Help finding an AM3 Mobo thats good for unlocking? (Must have PCI-E 4x Slot too)

Ello guys - long time no post! Just starting to get back into the IT scene after a summer spent raving lol! Anyway...

I'm basically looking for a new mobo for my main machine, needs to be Socket AM3+, have SATA 6Gb/s and have a 4x PCI-Express slot (for a RAID card) as well as at least 1 PCI-E slot running at full 16x speeds for my GPU.

My current components are..

• Athlon II X3 450
• 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair RAM rated @ 1600MHz 1.5v (XMP)
• HD 6850 1GB PCI-E
• High Point RocketRAID 640 PCI-E 4x Card
• OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD (Only running at SATA II speeds instead of SATA 6Gb/s)

I've been experimenting with unlocking the 4th core of my X3 CPU with my current mobo (Asus M4A78LT-M-LE, 0801 BIOS) and have had some success. I was able to do 3DMark Vantage run with the 4th core active and a slight voltage increase. However this board lacks the more advanced options required to properly attempt to stabilise the system with its extra core enabled.. If the unlocking really doesn't go anywhere then I might be getting a friends Phenom II X4 or X6 clocked at about the same. Really if I had the money I'd just chuck the lot n go back to a Core i5/i7 setup instead lol but AMD will have to do for the moment lol

So can anyone recommend a board that seems to be having good luck with unlocking the 4th core, has a PCI-Express 4x slot and SATA III?

Any n all input appreciated!! Cheers

What budget are we talking about here?

Some examples of boards that meet your requirements:

ASUS M5A97 - $99.99

Gigabyte 970A-UD3 - $114.99

And of course; you can always go much higher in price and get the Top Tier boards.

Cheaper is always better lol .. I like the looks (and reviews) of the Asus M5A97.. I really want a board with an actual 4x PCI-E slot so I don't have to run the RAID card at lower speeds in a 1x slot and so it doesn't take up valuable room in a full length PCI-E slot

What other boards are there that'd also allow for say an upgrade to crossfire later??

Your original post mentioned AM3+ boards. The selection of those boards at newegg is nice; you can find one the meets all your requirements... I'm trying to go to the egg, but the site is down for me.

PS: You also mention getting a Phenom X4 or X6 from a friend... if you were to widen your range to include AM3 boards as well as AM3+ boards; you would have a much better chance of finding one that fits your needs.

S

I'm after an AM3+ board yeh really, should of put that in the 1st post .. Also, I'm from the UK so my options are scan.co.uk, overclockers.co.uk & eBuyer.com .. I 99FXA board without too much extra bling would be perfect! lol ..

AM3+ it is then.

I did not know you were form the UK.

I think that you're going to have a hard time finding a board in the 990FX chipset that will have the 4x PCI slot you want. Your best bet would be to get one that will allow you to run the raid card on a full lenght PCI slot and still have two other slots free. And almost all 990FX boards will give you that so it boils down to budget and preference.
Any board with at least 3 PCIe Slots will do. You can then run dual cards and still have space for the raid card on the third slot.

Something like the GA 990XA-UD3. It has the three full lenght PCIe 2.0 so you can run your raid card on the bottom one and still have room for two GPUs in the future.

I have a 900XA and cant really find any complaints EXCEPT for some reason with the F4/F5 bios the nVidia drivers dont recognise it as SLI supported. I took my first PII x4 925 up to 280Bclk before the cpus IMC wouldnt go any further.

The bios are easy to get around in and it unlocks my unlockable chips no issues, just enable core unlocker in the system and reboot twice BAM extra cores!

Went for a Asus Sabertooth 990FX AMD 990FX in the end.. Picked up a Antec 100 case as well.. Going to put my GPU in the bottom 16x slot (so it pulls cool-ish air from my PSU as its bottom mounted and I switched the fan direction around), my PCI sound card in the slot above then my RAID card in the Black 4x PCI-E slot leaving most of the top of the board free..

That board is a looker for sure. I'm sure you'll enjoy it going forward.

Just need to figure out the CPU overclock n get the system running as fast as possible..