Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 or Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3?

[Towel]

Hey I need help choosing a motherboard for the new pc I am building (My first build). Main use for computer is gaming (BFBC2 and Starcraft2), watching videos, listening to music.

Other Items I will be getting:
Case: Haf 932
Video Card: eVGA GTX 470 (I am not going for 2 video cards)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz
Memory:Still deciding between 4GB or 6GB

Both Motherboards support the Video Card, CPU and the amount of Memory

Right now I am looking at the
Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 $189.99 + $12.99 for shipping on Newegg
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Product...oard&ProductID=3523&ProductName=GA-890FXA-UD5
and the
Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3 $149.99 + $12.24 for shipping on Newegg
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3427

I was wondering if the extra $40-$50 would be worth it to get the UD5 over the UD3 and I also want to learn more about motherboards.

I was comparing both motherboards and there didn't seem to be much difference. Some of the differences i do not understand and I am not sure if I need some of the features the UD5 offers over the UD3.

Chipset
UD5/UD3
They have a different North Bridge but the same South Bridge.
North Bridge: AMD 890FX/AMD 790X
South Bridge: AMD SB850/AMD SB850

What does the North Bridge do?
What is the difference in performance between the UD5/UD3 North Bridge?
How does the UD5/UD3 North Bridge differ from each other?

LAN
The UD5 has
2 x Realtek 8111D chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
with Support for Teaming and Smart Dual LAN

The UD3 has
1 x Realtek 8111D chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

How does having 2 chips differ from having 1 chip?
What is Teaming?
What is Smart Dual LAN?

Expansion Slots
Are the PCI Express slots just used for Video Cards?
How many slots do I need and of what size?

Internal I/O Connectors
Pretty much all the same except the UD5 has these things while the UD3 does not (according to the specification chart).

1)North Bridge Fan header
Do I need that?
2)Parallel port head
What is that and do I need it?
3)Reset button
What does it reset and do I need it?
4)Power button
What does it power and do I need it?
5)Clearing CMOS button?
What is that and do I need it?

I/O Controller
What is an I/O Controller?

 

[xoke]

Those two boards are about the same...except if you look closely the 890xa-ud3 has the 790 AMD chipset, while the 890fxa-ud5 has the newest 890 AMD chipset. I'm not sure why Gigabyte named the 890xa this why...kinda misleading.

If it was me...i'd go with the UD5 out of these two simply because it's slightly newer tech.

Now.

The northbridge as described here is basically the means by which your CPU talks to your GPU(s). The UD5 has a newer version.

Having two NICs can be useful, once in a while, for most people...it's pointless. Teaming is a why by which you can use the two NICs together...kinda like X-fire for LAN connection. Again, my opinion, piontless...your home ISP connection is always going to be the bottle neck.

PCI-e is primarily used for video cards, but other stuff can be plugged into them. Both of these motherboards will support two card x-fire quite well. If you interested in multiple cards...I would tell you to look at a motherboard with the 890fx chipset, but for single or dual cards these boards will both be fine.

What size of card will depend only on your budget, your PSU watts, and your physical available space in your case. The motherboard simply doesn't care.

All the other stuff on the UD5 is just little nifty add ons for overclocking and such. Like the reset button...if you were running this motherboard on a bench and not in a case, these are handy. For the normal user, all that stuff is also pointless. Handy, but not at all needed.

 

[Archer0915]

The FXA gives better bandwidth in dual card solutions but as far as just the CPU there is no difference ad it should be tit for tat in the CPU OC arena.

The boards also use different versions of the Realtek sound. Many PPL don't consider this but it still do make a difference.

So if you are going to game with a single card or XFire 2 mid range cards the cheaper board is the way to go. If you are looking for an AMD powered game monster go with the FXA

Oh The slots can be used for x1-x16 but only at the speed specified for the slot just as an eight bit ISA card would work in a 16 bit slot ans some pci cards do not use the entire slot.

x16 slot @ x4 will supply the power for an x16 card but not the bandwidth.

So with an x16 2.0 @ x4 2.0 you still get the bandwidth of the 1.0 XFire boards.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

The chipset alone justifies the price, if you are overclocking. I can't stress that enough. If you don't overclock, save some money. If you do, always get the best chipset you can afford and better chipset = better parts/quality = better overclocking.

Aside from that, the Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons are nice to have, but aren't a requirement.

The extra Lan port is nice, but like Xokeman said, there will always be a bottleneck in your home internet connection. If you're at work, or you live somewhere that offers very fast internet connections, Teaming will allow you to connect two CAT cables to your computer and effectively the controllers will distribute load between the two and give better browsing/gaming or browsing/downloading. Stuff like that, where a lot of bandwidth is used.

 

[QuietIce]

to OCF

Memory:Still deciding between 4GB or 6GB

Everybody else took care of your questions (I hope ) but there is one thing I saw that you didn't ask about - the RAM. AMD's run with dual-channel RAM. If you're going to run four sticks of RAM, which often reduces your potential overclock, you really need to match up all four of those sticks. If you're running 6 Gb of RAM you'll have a 2x2 Gb pair and a 2x1 Gb pair - not so good (and running 3x2 Gb is a LOT worse!). Either stay with 2x2 Gb alone or jump to 4x2 Gb for a total of 8 Gb ...