GA-870A or GA-890FXA for OC'ing

[SoulFiend]

Hi

I think I need some help choosing a motherboard... At first I ordered the Gigabyte GA-890FXA UD5 (rev. 2.0) but the company couldn't deliver on time so I cancelled it and tried to find it elsewhere. But searching the web I found that the much cheaper Gigabyte GA-870A UD3 (Rev. 2.0) perhaps is better suited for my needs, as I have an Nvidia-card and I don't intend to get crossfire-cards at any point in time. But what about OC'ing?? Does it OC just as well??

I really want to use the OC potential in my CPU but not for any price
Also I live in Denmark and the Rev. 2.0 seem to be the only ones available here.

Any advice or experience with these boards, please share

Thank you

 

[saint19]

I'd go with the UD5, you can install your nVidia GPU on it without problems and is much better for overclock.

Check tigerdirect.com, they have international shipping.

 

[SoulFiend]

Thank you for the response.

But is it worth extra money? The danish prices translates into 147 dollars and 247 dollars... and that is a lot:/

And really don't have patience for overseas shipping

I don't need to set world records with my OC'ing, but I was hoping for 4.0 - 4.2 GHz or something like that so if the 870 can hit that stable, I'm leaning heavily towards that one

 

[Apht3rThawt]

Hi. I use both the Gigabyte 890GPA/Phenom 940 X3 and the Gigabyte 890FX/Phenom 1055t. As far as the 870A I don't know. I will say the GA 890GPA is a really good mobo at less cost than the 890FX. The 890GPA has one pciex16 2.0 and the 890FX has two pciex16 2.0 slots. If you are not xfiring then the 890GPA is a great board. I like it better than my 890FX. The reason is stability. I know they are essentially the same board w/wo graphics and the two pciex16 slots but the 890GPA seems to be a little more stable at higher clocks. It is the easier of the two boards to find stable, high clocks IMO. Both run great but the 890GPA is the best of the two for the money. The 890GPA xfires fine but the second slot only runs at x8. If you are going Gigabyte with only one video card then check out the 890GPA. Here is the 890GPA stable with all slots full.

 

[SoulFiend]

Allright I have searched some more. The 890GPA seems to available only in Rev. 1.0 here

A Danish site tested these:

Gigabyte 870A-UD3 - 870 (FW. F5a)
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H2 – 890GX (FW. F4) (using the 4290)
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 – 890FX (FW. F5b)
ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme – 890FX (FW. 0502)

with this setup:

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600MHz 4GB (2x2GB) 6-6-5-15-1T
Corsair Force F60 (FW. v2) HDD
Sapphire HD5670 (ATI Catalyst Version 11.2) (not the 890GPA)
Corsair AX850 PSU
Corsair H70 cooler

what do you think of the results in relation to the value for money??

 

[SoulFiend]

and

 

[SoulFiend]

and...

 

[SoulFiend]

and finally

 

[SoulFiend]

The reviewer concluded that the 870 is fairly good at its price range, but I was surprised at the low memory performance. He was able to hit 4.3 Ghz with the x6 1100T though.

Another site with another thorough review found the gigabyte 870 to be the best of the 870 chipset boards. He was able to hit 4.0 Ghz with the x6 1090T without any problems...

 

[Apht3rThawt]

The Phenom II cpu's have an IMC, integrated memory controller, which bypasses the chipset. The 890FX chip allows a total of 42 lanes of PCIE, 2xPcie16 for xfire, 3xpcie8 for trifire. The SB850 controls the sata 6.0GBS along with the bios and USB. My experience is that the 890GPA and the 890FX are good stable platforms that hold up to pretty strong ocing, with core control, USB 3.0, SataIII 6.0, flexible bios. I have run my AData 2000Mhz ram to >2200Mhz@9x9x9x24 on the 890FX gigabyte. The UD7 board is an EATX, meaning larger than an ATX, needs a bigger case. I was mistaken in thinking you were bothered by price. If not, the 890FX is your best bet. The Asus boards are about equal to the Gigabytes bit for bit. If you are planning on getting an 1100t then by all means get an 890FX. You will be limited by the 870 and the 1100t. The Gigabyte bios allow good voltage control and I have always have good temps oced. Here are temps just now after 12 hours of work. All at sig params.

 

[Seebs]

@ Apht3rThawt

May I ask what cooling solution you have on the 1055T? I realize that the temps you're showing on HWMonitor are Idle temps, but still you're almost 20C cooler than my 955BE on the same motherboard.

 

[SoulFiend]

Thanks

I'm not planning to get an X6, as I just bought my X4 975 BE. The PC will be for gaming, which is why I went for a higher clock but less cores
I'm not going to use Crossfire cards at all, as I have an Nvidia-card that I'm very pleased with. I just found those test results as reference, I'm not going to use the same setup at all.

I also know about the integrated memory controller in AMD chips, that is why I was surprised that the GA-870A-UD3 lagged behind in the WinRAR, AIDA64 and Sandra memory tests.

Both motherboards have USB3, SATA 6.0 Gbit/s and core control in the BIOS, so no difference there, but the price really matters a lot.
I don't need crazy good OC options, but I just want to fiddle around with it for fun. But still I'm hoping to hit 4-4.2 GHz with my BE CPU.

Considering these things do you guys think it would be worth the extra 100 dollars it would cost me to get an GA-890FXA-UD5 instead of an GA-870A-UD3??

Thank you

 

[Apht3rThawt]

@ Sebastian, here is a ss of my system: 5 case fans, 2x5770 fans, psu fan, cpu fan, open case. Also temps after running WPrime1024 and PCMark05.

@ SoulFiend; I would go for the 890FX if it was my choice. I like mine a lot and it runs perfectly. I don't know anything about the 870A so can't say anything about it.

 

[Seebs]

I must have a bad mount on my Venomous X heatsink. My idle temps (even with the case open and just as many fans on there) are higher than your load temps.

 

[QuietIce]

...

 

[SoulFiend]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will go for the 870A, because of the price. I have read a lot of good stuff about it anyway, even though it's a entry level board. I guess I should lower my expectations to OC'ing but its allright.
I've read the Phenom II guides on this site and hope I can do a little tweaking with it anyway. Thanks again

 

[Apht3rThawt]

SoulFiend, good luck with your mobo. Gigabyte is a fine brand so you should be good to go. I like my Gigabyte 890GPA as well as the 890FX but wanted the dual 16 lane pcie.

Sebastian. As far as cooling goes: my cpu and heatsink are finely lapped and I use Arctic Cooling MX4 hsc. An even, fine layer, then single dot in center. I live in a very dusty environment and find that blowing my system out every 2 weeks or so really helps. As you see, the ss above was at co(o)l(d) ambient temps. Normally the temps are 2c to 5c above that, but always low. Also the Zalman Performa hsf works really well. Here is a current shot @idle, with heat in the room.

 

[Theflaminroids]

I have a GA-870A and I've been pretty happy with it. It unlocked my 555 to a quad and I'm running 3.6ghz (I like to keep stock voltage) at the moment. It's a great board and you can spend the extra money on new memory or whatever.