Need Help!! Can't find itx motherboard to fit my Intel 4770k CPU!

[Dr_Frankenolly]

Hello LinusTechTips community,

I'm currently hunting down and researching parts for an itx version of a build I already have. Back in 2013, I built my first PC and experienced many of the "first build" mistakes hundreds of New PC builders make. Including, but not limited to: buying too much ram, buying an overkill CPU, buying an overkill and overpriced power supply (shamefully just because of the RGB lighting which is extremely limited), buying a pricey motherboard for color scheme, and buying a pc case without knowing the difference between a mid-tower and a full tower. That all said, it turned out beautifully. I bought a well rounded GPU and SSD, so with all that ram, games run smooth and the pc still boot is under 3 seconds. But now it's 2017, and my bulky case hardly has enough punch inside to justify all the room it takes up outside. That brings me to the topic of discussion. I want to take my old 4770k CPU, my GTX 760, and two of my four 16GB sticks of corsair vengence ram and place them all inside an itx form factor case. Right now the only thing stopping me is the motherboard. Does anyone know where I can get one or does anyone have a used one they'd be willing to sell? (On a side not I plan to use my old case to make a more modern and solid PC build using an i5 6500 and a GTX 1070.)

[adithyay328]

Working on it, stand buy and I'll find you one.

[Guest]

Bit expensive for brand new. Looking at ebay now

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EUMMWGE/?tag=pcpapi-20

[adithyay328]

Crap dude, the best boards I've found so far are these, I'll help narrow it down from these:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Motherboard-MAXIMUS-VI-IMPACT/dp/B00EUMMWGE/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-16&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Motherboards-H81T-R2-0-CSM/dp/B015AD2BXK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-7&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Durable-GA-H97N-WIFI-Motherboard-LGA-1150/dp/B00KC7ZY2U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-6&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Mini-Motherboard-GA-H81N/dp/B00H7OHW8A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-2&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

[Guest]

Few more ebay options

http://m.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Tech-Z97I-PLUS-Motherboard-Wifi-1150-Intel-HDMI-Displayport-Mini-ITX-/201772178452?nav=SEARCH

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-Z97N-GAMING-5-Motherboard-LGA1150-DDR3-Intel-Z97-Mini-ITX-/142224707233?nav=SEARCH

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Asus-z97i-Plus-LGA1150-Haswell-based-mITX-motherboard-2x-DDR3-slot-SATA-m-2-/182379891950?nav=SEARCH

 

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-LGA-1150-Intel-Z97N-IWi-Fi-Bluetooth-HDMI-SATA-6Gb-s-USB-3-0-Mini-ITX-D-/192065124347?nav=SEARCH

[Guest]

1 minute ago, adithyay328 said:

Crap dude, the best boards I've found so far are these, I'll help narrow it down from these:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Motherboard-MAXIMUS-VI-IMPACT/dp/B00EUMMWGE/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-16&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Motherboards-H81T-R2-0-CSM/dp/B015AD2BXK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-7&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Durable-GA-H97N-WIFI-Motherboard-LGA-1150/dp/B00KC7ZY2U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-6&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Mini-Motherboard-GA-H81N/dp/B00H7OHW8A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-2&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

He can't oc his 4770k on a h81 or h97 chipset

[adithyay328]

2 minutes ago, adithyay328 said:

Crap dude, the best boards I've found so far are these, I'll help narrow it down from these:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Motherboard-MAXIMUS-VI-IMPACT/dp/B00EUMMWGE/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-16&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Motherboards-H81T-R2-0-CSM/dp/B015AD2BXK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-7&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Durable-GA-H97N-WIFI-Motherboard-LGA-1150/dp/B00KC7ZY2U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-6&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Mini-Motherboard-GA-H81N/dp/B00H7OHW8A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-2&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

Of all of these, I would pick one of the asus ones, personally the Maximus b/c of the better chipset. Also, does the case support micro-atx, because micro IMO is the smallest I would go, because micro can pack the biggest punch in the smallest size.

[adithyay328]

1 minute ago, deXxterlab97 said:

He can't oc his 4770k on a h81 or h97 chipset

Exactly, which is why the maximus has the z87 express chipset, which CAN overclock. Sorry, I just posted this one, probably didn't see it till after you posted: 

 

1 minute ago, adithyay328 said:

Of all of these, I would pick one of the asus ones, personally the Maximus b/c of the better chipset. Also, does the case support micro-atx, because micro IMO is the smallest I would go, because micro can pack the biggest punch in the smallest size.

 

 

[OsuMasterz]

You may be stuck to not overclocking the CPU unless you are okay with something like a refurbished motherboard

[Carbongrip]

2 hours ago, Dr_Frankenolly said:

(On a side not I plan to use my old case to make a more modern and solid PC build using an i5 6500 and a GTX 1070.)

Why would you drop an i7 4770k for a worse i5 6500? Why not just buy a GTX 1070 and use it in your current setup?

 

I currently have an i7 3770k @ 4.2ghz with a GTX 1070, runs like a dream if you don't do video encoding work ( I am upgrading to LGA 2011-3 soon for that ).

[Dr_Frankenolly]

17 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Bit expensive for brand new. Looking at ebay now

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EUMMWGE/?tag=pcpapi-20

Yeah can't pay for that, but definitely thank you for the help.

[Dr_Frankenolly]

14 hours ago, Carbongrip said:

Why would you drop an i7 4770k for a worse i5 6500? Why not just buy a GTX 1070 and use it in your current setup?

 

I currently have an i7 3770k @ 4.2ghz with a GTX 1070, runs like a dream if you don't do video encoding work ( I am upgrading to LGA 2011-3 soon for that ).

I know but when it comes to games, getting the new i7's doesn't help in performance. As for just upgrading the graphics card I'm not sure if my motherboard will be able to support a new 1070 without become a choke point in my build. What would I need to look for to check that?

[Dr_Frankenolly]

17 hours ago, OsuMasterz said:

You may be stuck to not overclocking the CPU unless you are okay with something like a refurbished motherboard

Not a big overclocker, just worried about screwing it up, so overclocking isn't important to me.

[Dr_Frankenolly]

17 hours ago, adithyay328 said:

Crap dude, the best boards I've found so far are these, I'll help narrow it down from these:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Motherboard-MAXIMUS-VI-IMPACT/dp/B00EUMMWGE/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-16&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Motherboards-H81T-R2-0-CSM/dp/B015AD2BXK/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-7&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Durable-GA-H97N-WIFI-Motherboard-LGA-1150/dp/B00KC7ZY2U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-6&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-Mini-Motherboard-GA-H81N/dp/B00H7OHW8A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483509116&sr=8-2&keywords=lga+1150+mini+itx+motherboard

I really like the Gigabyte GA-H97n you found. Looks perfect!

[Dr_Frankenolly]

I'm trying to make this all work in the Silverstone Ravon version 2 case. It's thin and compact, but if you guys can find a better case in the micro ATX range, I'm open to suggestions.

[Dr_Frankenolly]

First of all, thank you all for this tremendous support! I never would of guessed how fast I'd get help. And Second, tell you what! The new plan will be a Z87 motherboard that fits a 4770k CPU in a small format case. I'll upgrade the GPU to a GTX 1070 and worry about the old case some other day. So I'm open to both Mini-itx or Micro-atx. Even better, if you guys can help me find a small form factor ATX case, I won't need to find a new motherboard. Also would it help you guys if I gave you a list of my current parts?

[Carbongrip]

8 hours ago, Dr_Frankenolly said:

As for just upgrading the graphics card I'm not sure if my motherboard will be able to support a new 1070 without become a choke point in my build. What would I need to look for to check that?

 

There won't be ANY choke point with your current motherboard. You have a i7 4770k which means its a Z87 or Z97 motherboard, both of which use the same PCIE 3.0 x16 slot that even the most recent Z170/Z270 motherboards use. My point I made above was that you don't need anything new to support the GTX 1070, my i7 3770k @ 4.2ghz is older than your i7 4770k and uses the Z77 motherboard which also uses the same PCIE 3.0 x16 slot as the newer motherboards. I have ZERO "choke point".

 

Do yourself a favour, buy a GTX 1070 and install it in your current build. After that you can find a smaller form-factor case that fits your current ATX motherboard.

[Carbongrip]

Here is an example of a case that fits a standard ATX motherboard and GPU. It's a smaller form factor.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112466

[Dr_Frankenolly]

On 1/4/2017 at 11:44 PM, Carbongrip said:

 

There won't be ANY choke point with your current motherboard. You have a i7 4770k which means its a Z87 or Z97 motherboard, both of which use the same PCIE 3.0 x16 slot that even the most recent Z170/Z270 motherboards use. My point I made above was that you don't need anything new to support the GTX 1070, my i7 3770k @ 4.2ghz is older than your i7 4770k and uses the Z77 motherboard which also uses the same PCIE 3.0 x16 slot as the newer motherboards. I have ZERO "choke point".

 

Do yourself a favour, buy a GTX 1070 and install it in your current build. After that you can find a smaller form-factor case that fits your current ATX motherboard.

I Agree! Thank you for the help! I guess when I get the money for a full new build I'll go for the smaller form factor.

[Dr_Frankenolly]

On 1/4/2017 at 11:50 PM, Carbongrip said:

Here is an example of a case that fits a standard ATX motherboard and GPU. It's a smaller form factor.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112466

Looks amazing and it's just what I'm looking for, but that is definitely more than I'm willing to pay right now. But as long as I know that it's a possibility, I'll keep my eyes out for a more budget version. Thank you again for the find.