Motherboard Upgrade

[Venkx]

Hi, I wanted to upgrade a few parts of my PC some time this year, but i ran into a little problem, hopefully you can help me.
I specifically looked at the Narwhal / Unicorn builds for parts, especially Motherboard and CPU.
Sometimes my System freezes without any indication why, and i think it's beacause of the Motherboard. A friend of mine uses the same one and has similiar problems.

Here's the problem: Currently I'm using Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H in combination with Intel Core I7 3770K.

Most of you will most like see where this is going, according to this Benchmark site, my 4 year old CPU is still stronger than the 6600k.

I really don't want to spend that much for such a 'minor' upgrade.

Has anyone a solution to this problem? how can I upgrade my motherboard without having to pay 350€ for a new CPU?

thx in advance

[Denpepe]

I would first check if I had the latest bios installed on my motherboard, chances are your problems could be fixed by that.

And while there is not much difference between your cpu and a i5 6600k there are better sources then that crappy site for comparisons.

for example http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1544?vs=551

[Snuke]

Upgrading a Mobo with an outdated socket would require you to buy another outdated mobo or replace the mobo/cpu combo. As Denpepe said, make sure all drivers and the BIOS for the mobo are completely up to do date. Also make sure your system doesn't have malware on it. If neither of those fix your issues it may be time to start saving for a new system.

[Venkx]

Thx Denpepe for this link! I've always used this other site, but yours is really a lot better, now it doesn't look like a downgrade for 250€

Yeah Snuke that's the problem, i hoped something like an adapter would exist, because i wouldn't upgrade my CPU if didn't have to.


BIOS, all drivers in general are up to date, I check this regularly. I'm pretty sure my system doesn't have any malware on it. After setting up a new windows, bitdefender is the first thing I install. I also scan my system once a month or so.

The problems are just weird, sometimes after restarting my PC it won't establish an internet connection, the icon in the taskbar is just 'loading'. If it does that, nothing on my system loads until this connection is established, takes about 2-3 minutes. Now if it happens I just hard-reset my PC and the problem is gone after booting.
It's just random and hasn't happened for a while now, just like the random freezes i get.

Is there maybe an application that writes logs in the background, so if something like that happens again I could check what's causing the poblem?

[ruuBEN]

I don't think that the issues you're describing is specific to the motherboard. While it's possible the motherboard could have intermittent issues that you're describing with the internet not working on boot, or the computer freezing, nine times out of ten those issues are all-or-nothing.

Also, in my experience, so far what you've talked about is related to a software issues with windows -- specifically with antivirus/antimalware programs.

That having been said, you could uninstall them and run your computer for a bit and see if that helps -- or you could make a live boot disc of linux and see how that works. If you can do most of your internet activities in linux, without having any issues, that'll alone isolate whether or not it's a hardware or a software problems.

The only reason I say this is that the ivy bridge processors are still fairly good. I've personally dealt with a number of z77 boards, I've even got the exact board you have in a system that I'm working on currently. It's a decent chipset, and while crappy boards exist for that chipset, I wouldn't classify yours as crappy.

[Venkx]

I know, I should have said I hope it's the motherboard, because it could just as well be everything else.
Personally I would rule out a problem with windows, the 2nd time I re-installed windows on my system it happened while i was restarting for driver installs.
My plan was just to change part after part, to maybe get rid of the problems, starting with the motherboard.

Obviously i couldn't really tell if something really helped. I haven't had a freeze in a month, and i haven't had the internet connection issue in over 2 months.


One thing I just remembered, I had a wifi PCI card in my system when I first built it and had a lot of bluescreens. I got another one because i thought the wifi card was just broken, but it was just the same, even if it was deactivated I got a lot of freezes and bluescreens. I Used an USB wifi stick for my wireless connection until I could get a cable to my pc.
That's part of the reason why I think it could be the motherboard, but maybe both wifi cards were broken.