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choosing a mobo. Need help !

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luispica

Registered
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Hi all. I´m new around here, my name is Luis, I´m spanish and I want to join myself to this big community :)
This is my first post.
I have a doubt, I need a new mobo for my Phenom II 965 c3 ( probably i would update soon with an fx) my two best choices in AM3+ with 970 chip are
the new "MSI 970 Gaming" and the popular "Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0" I think the 970 chip is enough I don't want a crossfire or sli.
The msi boards hace very bad reputation because of high temps in g43/46 series but this new model with 8+2 in vrm looks fine ! what do you think ?
I´ll wait replys
Thank you! :D
 
I wouldn't want to be the guinea pig when it comes to MSI. They had a bad wrap when it came to the FX processors and too soon to tell if they have made that any better.

I don't know if this one is available where you shop but the Gigabyte GA-970 UD3P http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651 is a preety good board for the money and stout enough to run the FX CPU if you choos to go that way at some point.
 
There has seemed a pattern with the 970 chipset motherboards. The pattern was that they were n0t built as solidly as the 990FX chipset motherboards. People buying the cheap chipset board just 'seemed' to get a cheap board all around. SO generally that means the boards using the 990FX chipset were designed more robustly since they might have have ability to power 2 and 3 video cards and carry signals for that much extra data.

Has the pattern changed any? No way to know for certain since I have 2 top of the line AM3+ motherboards and am n0t likely to buy any cheap ones. So it takes a LOT of users coming in and reporting about any newer less expensive motherboards, before we could really say that some newer product may be okay now. We do KNOW what is very good.

That newer Giga UD3P board would not be my buy if I ever intended to run an 8 core FX processor and want to bench and play above 5.0Ghz. The very way Giga has treated their AM3+ customers up until now would make the deal a n0 g0 for me. And certainly not the unknown of MSI. Not as long as you CAN get a known good board that most of us can setup with our eyes closed and know what is expected for the norm.

Anyone wishing to blaze 'new' trials, need not think we know how the board might clock up or even hold up. We don't have the newer releases in cheap types since we have already the known g00d boards. A fact of real life. Luck man.
RGone...
 
if your getting an 8 core cut right to the chase and get a sabertooth, it's the standard here and known to work very well indeed.
 
My budget is less 100€ so i think 970 is better choice because i dont want to take worst 990 mobos.
 
I figured that's why you were looking at the ones you were. As long as you don't expect any crazy clocks that giga board i linked will do fine.
 
In 970 i love asus evo (92€) but i have in 990x the 990xa ud3 (94€)
 
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3901#ov
GA-990XA-UD3 (rev. 1.x) rev. 3.0

IF you look at that Giga website page you will see that they revised the 990XA-UD3
to Rev 3.0 and that made a good board into a throttling mess. Most likely in stock and
for sale are the Rev 3.0 of that 990XA-UD3. Just throwing or not throwing money
at a motherboard will n0t make it a good or even bad board.

How the board is designed and built determines how well and how far you can
overclock a g00d cpu on g00d cooling. Revisions of certain boards also make a
big difference.

You can spend good money and get a good result. We know which boards normally
work like that and they cost more than others. You can spend less money and not
get the results we get on good boards and good cooling.

IF you cannot spend enough money to get a known g00d motherboard then you most
likely should never put an 8 core FX processor in the cpu socket but stick with a 6core
FX cpu. IMO.
RGone...
 
Yes you would need to get the rev. 4 in the UD3. bassnut got one of them and it seemed they had their issues resolved.
 
're right, I totally agree. The problem is that my budget is 100 down and now I have no plate for my phenom II 965 What would you do? what I want is within my budget the best option. I do not perform extreme overclock. In fact I'm still just learning with my phenom. In the future I would like to change it for FX, so I wonder why it's worth a plate for both.
 
If you do plan on upgrading to FX you'll want something that can handle the power draw and heat that they produce. The UD3 rev. 4 would be fine even for an 8 core FX.
 
That is an old picture, so I don't know if they have newer product or not , it might be best to call them to confirm the revision #
 
That one would do but I would stay away from the FX 8 core when you update. 6 core would work better on that board
 
Yes the FX cpus really demand a lot of power. If you were to leave it at stock then it would run the 8 core but unless you do a lot of video work or something that NEEDs 8 threads the 6 core would better suit you, be easier to control the heat, easier on the board and you could likely clock it higher.
 
I use my computer for gaming and for run programming software (i study robotics)a few simulators and design soft ( CAD´s) if you kwnow what i mean.
 
Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 - Placa Base will do okay up to about 4.4Ghz with FX-8350 but it takes very good cooling and fan cooling of the VRM heat sink.

There is an issue here. This IS OVERCLOCKERS Forums. We overclock. We very often overclock to near death of out equipment. Day after day after day we get new overclockers come in and ask how HIGH can I overclock my parts and pieces. Same question over and over. They want to go as high as they can BUT they have to be told that to use daily the overclock must be stable. That being stable is NEVER as high as they can just boot into windows and mess around a few seconds or minutes and then have the system BSOD. That is not a really usable overclock.

We try and give advice that makes the overclock as high as it can go and 'still' be stable.

One can have a more reasonable direction and KNOW that there is a real limit to how far you can push an 8 core FX processor that is 'short' of as far as it would go if on a very very good motherboard. The cpu can go further but the board choice and the cooling choice have been not the best and the cpu clock will be less than all it could be and still be stable.

Now if you are not going to spend the money for that 'best' board then the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 - Placa Base board should get you stable at somewhere around 4.4Ghz with an FX-8350 if you get good cpu cooling and make sure air is blowing onto the VRM circuit of the motherboard. AND NO you will NEVER get your FX-8350 stable at 4.8Ghz for heavy duty applications like I can do with my own FX-8350. So you are happy with 4.4Ghz or maybe a little less, then get the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 - Placa Base.
RGone...
 
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