Choosing the right motherboard for the job.

[Marluce]

I'll be building another gaming rig here soon and I'm stuck on what to buy. Should i buy a AM3+ board with the capability to possibly upgrade, or buy a cheaper (possibly) AM3 board?

I plan on buying a Phenom II 955 (I plan on overclocking), a 6850, and i would like at least 8GB of RAM.

Any suggestion on what board to use?

 

[Sentential]

I'll be building another gaming rig here soon and I'm stuck on what to buy. Should i buy a AM3+ board with the capability to possibly upgrade, or buy a cheaper (possibly) AM3 board?

I plan on buying a Phenom II 955 (I plan on overclocking), a 6850, and i would like at least 8GB of RAM.

Any suggestion on what board to use?

You're building something seperate from what you already have or no? Because AM3+ is **** and is only marginally cheaper than an i5 LGA1155 setup

 

[RGone]

In other words a "complete" new rig is what he asked. And what is your dollar number for mobo, cpu, and say ram? Since any of the newer, good coolers will fit 1155 and AM3/+ mobos.

 

[Neuromancer]

I would go AM3 with a zosma or thuban chip

you get the improved IMC so can run some nice RAM and if going thuban will outperform the Bulldozer in many respects. And contend with a 2500K for less cost in multi threaded tasks.

Neither are power prudent chips though (zosma/thuban). a 2500K will not be as snappy, but will be faster overall and sip less juice. Just cost a bit more and so will a decent mobo. Oh, it will probably OC higher as well.

I only recently got a thuban and only ran it on two boards so far, have another before it goes into 24/7 usage, it was SO snappy my goodness I loved going back to AMD. Definitely my choice for a desktop system. Running a H67 with a 2600 right now, needed 2 SSDs in raid0 (old SATA2 drives) to get the same "snap" that AMD had with a 500GB Hitachi 7200RPM generic drive.

Granted the H67 runs slower ram and stock 2500K needs (IMHO) 1600 MHz.. if you OC you want 1866 MHz for sandyB. Its not leaps and bounds better but it is the breaking point where faster stops making decent sized increases.

IE 2% each mem multi becomes .2% passing those marks.

 

[Marluce]

In other words a "complete" new rig is what he asked. And what is your dollar number for mobo, cpu, and say ram? Since any of the newer, good coolers will fit 1155 and AM3/+ mobos.

Yes you are correct
Id like the mobo to be <120$, <130$ for CPU, and <80-90$ for RAM, i also plan on buying a 6850 to accompany the rig.
I have everything else needed. (HDD, PSU ETC)

 

[RGone]

ASUS M5A97 EVO AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$119.99


AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
$124.99


G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM
Now: $39.99

This ram "should" clear most cpu coolers. Some ram tall heat-spreaders will n0t.

 

[Marluce]

Think that 4GB of RAM will be sufficient? And is it worth paying the extra amount for a AM3+ board?

 

[Neuromancer]

Think that 4GB of RAM will be sufficient? And is it worth paying the extra amount for a AM3+ board?

RAM is so cheap right now I see no problems with going 8GB. Quantity is more important than speed, but still I would go with the fastest you can afford.

 

[manu2b]

RAM is so cheap right now I see no problems with going 8GB. Quantity is more important than speed, but still I would go with the fastest you can afford.

^^ agreed:
First quantity then speed.