Question 1

Does this motherboard have integrated graphics or will I need to buy a video card?

Accepted Answer

Yes, there is on board video, but if you plan to do any serious gaming, I'd suggest an additional video card. For normal use, however, the on board video will work just fine. I hope this helps!

Question 2

How many usb ports?

Accepted Answer

there are 4 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0. Plus there are additional USB headers on the Motherboard so you can add your cases front panel USB connections. There are plenty of usb connections on this board.

Question 3

What Memory can I use with this motherboard?

Accepted Answer

The board needs DDR3 RAM (240 pin DIMs) of 1600/1333/1066 speed The manual does not list any higher speeds for over-clocking.

I am using two Patriot Signature DIMs for 16GB and it works perfectly. 
The DIMs are rated 1600 (PC 12800).
 
Beyond the speed rating you must also consider physical clearance issues. Many RAM designs have tall heat spreaders that may interfere with a large CPU heat-sink. That is why I chose the low profile design of the Patriot Signature units, well that and the price.

Question 4

Will this mother board support a pentium 4 (80532) processor?

Accepted Answer

This motherboard supports CPUs with 1150 CPU socket types.  The Pentium CPUs it supports are all Haswell cores and as follows: G1820, G1830, G3220, G3220T, G3420, G3420T, and G3430.  I think you can find these CPUs at Newegg.  It also supports a few Celerons.  However, I think most folks use i3, i5, and i7 in this board.

Question 5

The overview emphasizes "Windows 8.1 Ready" as a feature, but I'm not planning on running any form of Windows 8 on my new build. Am I going to run into any issues using Windows 7 with this board?

Accepted Answer

No.. The windows 8 ready thing usually just refers to the fact that it is using UEFI instead of BIOS, which is better in every respect IMO. I am currently running windows 7 on this board

Question 6

Why must people be ignorant and complain about updating BIOS out of the box? I have been building PC's for almost 20 years and that was always the FIRST thing i do.  Software always changes, improvements are found, bugs are fixed. Its kinda like having a antivirus but not updating the definitions.

Accepted Answer

I understand your statement and I have no problem updating the bios! I had a wierd problem but come to find out it was my modular power connectors were not connected good. I was electrocuted at work and I don't see, think or work as well as I use to! But I was able to solve it on my own! The only problem I have with the board now is that it a little on the cheap side but that is why I bought it. The clips on the video slots broke but the card still stays in place tight, all because of my vision problems.

Question 7

Can this motherboard overclock? Right now I'm stuck with one that only overclocks the integrated graphics. It sucks...I really wanna OC my i5-4670k.

Accepted Answer

I've owned the motherboard for a little over a month so far and it seems to turbo boost well, so I assume it should overclock well.  I enabled turbo boost on my i7 and it goes from 3.2GHz to 3.8GHz for games without crashing; I'm using the stock Intel fan.

Question 8

Does this motherboard support the i7-4590 out of the box? I ask because I'm aware that some boards with the B85 chipset require a BIOS update to fully support Haswell CPUs.

Accepted Answer

I've owned two of these. The first did require the bios update (possible to update from bios with a network connection). The second one I purchased had a sticker stating 'new version' or something similar and supported the Haswell right away.

More likely than not you'll get one of the updated versions.

Question 9

Is this motherboard compatible with Windows 10?

Accepted Answer

Yes, just installed windows 10 Friday on it. I'm having done issues with other programs, but that isn't related to the motherboard, which has been amazing for 2 years now.

Question 10

Does this board support at least RAID 1 (mirrored) hard drives?

Accepted Answer

I believe it will contingent on the operating system software you intend to use on it.

Questions & Answers