5 Motherboards

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This is my first time building a computer, and this is what I have so far.

CPU: Phenom II X6 1055T ($180)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 ($260)
RAM: Mushkin Redline 4GB ($115)

I've narrowed it down to these 5 motherboards, and I'm having trouble deciding..
I don't plan on overclocking just yet, as I'm still a newb.
But, I would like to crossfire later and maybe add some more ram?

What do you think? I'm trying to keep it under $1,000.. Don't think it's going to be possible.

 

[QuietIce]

Forget the first board - it wont come close to using the full potential of the other components you're buying. IMO the last board is also a waste of money unless you want to SLI (nVidia). The Crosshair IV Formula is a great board but it's overkill for most people.

That brings you down to the M4A79T and M4A89TD, both of which are excellent boards. The M4A79T is an older model and doesn't have USB3 or SATA III, if those are important to you. It may or may not need a BIOS update to run the X6, which means you may need to use another CPU to update the BIOS.

The M4A89TD has the latest chipset with USB3 and SATA III and supports the X6 for sure ...

 

[Expired]

Thanks for the help.
I also figured the Crosshair IV Extreme was overkill, and thought that the first two were a bit old.
I most definitely don't want to deal with updating the BIOS.

I was mainly looking at the M4A89TD and Crosshair IV Formula.
Perhaps someone will come along and sway me.

I also read somewhere that the M4A89TD doesn't have actual USB3.

 

[QuietIce]

I also read somewhere that the M4A89TD doesn't have actual USB3.

I'm not sure what that's suppose to mean. Either the board has it or it doesn't - not much else to say there. Both the Crosshair and the M4A89TD use the exact same chipsets.

There are some bells and whistles on the Crosshair IV that you find on few other boards - but only you can decide if those frills are worth it ...

 

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Link

Rear I/O
Asus M4A89TD Pro rear I/O is very full - eight USB 2 ports make for plenty of potential peripherals, although despite those two blue ones there's no USB 3 here.

He could be mistaken though.

 

[QuietIce]

Take a look again. The article you linked is on the M4A89TD Pro not the M4A89TD Pro/USB3 that you have linked at Newegg. Easy enough to make that mistake.

But you don't have to believe me, go download the manual from the ASUS site. Since I help a lot of guys with various hardware I've had it downloaded for months ...

 

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My bad.