Need help with upgrades.

[mneville28]

I would like to start upgrading my computer but am kinda a noob when it comes to it. I know for sure I want to get an i7-9700k but I just dont know what kind of motherboard to get to go with it that will also be compatible with everything else. Please help.
Power supply-Corsair 650M
Motherboard-Gigabyte Z170-HD3
GPU-Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1060
CPU-i5-6500k LGA1151

 

[Darkbreeze]

You want a Z370 or Z390 based motherboard. The difference between those two chipsets is that Z390 has native onboard USB 3.1 Gen 2 and onboard wireless AC. Other than that, the chipsets are the same. With Z370 there stands a chance that you might have to flash the bios to use the newer Coffee lake refresh CPUs, so going with Z390 is probably the safer choice unless you choose a board with BIOS flashback that allows you to flash to a newer bios without having to already have a compatible CPU installed in order to get the Z370 board to be compatible with the newer CPU.

If you are planning to overclock, those are the motherboard chipsets you need to have in order to do that and obviously, the higher quality (And therefore, cost) of the motherboard you select will likely mean a more stable and higher frequency overclock usually. Something like the Z390-A or higher would be good.

If you don't plan to overclock then there are few reasons, but some, to go with an unlocked K sku processor and unlocked motherboard. I'd recommend going with an 8th gen CPU like the i7-8700 which is not unlocked, if you do not plan to overclock. There are currently no locked models in the Coffee lake refresh lineup although I expect there might be some coming at some point.

Any motherboard from the Extreme4 and up on this page would be a good choice. My preference would be for an ASUS or ASRock board personally based on a long history of building systems and working with all these brands.


https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#c=135&f=2&sort=price&page=1

 

[coozie7]

If the system is used mainly, or exclusively for gaming we'll need to know what monitor/s you're currently using, or plan to upgrade to before we can really help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, I'm going to go out on a limb here because that comment has me scratching my head. Maybe I'm overlooking the obvious, but what does the monitor he's using have to do with what motherboard he chooses?

I would assume all he needs is a new CPU and motherboard. No reason his current DDR4, PSU and graphics card can't be reused UNLESS he IS looking to upgrade those as well. If he's not, I'm not getting where the monitor comes into play?

 

[coozie7]

Sorry, didn't make my point very clearly, I should have said something like this:
What is the reason for the upgrade?
If it's for gaming we'll need to know the monitor details, or you could end up with the planned i7 being severely restricted by the relatively poor performance of the GTX1060 if you are using a high refresh or high resolution display while there will be little need to change anything if you're using a 60Hz HD monitor.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I see. Well, in just about any case scenario, better to have too much CPU than not enough. LOL.