Gigabyte GA-870A

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/giga...pci-e-20-(x16)-ddr3-sata-6gb-s-raid-atx-rev31

hmm this board made me think for a few reasons, 8pin power plug yet no mofset heatsinks, black socket, and the fact its listed as a am3+ board on scans usually reliable site, any thoughts guys?

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oh woah thanks for clearing that up, i was a bit confused with the am3+ socket with such a low chipset, still, the 8 pin power plug but no mofset heatsink combo is a little odd.

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QuietIce said:

Gigabyte only puts those MOSFET sinks on their top-of-the-line boards (read x90 chipsets). ASUS does that, too. I never understood why - they can't cost THAT much for them.

Looking through other Gigabyte boards, though, they use those 8-pin CPU plugs with all AMD chipsets except the bottom of the barrel (760G). Even their mATX 870 and 880 boards have them, as well as an older 770?? board that I saw. Never noticed that 'til now.

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asus have put mofset sinks on 785G boards, but then again my board is the same pc as its 790x sibling, i always buy boards with mofset heatsinks, it just makes them look more complete, and i hope the 8 pin power plugs on all boards trend carrys on, i know there not strictly necessary but its ncie to have.

So, has anyone bought used this board?

If so, what memory? I'm getting ready to order it for a 565BE with Pony 1333 (10666) 9.9.9.24 2x4GB memory. I'll be putting a 212+ HSF on it. A GA7600 graphics (a cast off my son didn't need). I'll put it into a CM 922 HAF case with a OCZ 550W PSU.

Not really in to gaming...more into live music recording. But I did want to play around with unlocking and some overclocking. But no big deal if the 565 doesn't cooperate. With the software I'll be using, I doubt that it would ever get off the first core anyway <LOL>

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Appreciate the sentiment QuietIce...I did think of that. However, to go to a latency of 7 rather than 9, I would have been looking at $40 more. That PONY memory was around $20 cheaper to start with and then there is a $20 rebate on top of that.

Of the three 8gb (2x4gb) kits, two had high ridgebacks (G.Skill). The one 7 kit that didn't have high spreaders was a 1.35v kit that would have cost $50 more than the PONY.

To tell the truth, I would much rather have gone with G.Skill or Patriot than PONY, but PONY fit my budget. I will upgrade at some point in the future (maybe sooner than later <LOL>) if the PONY proves fatal. I notice that not many people are using it.

But I have used PONY in much lower end PCs (like with DDR2 and even prior to that) and have not had problems with it. I'm just praying that the 1333 is okay. I'll let you know when I complete my build.

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QuietIce said:

1333 is fine - I'd rather run 1333CL7 than 1600CL9 any day.

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Me too. Unfortunately, money is a factor in this build. But, I'm building toward expansion in the future and memory is easily swapped!

I finished the build but do not have all the software loaded up. This is the AM3 565 BE x2 cpu on the Gigabyte GA-870A mobo using a CM Hyper 212+ HSF. Contrary to the complaints on the review section of NE, this sink was very easily installed and with the CM HAF 922 case, there is plenty of room should I wish to mount one of the 200mm fans in the side panel.

I had been running in stock 2-core configuration for a day or so and the max cpu temp was 30*C (idle at 17*C) according to Speedfan and CoreTemp.

Then a few minutes ago, I went into BIOS and Activated the "Unlock". All 4 cores unlocked. CoreTemp identifies it as an x4 CPU now and shows all four cores as does Speedfan.

However, both utilities show the core temp as 0*C? Is there some setting I need to change to get these to recognize the CPU TEMP?

When I went into information (forget the name but it is on the menu along with CMOS and BIOS) the core temp was 29*C and the case temp was 32*C I believe.

Just curious as to why when I unlocked the cores the temp sensor quit working in the monitoring programs.

Just to double check....I went back into BIOS and disabled the Unlocking and went back to X2 and the temps are showing up again. Weird.

unlocked chips have issues with their on die thermometers, which cannot be fixed, the chips fine just no temps, to get a rough idea, put it in 2 core mode, take the socket temp, lets call it A, and the core temp, lets call it B, now, put it back into x4 mode, and get the socket temp, lets call that C, now as we know the core temp in x4 mode doesn't work so we will have to do some estimations, get the difference from A to B, and add that difference to C +/-2c should be your x4 core temp.

Ahhh, I see what might be what I'm looking for by using the Gigabyte software EazyTune6 that came with the mobo on the drivers CD.

After firing up that program, there is a tab called "HW Monitor". Under that tab there are two tabs "Voltage" and "Fan/Temp". If I go to the "Fan/Temp" tab there is a column that shows the System Temp and the CPU Temp.

When running without Stress (just a browser running with a few tabs open) my temp on the System is 34*C and the CPU is at 29*C. I stressed the CPU with P95 last night for a half hour or so, the System jumped to 40*C and the CPU went up to 44*C (this was with 4 cores).