Motherboard dying, how to find new board that'll work with pre-exsisting pc parts?

Charger347

My motherboard is dying and I need a replacement. The whole PC was built new in 2017, so most of the parts are old, but I can't afford to build a whole new PC right now, and I have no idea how to find out what kinds of boards would work with my pre-exsisting parts. I built the thing off a list of cheap parts for budget gaming with no personal knowledge, so I have no idea what I'm doing.

Here's the build list-

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Processor- Intel Pentium G4600 3.6 LGA 1151 GHz Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80677G4600

Motherboard- MSI Gaming Intel B250 LGA 1151 DDR4 HDMI VR Ready Micro-ATX Motherboard (B250M Bazooka)

RAM- Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2400 MHz DDR4 DRAM Desktop Gaming Memory Single 8GB CL16 BLS8G4D240FSE

Storage- Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 64MB Cache for Computer Desktop PC (ST1000DM010)

Graphics Card- Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 128 Bit PCI-E Graphic Card (GV-N105TD5-4GD)

Power Supply- Corsair CX Series 450 Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Non-Modular Power Supply (CP-9020120-NA)

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ANY help is appreciated, even if it's just to tell me to give up on finding a different compatible board, that advice is still better than what I got now, which is headache, frustration, and confusion.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Charger347

Your only real issue here is the CPU. You'd need to find an Intel 100/200/300 series board to support the LGA 1151 CPU. 400/500 switched to LGA1200, and 600 series to LGA1700. This generation of CPU wasn't compatible with the 300 series even though the socket matches. I believe these were Kaby Lake architecture, and the 300 series boards were only compatible with Coffee Lake. You'd need to find a 100/200 series board which could be difficult at this point.

Alternative, upgrade the CPU and board.

H510 motherboard: https://www.microcenter.com/product/634701/msi-h510m-pro-intel-lga-1200-microatx-motherboard $100

11th Gen 11400: https://www.microcenter.com/product/633424/intel-core-i5-11400-rocket-lake-26ghz-six-core-lga-1200-boxed-processor-intel-stock-cooler-included $170

There's a $20 bundle discount, should bring the total down to $250. Significant upgrade from a G4600 to an i5-11400.

All your other components should work fine with the new board/CPU.

Charger347

Thank you, so, soo much.

The links to the Board and the CPU are VERY much appreciated, considering how little I know about building PCs those links help IMMENSELY.

Another quick question since you're already somewhat familiar with this board, and I have no idea if what the specs say what I "think" they say, but it only supports two RAM sticks, and one hard drive, correct?

Cause lets just say that some idiot bought an extra internal hard drive before he reasoned out that his motherboard was dying, and lets also just say this same dumbass didn't even check to see if his current board supported two internal hard drives before he bought the second, and may need to return that hard drive soon to get a refund.

Also, this person may have been thinking about upgrading from two sticks to four sticks of 8 ram, but put that on hold when he found out that is wasn't his RAM that was causing his PC performance problems, but that his board was dying, and for once managed to not charge full steam ahead into buying something without thinking it through first...

PowerSpec_MichaelB

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/39251#Comment_39251

Sounds like this person may be looking for a board with slightly more expandability options: https://www.microcenter.com/product/633625/asus-b560m-a-prime-intel-lga-1200-microatx-motherboard. This board is about $20 more expensive, but comes with 4 DIMM slots, 2 M.2 slots as well as 4 SATA ports. Should accommodate "this person's" needs 😉

The CPU @TSMikeW linked above will be a significant upgrade over the G4600 you are currently using. We are talking 3x the CPU cores and threads while also operating at an 800Mhz higher boost frequency. No doubt you will feel the performance benefits from that kind of upgrade alone. It will also work just fine in the board I linked above.

Let us know if there are any additional questions or concerns!

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Charger347

I'll second the board pick from @TSMichaelB to add a second NVME slot and greater expandability overall.

Charger347

Ok, that does increase my options.

Based on the info you've given me, I have some paths that I'm debating, but I'm not sure which of would be better. I do need some clarifications first, since I may be reading the specs wrong (I'm doing a lot of term googling with this, so if I say something that sounds "off" best just ask me to figure out what I meant instead of what I typed).

If I do decide to upgrade my RAM to two 16gb instead of four 8gb I wont need the two additional memory slots (since it'd probably be more work to get two sticks of the same kind that I already have than just get two new sticks of 16). Although if the new CPU will increase my performance significantly then I wont necessarily need to increase my RAM, but I was under the assumption that more RAM capacity would decrease strain on my PC overall.

And If the (MSI H510M PRO Intel LGA 1200 microATX Motherboard) that Mike originally suggested has 4 SATA ports, that means it could support both hard drives, correct? I think that it also supports a SSD, so that gives me more options for my storage.

1- keep the old hard drive and just reinstall windows on it and return the new drive and just keep that alone.

2- If I'm going to be reinstalling windows anyway, just keep the new hard-drive and install windows on that, and then reformat the old drive and keep that as my games only storage.

3- Maybe vice versa of 2, make the new drive as games only and go ahead and reinstall windows on the old drive.

(Actually that would be a good question to ask, will reinstalling windows wipe all my data off my drive, meaning that after I reinstall I'm going to need to reinstall all my programs and software, or is reinstalling windows something where they pocket away your software data and only replace the windows OS data?)

4- Returning the new hard-drive, keeping the old drive for games storage and getting a SSD drive for my OS. Would that be a better option than the two HDD?

I had looked at the (https://www.microcenter.com/product/503405/480GB_SSD_3D_NAND_SATA_30_6_GBps_25_Inch_7mm_Internal_Solid_State_Drive) since it was in the "frequently purchased together" for both motherboard suggestions you gave me, so I would assume that it would work with them both.

Last little bit of clarification, I might not NECESSARILY buy ALL of these parts together based on the info you give me on the questions I had above, but if I DID there shouldn't be a problem with compatibility with what I'm keeping and what I'm buying, correct?

https://www.microcenter.com/product/634701/msi-h510m-pro-intel-lga-1200-microatx-motherboard

https://www.microcenter.com/product/633424/intel-core-i5-11400-rocket-lake-26ghz-six-core-lga-1200-boxed-processor-intel-stock-cooler-included

https://www.microcenter.com/product/633119/corsair-vengeance-rgb-pro-sl-32gb-(2-x-16gb)-ddr4-3200-pc4-25600-cl16-dual-channel-desktop-memory-kit-cmh32gx4m2e3200-black

https://www.microcenter.com/product/503405/480GB_SSD_3D_NAND_SATA_30_6_GBps_25_Inch_7mm_Internal_Solid_State_Drive

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Charger347

RAM capacity is a question of what you're doing. 16GB is fine for most tasks, if you running programs that use a lot of memory than you should go with 32GB. If your system runs out of RAM, it has to access the hard drive directly. This will result in a massive performance hit despite the CPU you have. Getting the second board with 4 slots makes sense. You can run with 2x8GB for now, and go for 4x8GB if need be.

With storage upgrading to an NVME drive is going to be a good performance boost. Here's a WDSN550 for $42.99: https://www.microcenter.com/product/622291/wd-blue-sn550-500gb-m2-nvme-interface-pcie-30-x4,-up-to-2400mb-s,-internal-solid-state-drive-with-3d-tlc-nand-(wds500g2b0c)

Drive you selected was a SATA SSD. Same interface as you're using on the HDD, with a different connector(M.2). You have the same speed limitations. It's significantly more than an HDD, roughly estimating say 130-150MB/s on the HDD, the drive you selected advertises 550MB/s read, and 490MB/s write. SATA 3 caps at 600MB/s. SATA can be through a SATA or M.2 connector. It's still the same interface, SATA. Speed is limited by the version, everything has been SATA 3 for a while.

NVME drives operates on PCIe. On PCIe 3.0 the cap is 3900MB/s(4 lanes). Now that's a theoretical maximum and you're not going to see that, but the drive I linked advertises 2400MB/s read, 1750MB's write. That's a significant increase. There are PCIe 4.0 drives available push into that 4000MB/s range. The theoretical maximum is double PCIe 3.0. Generally these are referred to as Gen3, or Gen4. I'd stick with the drive I recommended for now mainly due to cost.

The parts you have listed should work just fine together. I would consider the B560 board for expandability, and the NVME drive for overall performance. It's $10, in my opinion it's worth for the option of doubling your RAM down the road without having to replace it all.

Charger347

Ok, so go with the B560 board, and get a WDSN550, I can do that.

New question, does the B560 board have the capacity for all three: the old hard drive, the new hard drive, and the WDSN550?

Cause in my VERY MUCH uninformed opinion it might just be smarter for me to just use all three if I can so I'll never have to worry about storage space, and I don't have to go through the process of returning the new drive (cause lets face it, returning things is a pain in the ass, and if I can trick myself into thinking using all three is a good idea, I'ma gonna do dat). Or is 3 drives something that might be too much for my power supply? Or is that just a problem that I'm making up in my head? Just remember, I don't really know what I'm doing...

Still would like a little more clarification on the RAM, would it be smarter to buy 4 new sticks of 8gb, buy two sticks of 16gb, or buy two new sticks of 8gb of the RAM sticks that I already have? Cause I was under the impression that it wasn't the smartest idea to mix brands of ram sticks, meaning if I want to use my existing two sticks of 8gb, it'd be best if I'd get two more of the same make/model/brand for best performance, correct?

Cause this (https://www.microcenter.com/product/633119/VENGEANCE_RGB_PRO_SL_32GB_2_x_16GB)_DDR4-3200_PC4-25600_CL16_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit_CMH32GX4M2E3200_-_Black) will cost me $130.

This (https://www.microcenter.com/product/639984/corsair-vengeance-rgb-pro-sl-16gb-(2-x-8gb)-ddr4-3200-pc4-25600-cl18-dual-channel-desktop-memory-kit-black) will cost me $154 to get me four sticks, so that's already a negative on price, and caps me at 32 flat out, so that's probably an no.

And this (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001286552720.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.60334562Dtdp1h&algo_pvid=678ce822-3b4f-43a5-a870-657096769193&algo_exp_id=678ce822-3b4f-43a5-a870-657096769193-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000015579661290%22%7D&pdp_pi=-1%3B45.71%3B-1%3B-1%40salePrice%3BUSD%3Bsearch-mainSearch) is what I already have two of, so buying two more to get me up to 32gb will only cost me $75+ship/hand... while still capping me at 32gb, but at least I'm saving $50ish.

Charger347

Whelp, my PC is now stuck on an infinite "Please Wait" screen on startup, so I think it's done for.

I'm not going to have time to run up to my local store to pick up parts myself, but I have a friend that lives close and can pick them up for me this up coming Sunday, so I need to get these parts decided by Saturday so I can have them ordered and ready to pick up by the next day.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Charger347

Lets cover storage first. From the manufacturers site:

Intel®11th Gen Processors

M.2_1 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280

- Only Intel® 11th Gen processors support PCIe 4.0 x4 mode, this slot will be disabled for other CPUs

Intel® B560 Chipset

M.2_2 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280 (supports PCIe 3.0 x4 & SATA modes)*

6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports

* M.2_2 slot shares bandwidth with SATA_2.When M.2_2 slot is operating in SATA mode, SATA_2 will be disabled.

So you can do NVME in M.2_1 with the 11th Gen processor, which is what we recommended for you. M.2_2 can do a NVME or SATA M.2. If you do SATA, SATA_2 is disabled leaving you 5 SATA ports. Maximum would be 2 NVME drives and 6 SATA drives. 8 drives total.

For RAM. Better to go with the 2x16GB kit. First it's a flat upgrade speed wise, moving from 2400 C16 to 3200 C16. You're increasing the capacity as well, which will certainly help down the road. Fewer modules is preferred. Leaves room for upgrading and it's easier on the memory controller when you're pushing higher clocks. The latter isn't really relevant unless you're overclocking. I'd do the 2x16GB now, you can push it to 4x16GB if you should need to in several years.

As for mixing RAM, you want to avoid this. You can do this, the issue is going to be the RAM will run at the speed of the slowest stick. So you throw DDR4-3200 in there, keep in mind 3200 is going to be an XMP Profile. The JEDEC profile is probably 2133 C15. The Crucial kit is 2400 C16, that's a JEDEC. Which means the memory will likely setup as 2400 C16, or it fails to POST it'll roll back to 2133 C15. You'd have configure it manually from there, which could be an issue. Obviously the Crucial kit isn't going to do 3200 so it'll hold you back. With the new kit, just go into the BIOS, load the XMP profile and it'll setup for you.

Charger347

Soo... Since my PC more or less died via going into a endless "please wait" loop on startup I tried to reinstall windows, nothing happened, figured I'll just bite the bullet, buy my parts and start over...

Unhooked everything, opened the case to get a good look at the board, see if I could find anything wrong with it... I couldn't find my second stick of RAM... And then it hit me, I've probably NEVER had two sticks of RAM I the FIRST PLACE.

I've been running this gaming PC on one stick of 8. ONE. STICK. OF. 8. NO WONDER I KILLED IT IN 5 YEARS. I PUT OVER 7,000 HOURS ON ONE STICK OF 8! I PLAYED TITANFALL 2 FOR TWO YEARS ON ONE STICK OF 8, I PLAYED ALMOST 1000 HOURS OF BORDERLANDS 3 ON ONE STICK OF 8!

Now I'm wondering if it's my motherboard at all and instead my harddrive failed and the diagnostic I ran on it LIED to me because it'd rather choose death than be worked to hell for another year on ONE STICK OF 8.

I looked over the motherboard the best I could and didn't see any bulging or burst capacitors, so if the motherboard might not be the problem should I just take the new hard drive, reinstall windows on that and see if I'm still having problems?

I mean it'd be nice to not spend $500 on parts if I didn't have to and all I needed to do is buy TWO news sticks of RAM.

Luckily I'm paranoid about internal hard drive failure so I keep most of everything that I NEED to keep on an external hard drives and mostly keep the bare minimum on my internal, so I didn't lose much of anything other than just time reinstalling everything that I had on there.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Charger347

RAM isn't really prone to wearing out due to overuse. Generally it should last a decade or more under normal circumstances.

The issue you're describing sounds first off like OS corruption. You said you tried to reinstall windows but it wouldn't do anything. Press F11 on startup to access the boot menu, you should be able to reinstall Windows. Everything sounds like OS/Corruption, potentially drive issues more than a motherboard issue. If you ran HDD diagnostics, failures can be intermittent and cumulative. If it's an intermittent failure, it's very possible it's something you need to catch in the act. Based on the way that test functions, it may not induce the failure your seeing under a normal work load. I've seen drives in the past that were faulty that would pass diagnostics.

Charger347

So i decided to just nix the old hard drive since I did try to f11 when I tried to reinstall windows last night and I couldn't get it to work. Installed the new hard drive, and reinstalled windows so its running, now I just have reinstall things and see if I still have issues.

If anything else comes up I'll leave another message here, THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR THE HELP. I really cannot express this enough, thank you for taking the time to help me figure out what could be wrong with my PC.