Need an itx mobo for a G3258

ekuest

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Messages
6,094
Either my motherboard or cpu died so it's upgrade time! After I saw Linus's video on the G3258 I decided I want one. This rig is for almost exclusively gaming and watching tv, so I think it's the perfect cpu. Haven't really kept up with cpus since the last time I upgraded which was to an i7 860 like 4 years ago, so if anyone has a better suggestion I'm all ears. But sticking with the G3258, I need to find a new mobo to go with it. It has to be mini-itx as it will be going in my itx case. I don't need a lot of features, and I'm really not sure what brand or even chipset to look for. Can someone help me get pointed in the right direction? Thanks!
 
You will want a Z87/Z97 or a B85 chipset to overclock it. There arent many itx boards out there. I would probably suggest something from Asus or Asrock. Gigabyte also makes a few nice itx boards.

But we really need to know your budget, and what features you need.
 
Budget isn't really an issue. I like value though so cheaper is always better. I will be water cooling with an all in one cooler and would like to OC but nothing crazy, usually I just do whatever OC I can get on stock voltage. Do I need to overclock more to make this cpu worth it?

I currently have 2 Gigabytee boards, an h55n and an h67n? Not sure and unfortunately not at home to check, but they've served me pretty well for a few years except that I've had a lot of unexplained issues with power cycling and not booting and other weird stuff which may or may not have been due to the motherboards or may have been other issues (home built cases and jerry-rigged writing etc.) I really don't need many features, what features are you talking about? I need as many USB ports as possible on the back, some kind of onboard graphics for troubleshooting purposes, a good Ethernet port, and that's about it. Don't need mini sata or mini pcie, don't need massive OC ability, don't need onboard Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, don't even need raid. I do need a full size pcie slot of course, and enough overclocking to get this cpu fast enough to play star citizen and gta5. Board layout may also be an issue since it will be going on a custom built itx case I made, but I think it is a minor concern and I won't really know until I test fit it anyway. If there is any specific info you need just ask and I will answer as best I can.
 
I guess I would say under $100 since it seems like there are plenty on newegg for that cheap that have good reviews. Would be weird to put a $73 cpu in a board that costs twice that. :)

Edit: After a little Google-fu, it looks like I really only need a B85 board. I only even need one sata port. Z87 or Z97 would be a waste for this rig. Newegg seems to have an asrock board for cheap, think I should go for that? The entry-level msi and gigabyte boards look good too but cost a tiny bit more. Either of them worth it over the asrock? I guess now I'm just not sure between those three. Best bet would be the Gigabyte since it's $80 on Amazon with free shipping. Newegg rips me off on shopping to Hawaii.
 
Last edited:
Very nice! Thank you! Wow pc gaming really is at console prices now. Shipping was $25 to Hawaii but shop stunner cut that down to zero. Buying now!

Not only is that board not ITX form factor, it also does not have the ability to overclock that Pentium processor. Only a couple manufacturers of B85 boards have OC ability, ASUS being one of them.
 
Oh dang. Ok hmm do I really need to overclock this to get good gaming performance or is it ok at stock speeds? I actually held off buying it because I am an idiot and just realized that my cpu doesn't have integrated graphics so of course I got nothing when I tried to test it with no gpu installed. (At first I thought my gpu was dead but no image with no gpu installed made me think it was the cpu or motherboard.) I think I gotta do some more troubleshooting when I get home and see what I really need.
 
Last edited:
Oh dang. Ok hmm do I really need to overclock this to get good gaming performance or is it ok at stock speeds? I actually held off buying it because I am an idiot and just realized that my cpu doesn't have integrated graphics so of course I got nothing when I tried to test it with no got installed. (At first I thought my gpu was dead but no image with no gpu installed made me think it was the cpu or motherboard.) I think I gotta do some more troubleshooting when I get home and see what I really need.

It is recommended you overclock it because the G3258 is the only processor in the entire Socket 1150 Pentium lineup that has the ability to. Otherwise you'd be able to just go ahead and get the Pentium G32XX "Lame Edition" :) . Gaming will also see significant gains in performance as you increase the clock speed of the processor as it will lessen(er... widen?) the bottleneck between it and the GPU.
 
Ok sounds about right. Sorry I'm at my gf's on mobile right now so it's hard for me to do any good research or posting. So then what's a decent itx board for overclocking this cpu? The Asus was a bit more expensive I think, but the asrock, msi, and gigabyte boards were all fairly inexpensive.
 
Make sure you have active cooling over your ITX mobo. Pumping all those volts into the CPU put my ITX board at 128C, and with no cooling, would crash.
 
Definitely keep in mind you want a mobo that lets you overclock, because without it there is nothing special about the G3258.
 
What mITX case are you planning to use? Since you're planning on overclocking, that means you're going to need a 3rd party HSF. Many mITX cases have trouble fitting some of the even shorter HSF out there.

The cheapest overclock capable mITX motherboard that should support that CPU right out of the box that I can also recommend would be this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K8HNGYW/?tag=extension-kb-20
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
i think i said earlier, but i am using a case that i built with an asetek AIO for cooling. it's been running with great temps on my i7 860 and gigabyte h55n for years.
 
What mITX case are you planning to use? Since you're planning on overclocking, that means you're going to need a 3rd party HSF. Many mITX cases have trouble fitting some of the even shorter HSF out there.

The cheapest overclock capable mITX motherboard that should support that CPU right out of the box that I can also recommend would be this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K8HNGYW/?tag=extension-kb-20

that motherboard has a million features that i will never use. is there really nothing cheaper that can overclock this cpu? what about this, this, or this? like i said before, i dont need wifi or bluetooth or raid or a mini-pcie slot, or anything really other than itx form factor, and ability to overclock a G3258.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
that motherboard has a million features that i will never use. is there really nothing cheaper that can overclock this cpu? what about this, this, or this? like i said before, i dont need wifi or bluetooth or raid or a mini-pcie slot, or anything really other than itx form factor, and ability to overclock a G3258.
Your second link doesn't work. But that AsRock B85M-ITX does allow you to overclock. However, I highly doubt it'll support the G3258 right out of the box. There's a good chance that you'll end up with one of the older inventory of B85M-ITX motherboards. Anecdotally, I still had to UEFI update several X79 motherboards bought brand new seven months after the release of the Ivy Bridge-E CPUs to support the IB-E CPUs. I've also had to update several AsRock and Gigabyte mobos to support those newer Intel CPUs as well.

Not to mention that it is a budget motherboard so its overclock capability may be rather light to begin with. Hence why I recommended that Z97 motherboard:
1) It should support that CPU right of the box
2) It's of higher quality than that AsRock and therefore should allow for an easier time overclocking and higher overclocks.

Also, just to be clear: By default, the B85 and H87/H97 chipsets cannot overclock. Intel disabled that capability in order to drive sales of the Z87/Z97 chipsets. It is up to the motherboard manufacturer if they want to enable that capability. In this case, AsRock added overclock capability to some of their B85 and H87 mobos.
 
Your second link doesn't work. But that AsRock B85M-ITX does allow you to overclock. However, I highly doubt it'll support the G3258 right out of the box. There's a good chance that you'll end up with one of the older inventory of B85M-ITX motherboards. Anecdotally, I still had to UEFI update several X79 motherboards bought brand new seven months after the release of the Ivy Bridge-E CPUs to support the IB-E CPUs. I've also had to update several AsRock and Gigabyte mobos to support those newer Intel CPUs as well.

Not to mention that it is a budget motherboard so its overclock capability may be rather light to begin with. Hence why I recommended that Z97 motherboard:
1) It should support that CPU right of the box
2) It's of higher quality than that AsRock and therefore should allow for an easier time overclocking and higher overclocks.

Also, just to be clear: By default, the B85 and H87/H97 chipsets cannot overclock. Intel disabled that capability in order to drive sales of the Z87/Z97 chipsets. It is up to the motherboard manufacturer if they want to enable that capability. In this case, AsRock added overclock capability to some of their B85 and H87 mobos.

from what i read it seemed like a lot of other AIBs like msi and gigabyte were going to offer overclocking on their b85 boards too. but youre right, they probably wont have the G3285 supported if i bought one now and i would have to get a throw-away cpu to flash the board and that's a pain. are you pretty sure the gigabyte you recommended supports overclocking on the G3258 already? i just went ahead and bought one, along with the proc. looks like the board is on backorder though. :/ thanks for the recommendation!

I bought the same combo. Should be nice for a htpc.

i ended up not being able to use that since it wasnt itx. wont fit my case.
 
Your second link doesn't work. But that AsRock B85M-ITX does allow you to overclock. However, I highly doubt it'll support the G3258 right out of the box. There's a good chance that you'll end up with one of the older inventory of B85M-ITX motherboards. Anecdotally, I still had to UEFI update several X79 motherboards bought brand new seven months after the release of the Ivy Bridge-E CPUs to support the IB-E CPUs. I've also had to update several AsRock and Gigabyte mobos to support those newer Intel CPUs as well.

Not to mention that it is a budget motherboard so its overclock capability may be rather light to begin with. Hence why I recommended that Z97 motherboard:
1) It should support that CPU right of the box
2) It's of higher quality than that AsRock and therefore should allow for an easier time overclocking and higher overclocks.

Also, just to be clear: By default, the B85 and H87/H97 chipsets cannot overclock. Intel disabled that capability in order to drive sales of the Z87/Z97 chipsets. It is up to the motherboard manufacturer if they want to enable that capability. In this case, AsRock added overclock capability to some of their B85 and H87 mobos.

The same update would apply even to Z97 motherboards - MSI's Z97 lineup, all the way down to the PC Mate, requires at least the early June BIOS update (4.2 in the case of the Z97 PC Mate - current is 4.3).

The bigger surprise is that apparently the G3258 will do a solid 4 GHz on air - at minimum - even with the stock HSF, let alone a solid aftermarket HSF like the CoolerMaster Hyper212+ or EVO - no less than MicroCenter has 4.4 GHz (with the EVO or 212+) as a floor.

(Yes - my stall is over; I'm getting a Z97 PC Mate/Pentium AE as a birthday prezzie from MIcroCenter - the only questions are will I also get an EVGA GTX750Ti SC along with the tag-team - and, of course, *which* MicroCenter. If I go tomorrow, it will be Rockville, MD - over the weekend - which means someone else will be doing the driving, it will be Fairfax, VA.)
 
The same update would apply even to Z97 motherboards - MSI's Z97 lineup, all the way down to the PC Mate, requires at least the early June BIOS update (4.2 in the case of the Z97 PC Mate - current is 4.3).

The bigger surprise is that apparently the G3258 will do a solid 4 GHz on air - at minimum - even with the stock HSF, let alone a solid aftermarket HSF like the CoolerMaster Hyper212+ or EVO - no less than MicroCenter has 4.4 GHz (with the EVO or 212+) as a floor.

(Yes - my stall is over; I'm getting a Z97 PC Mate/Pentium AE as a birthday prezzie from MIcroCenter - the only questions are will I also get an EVGA GTX750Ti SC along with the tag-team - and, of course, *which* MicroCenter. If I go tomorrow, it will be Rockville, MD - over the weekend - which means someone else will be doing the driving, it will be Fairfax, VA.)

yeah i havent overclocked since... my i7 920? in 2009? lately ive just been using stock clocks and keeping my cpu undervolted as far as it will go and be stable. it'll be fun to actually push a chip again. im putting it on a CLC so im hoping for 4.5GHz. :) that plus the 280X on the way will be a nice upgrade from my stock speed i7 860 and dead 5870. i really hope this board comes with the updated BIOS or i will be a sad sad panda and i will hold Dangman personally responsible. :p

so i read in another thread that people thought this cpu would be next to impossible to find once it came out. is it still a possibility that this will be rare at some point soon? i do plan on upgrading my htpc/steambox to the same proc at some point in the nearish future. although for now, the price on amazon went down to $70. i JUST bought it at $73.
 
yeah i havent overclocked since... my i7 920? in 2009? lately ive just been using stock clocks and keeping my cpu undervolted as far as it will go and be stable. it'll be fun to actually push a chip again. im putting it on a CLC so im hoping for 4.5GHz. :) that plus the 280X on the way will be a nice upgrade from my stock speed i7 860 and dead 5870. i really hope this board comes with the updated BIOS or i will be a sad sad panda and i will hold Dangman personally responsible. :p

so i read in another thread that people thought this cpu would be next to impossible to find once it came out. is it still a possibility that this will be rare at some point soon? i do plan on upgrading my htpc/steambox to the same proc at some point in the nearish future. although for now, the price on amazon went down to $70. i JUST bought it at $73.

MicroCenter is blowing out the tag-team for $99 - which is barely more than Amazon's price for the CPU alone. (The only quibble is that the motherboard doesn't support SLI; however, given that the planned GPU upgrade is an EVGA GTX750Ti SC - which doesn't even support SLI - that is a great big non-issue. Also, MicroCenter does NOT sell the CPU alone.) Even if it lacks the updated BIOS (4.2 or 4.3), download it ahead of time from MSI and load it on a USB stick - which I have done.
 
Why not just buy another 1156 board? That pentium chip is nice and everything but its more of a sidegrade and any program that can take advantage of more than 2 cores will take a substantial performance hit. Its much more likely that your board is dead, not your cpu.
 
Why not just buy another 1156 board? That pentium chip is nice and everything but its more of a sidegrade and any program that can take advantage of more than 2 cores will take a substantial performance hit. Its much more likely that your board is dead, not your cpu.

I'm looking at the G as a placeholder - not a destination in and of itself; I'm coming from a far-older quad-core (Q6600). I'm looking to land *eventually* on i5-4690K (Devil's Canyon in i5 trim) - however, I have done no overclocking since I moved to the CSM stumblebum that is the Intel G41 chipset. (Even more telling, the G can almost certainly overclock far taller than the i5-K due to the DC quad having the lower-performing TIM.) I just want to use the G to get things dialed-in clock-speed wise for my application and game mix - that way, when the i5-K gets installed, I will be able to run more such applications at once without seeing my overclock land in the commode.

Also, LGA1156 motherboards (unless you are looking on eBay, and possibly even then) are not exactly cheap - current-generation motherboards make more pricing sense.
 
Why not just buy another 1156 board? That pentium chip is nice and everything but its more of a sidegrade and any program that can take advantage of more than 2 cores will take a substantial performance hit. Its much more likely that your board is dead, not your cpu.

not sure if you were asking me or PGHammer, but for me it's because i've had issues with this computer since i first built it. in the last 3 years ive probably spent more time fixing this computer than playing on it. fixing usually involved reseating components, wiping hard drives, reinstalling windows, or just BIOS resets. i never had to replace a component until the 5870 died last week, but it was just never very reliable for some reason. i decided if i was getting a new gpu i might as well go with a new mobo and cpu too and make it basically a new build. getting some new features like power saving, pcie3, etc is nice too since that mobo is like 4 years old now. im sure i can sell the old components off for a decent amount and make this sidegrade pretty inexpensive.
 
I'm in the same boat (i.e. same idea) as OP. I am trying to figure out which specs/hardware to get, still, however.

About case?: Roswill Legacy U2 - any thoughts?
Silverstone SG05BB, Silverstone Sugo SG13, CM Elite 110

I thought of using some parts I already have in a mid-tower - for e.g. Corsair HX520W. Worth it? I would get a mini-itx SFF PSU later (Silverstone is coming out with new modular ones, some day). :)

Was thinking of going with an Asus mini-itx board to improve the chances of overclocking. I would buy an i5-4590 (for e.g.) afterwards - so there is an idea to upgrade later to a Haswell Refresh part.

I don't necessarily need a Z97 mobo as I might not overclock with the Haswell cpu. I just thought the G3258 can OC so might as well do so as it helps improve the performance, significantly?

But, mobo and case - I'm not sure what to choose yet. Also, whether to re-use a psu.
 
hey guys, for anyone who is still following, i got the mobo, cpu, and gpu installed and the computer booted right up surprisingly enough. i guess going from gigabyte to gigabyte helped. however, i want to reinstall windows anyway since it's basically a new build, and i cant make it work. my computer wont boot with the external dvd drive connected to any usb port, so i cant reformat using the windows cd. i also cant install any of the motherboard drivers from that cd, including the ethernet driver or the sb3 driver. anyone have any suggestions on how to get past this?
 
hey guys, for anyone who is still following, i got the mobo, cpu, and gpu installed and the computer booted right up surprisingly enough. i guess going from gigabyte to gigabyte helped. however, i want to reinstall windows anyway since it's basically a new build, and i cant make it work. my computer wont boot with the external dvd drive connected to any usb port, so i cant reformat using the windows cd. i also cant install any of the motherboard drivers from that cd, including the ethernet driver or the sb3 driver. anyone have any suggestions on how to get past this?

Ditch the optical drive for the reinstall - go with a USB stick instead.

With a USB stick as the source, you can have your motherboard support disc in the optical drive, which lets Windows (any version) pull drivers that it needs from the support DVD at will.

While this trick makes really good sense with newer motherboards, even traditional-BIOS motherboards can use it, as it is, in fact, based on the older dual-optical-drive installation method. Due to their sheer size (and bargain prices), I use 8 GB USB sticks for this - you can put Windows (any version, including those multi-version AIOs) on the stick, and have room for almost anything (if not everything) else you may need (such as Microsoft Office, browsers, other utilities, etc.). It's also (surprisingly) faster installing from USB than from any optical drive, even if you stick to USB 1.1, let alone 2.0.
 
Back
Top