I'm overwhelmed

[SubM0A]

Hey all!!  First post here.  I was recently given an i7 3770 CPU which is a pretty serious upgrade from the i3 i currently have.  I really want to get into PC gaming and sweat off consoles.  I realize it's 2020 and this is not the most insane CPU I could have but it's what I got.  I am really struggling with choosing the right motherboard.  

Honestly, it's just a lake of knowledge.  UberNoob.  All I have is the CPU so I don't have the box as any kind of guide or anything.  I'm thinking an ATX board with as much expandability as possible.  

Thanks so much in advance.

[badreg]

If you don't already have an Ivy Bridge board, unfortunately, the best thing to do is to donate the chip forward, or list it on eBay and hope to get $50 out of it. It's not worth investing money into an eight year old platform.

[Senzelian]

There are multiple chipsets you can choose from, but because you're dealing with a rather old platform, it depends on the deals you can find.

Often old motherboards are rather expensive, because they're relatively rare and as mentioned by @badreg it might not be worth investing any money into such an old platform.

 

You should look out for H77, Z77, Z75, H67 and Z68 boards.

B75, Q75 and Q77 would also be fine, but these are usually found on lower end boards.

 

Which motherboard do you have currently?
It might already support the chip.

[Fasauceome]

11 minutes ago, SubM0A said:

I'm thinking an ATX board with as much expandability as possible.  

what do you want to expand to? your CPU is the best of its platform, you would likely stick with 2x8GB of DDR3 1600 for a gaming PC, and have a graphics card in the top PCIe slot, without anything else. What kind of devices do you need in the future?

[SubM0A]

So you're saying that I shouldn't even bother trying to build around the 3770?

[SubM0A]

37 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

There are multiple chipsets you can choose from, but because you're dealing with a rather old platform, it depends on the deals you can find.

Often old motherboards are rather expensive, because they're relatively rare and as mentioned by @badreg it might not be worth investing any money into such an old platform.

 

You should look out for H77, Z77, Z75, H67 and Z68 boards.

B75, Q75 and Q77 would also be fine, but these are usually found on lower end boards.

 

Which motherboard do you have currently?
It might already support the chip.

To be honest I don't even know.  Essentially, my wife and brother in law took an old Lenovo tower, dropped some ram in it and called it good.  It was immediately clear that wouldn't work.  I was getting like 15 frames on CS:GO.  Then I got the i7 3770 given to me and thought well maybe I could just build around that chip but I'm guessing .   I know it doesn't support the chip though.  I tried to install it and no dice.

[SubM0A]

25 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

what do you want to expand to? your CPU is the best of its platform, you would likely stick with 2x8GB of DDR3 1600 for a gaming PC, and have a graphics card in the top PCIe slot, without anything else. What kind of devices do you need in the future?

I don't really know tbh.  I'm really new to litetally all of this.

[Lord Nicoll]

3 minutes ago, SubM0A said:

I don't really know tbh.  I'm really new to litetally all of this.

Download CPUz, and then post the image of CPU on the tab it opens up to, that'll tell us most of what we want to know.

[SubM0A]

4 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Download CPUz, and then post the image of CPU on the tab it opens up to, that'll tell us most of what we want to know.

Ok will do once I get home

[Fasauceome]

1 hour ago, SubM0A said:

I don't really know tbh.  I'm really new to litetally all of this.

Expansion shouldn't be a priority then, especially for a CPU of this age. the cheapest lga 1155 motherboard you can get your hands on (with standard 24 pin and 4/8 pin for power) will be all you need.

[Dr0y]

You can get an old lenovo I3 for cheap (under 100$) and put the i7 3770 in there with a gtx 970 (an rx580 won't work with lenovo) and call it a gaming pc. Be sure the psu is powerful enought tho, you might have to change it.   We had 2 lenovo pc built like that and those were quite nice. Here is my gf old pc.  Thermals are not great tho even tho we manage to put a front fan behind the skyrim logo. 

[oeci]

This is such an old platform I'd not build around it. You will end up with a dead platform (no upgrades possible without starting from scratch) and performance will be mediocre at the best. Sell that CPU on e-bay, save up some money and buy something decent.