 125
-i5 4670k - $180
-Corsair cx600m 600w psu - 65
-cpu paste

exactly on budget excluding tax. Just hoping my salvaged cooling system will fit into the new case i want. If that fits, I will be super happy.
 
It came as a bundle, but uninstalled (i.e. separate packaging). Install was as easy as any other.

I have a crappy 8 year old generic case atm, and I'm getting idle temps of ~38-41 degrees, and under stress (moderate gaming), temps are in the 60's, with one or two of the cores hitting maybe 70-71. This is with the stock fan (I couldn't get my Coolermaster to work with it). According to what I've read, this is normal for for a stock CPU, with the stock cooler.

I'll be updating both the case and the cooler shortly to remedy that, and should see a nice 5-10 degree drop in temps easily.

It was also my experience that the BIOS on that motherboard doesn't like it when you simply move a boot drive to the same system with Windows already installed from another board. It was a pain in the butt ot get it to keep it as a boot drive, that is to say, have it actually boot, and not get volume errors and what not. Reformatting the hard drive and doing a fresh install took care of it immediately and it's been trouble free since.

Edit: I bought it when the CPU was $199. It's since come come down in price to 179, and I'm attempting totake advantage of their price protection policy and get 20 back.
 
That worries me about the boot drive swap. Thankfully, my SSD was salvaged and it has my os on it, but its not vital. Im willing to reinstall and format it all but I really hope there isnt much of a problem in doing so if that is the case.
 
Well, to be fair, it was my first time using an UEFI BIOS. It was laid out nicely, so I can't really blame the lack of experience with it though.

It would see the boot drive (SSD), my CD rom drive, and my Samsung T3 Spinpoint storage drive in the BIOS, but not see any sort of OS on it (SSD) for some reason. (Crucial M4). No matter what order I set them in (I even disabled all but the SSD), it would not recognize the OS on the SSD. With the Win cd in the CD drive, it would always try to install windows. So I said screw it and did a full re-install/fresh reformat.

I will say things are a tad faster and smoother now (I did get the SSD to reliably boot early on, but I did a BIOS update at some point and that's when it didn't want to boot from the SSD.

Moral of the story: leave the BIOS alone if everything is running well 😛
 
Will do, ty for the info! Does that Asus board work with the i7 4th generations? Id like to upgrade to the i7 4770k, not sure if i want the i5 or not because i did plan to upgrade the gpu and a few other components around it over the next few years. I do like to game and listen to music and have the net open and i couldnt do that with the i7 960, 12gb ram AND an SSD on my old rig.
 
You'd have to check the Asus board to see the specs, but I imagine it would. I have no issues with the I5 series for what you described. I also have an I5-2500K that I gamed, listened to music, and surfed the net on (until the motherboard died - that's what prompted the upgrade to Haswell. I also bought a cheap LGA 1155 B75 series motherboard to throw that leftover I5-2500K into), and didn't have any issues.

I never had a first gen I-series CPU, but I suspect things got a lot better since the I7 960. Maybe other members can chime in on that.
 
Great motherboard, but for gaming, save yourself $100 and get the i5 4670k and spend that extra money on a gpu. the overall gaming performance will be better and the i5 will not overclock any video card that comes out even within the next few years (i give it end of next year before we see a card that needs a more powerful processor for gaming)
 
Yea, thats my concern. I cant foresee gaming this year being so intensive, which is why I opted for the gtx660 sc 2gb by itself now. But I can see in the next year or two a much better card on the way for serious gaming. Tough call.
 
The i5 processor will be fine for even the flagships of next generation cards, as they don't even bottleneck sli top tier cards such as the 780ti

as far as a gaming card, the prices on this generations cards are about as low as they are going to be, as the chips are at the maximum performance they can squeeze out. I wouldnt expect a 780ti to go down in price for at least another 6 months, and the rest of the cards have just recently received price drops as well