good budget mobo to pair with amd fx-4100?

[Stealth3si]

i currently have a Biostar A880GZ but its minimum memory voltage that will run on the motherboard is 1.6v @ 1333MHz, which is doing no favors for G.Skill ram rated 1600Mhz @ 1.5v.

Biostar: A880GZ is compatible with Patriot, G.Skill, Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin and Kingston DDR3 memory.

Me: Is it compatible with DDR3 memory that runs at 1.35 volts?

Biostar: The motherboard minimum voltage is 1.6 volts. *You may purchase 1.35v memory, but it will run at 1.6 volts on our motherboard.

i've done a bit of research and most seem to suggest its stable to use them together.

But before I test stability with this cpu/mobo/ram combo, i want to keep my mobo options open just in case issues arise.

what is a good budget one?

min requirements:
$100-$150
Sata III
onboard video (any)
FX ready, meaning the CPU will post/boot out of the box and no BIOS update is required.
min memory voltage <= 1.5

 

[RGone]

Okay I will make a couple of points first.

I have mobo bias. I like specific brands and as time has gone on some of the ones that used to be okay too are falling by the wayside QC wise.

The AM3+ cpu and "wanting" onboard video makes it where you have to go back to 8xx chipsets to get onboard video since there are no 9xx chipsets with onboard video. The 9xx chipsets came out to support the FX type processors. When the 1xxx chipsets come with piledriver there 'agan' will be no onboard graphics because AMD has the APU series now and they will not compete with their ownselves.

So the mobo makers say the FX will run on the 8xx chipset series and it will but it still makes me wonder about why AMD came with 9xx chipsets. Do you get my drift?

All that said the board below falls within your price range with onboard graphics and Usb 3.0 and
yaa daa yaa daa.


ASUS M5A88-V EVO AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
AM3+, HDMI,Core Unlocker, GPU Boost,Turbo Unlocker


PS: I doubt you could give me an Nvidia chipset mobo. They have not had anything new in over 3 years and are backing up.

 

[Aldakoopa]

All that said the board below falls within your price range with onboard graphics and Usb 3.0 and
yaa daa yaa daa.


ASUS M5A88-V EVO AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
AM3+, HDMI,Core Unlocker, GPU Boost,Turbo Unlocker

That's the mobo I went with for my FX-4100. If I had to go back and do it again, I would have probably gone ahead and gotten a 990 chipset because I'm not even using my onboard graphics anyway, and there's probably going to be more updates and support for the 990 chipset. But, I'm still happy with my purchase. It was a good price and has good features to it, so I second RGone's suggestion.

 

[Stealth3si]

Okay I will make a couple of points first.

I have mobo bias. I like specific brands and as time has gone on some of the ones that used to be okay too are falling by the wayside QC wise.

The AM3+ cpu and "wanting" onboard video makes it where you have to go back to 8xx chipsets to get onboard video since there are no 9xx chipsets with onboard video. The 9xx chipsets came out to support the FX type processors. When the 1xxx chipsets come with piledriver there 'agan' will be no onboard graphics because AMD has the APU series now and they will not compete with their ownselves.

So the mobo makers say the FX will run on the 8xx chipset series and it will but it still makes me wonder about why AMD came with 9xx chipsets. Do you get my drift?

All that said the board below falls within your price range with onboard graphics and Usb 3.0 and
yaa daa yaa daa.


ASUS M5A88-V EVO AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
AM3+, HDMI,Core Unlocker, GPU Boost,Turbo Unlocker


PS: I doubt you could give me an Nvidia chipset mobo. They have not had anything new in over 3 years and are backing up.

your drift is they want me to buy their video card too?

btw tanks for recommendation it's good

That's the mobo I went with for my FX-4100. If I had to go back and do it again, I would have probably gone ahead and gotten a 990 chipset because I'm not even using my onboard graphics anyway, and there's probably going to be more updates and support for the 990 chipset. But, I'm still happy with my purchase. It was a good price and has good features to it, so I second RGone's suggestion.

the only reason for me to not use onboard graphics is if i'm gaming which i don't.

...

question is now fellas what's the minimum memory voltage on the asus? is it 1.6v like the biostar? or is it 1.5v?

 

[RGone]

Rather than ask us what memory voltage is supported here is the link to Asus M5A88-V EVO
supported QVL memory list. There you can see the memory that they say is supported by that
particular motherboard and voltages.

 

[Stealth3si]

wait that one is 8pin cpu power connector. my psu has 4-pin. tehre's an m version that is chepar and has 4pin.

any reasn i should get the v version over the m version? or m over v?

my psu not having 8-pin cpu power connector would limit my oc'ing on the v - evo ...?

 

[Aldakoopa]

wait that one is 8pin cpu power connector. my psu has 4-pin. tehre's an m version that is chepar and has 4pin.

any reasn i should get the v version over the m version? or m over v?

my psu not having 8-pin cpu power connector would limit my oc'ing on the v - evo ...?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...31-758^13-131-758-TS,13-131-795^13-131-795-TS

Looks like they're functionally the same, minus the extra features on the V. If you don't think you'll use those features, then go with the M. (I added an even cheaper on to that comparison just to see what it had/didn't have as well.)

 

[Stealth3si]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...31-758^13-131-758-TS,13-131-795^13-131-795-TS

Looks like they're functionally the same, minus the extra features on the V. If you don't think you'll use those features, then go with the M. (I added an even cheaper on to that comparison just to see what it had/didn't have as well.)

cool thanx for the cheaper comparison.

since i want sata 3 for my ssd i pick the a88's. and the v version (EVO) has VRM heatsinks that i could use for oc'ing.

as for the 8 pins...do i need to use eps12v adapter on the 8pin cpu connector if i'm overclocking fx-4100 amd cpu?

 

[RGone]

cool thanx for the cheaper comparison.

but i'll need sata 3 to saturate my crucial m4 so i pick the a88's. and the v version (EVO) has VRM heatsinks that i could use for oc'ing.

as for the 8 pins...umm my psu has 4-pin. that board has 8-pin. so can i use some kind of adapter to use all 8?

Adapter not necessary. Just look in manual for the correct 4 of the 8 pins to plug into.

One note though...most current, good power supplies have the 8 pin connector. The fact you have only a 4 pin can tend to point to your power supply being dated and maybe not quite up to todays standards. It is what I thought when you said 4 pin CPU power. Thought it immediately.

I went back to your first post and you are speaking to FX processor ready and to push those FXs up there....a good power supply is a must. 400watts is not really what most would recommend. And the later boards with all the newer Gwhiz like Sata6 and Usb3.0 and pretty good video onboard draw some juice.

 

[Stealth3si]

Adapter not necessary. Just look in manual for the correct 4 of the 8 pins to plug into.

One note though...most current, good power supplies have the 8 pin connector. The fact you have only a 4 pin can tend to point to your power supply being dated and maybe not quite up to todays standards. It is what I thought when you said 4 pin CPU power. Thought it immediately.

I went back to your first post and you are speaking to FX processor ready and to push those FXs up there....a good power supply is a must. 400watts is not really what most would recommend. And the later boards with all the newer Gwhiz like Sata6 and Usb3.0 and pretty good video onboard draw some juice.

thanks for the general info. i will inqurie about my PSU on other thread.

 

[mjw21a]

My understanding was that the 800 series chipsets don't support all the power saving features built into Bulldozer. I've not seen a power useage comparison to confirm this though that was the explanation I read a fair few months ago. Don't ask me where as I don't remember.

 

[Mario1]

That's the mobo I went with for my FX-4100. If I had to go back and do it again, I would have probably gone ahead and gotten a 990 chipset because I'm not even using my onboard graphics anyway, and there's probably going to be more updates and support for the 990 chipset. But, I'm still happy with my purchase. It was a good price and has good features to it, so I second RGone's suggestion.

890 and 990 are the same thing...

thanks for the general info. i will inqurie about my PSU on other thread.

A Corsair CX430 will be more than enough for the onboard video n whatnot

 

[Aldakoopa]

890 and 990 are the same thing...

As far as I can tell the only real differences are SLI support and maybe a few different BIOS options, but I don't know because I don't have a 990 board to compare to. The main reason I would have wanted to go with a 990 is that I feel like there will be more BIOS updates for that in the future, whereas I feel like they've probably abandoned the 8xx chipsets even though there's a few more things that need fixing on them to work 100% correctly with Bulldozer, but they may come out with more updates in the future and surprise me. The only problems I know of there is also programs people have developed to fix them, so I'm just having to run some extra stuff at startup now.

 

[mjw21a]

I'd have gone with a 970 personally

 

[Aldakoopa]

I'd have gone with a 970 personally

That doesn't come with onboard video, which is one thing they stated that they required.

 

[Stealth3si]

as you've probably noticed, I've decided to get the Asus M5A88-V Evo. I went to the download page of Asus website and I'm interested in downloading a few utilities. Can someone tell me what they're suppose to do and if they're worth using?

ASUS AI Suite V1.06.22
ASUS TurboV EVO 1.02.35
ASUS EPU V1.02.22
AMD OverDrive Utility
ASUS Update V7.18.03

 

[Aldakoopa]

ASUS AI Suite V1.06.22 - Has easy access to all of the ASUS software such as EPU, TurboV, and FanXpert. Shows CPU usage, speed, voltage, fan speeds, and temperatures.

ASUS TurboV EVO 1.02.35 - Software overclock utility. I do not recommend using it.

ASUS EPU V1.02.22 Power saving feature. [It doesn't even work on my board. Has an error that says "Device IO Control (Read) !! (6)"]

AMD OverDrive Utility - Another software overclock utility. I also don't recommend using it.

ASUS Update V7.18.03 - A BIOS update utility. I haven't used it, the only update I've done has been directly in the BIOS.

In other words, a bunch of crap that I thought was cool but it turns out it's useless. The only thing I've actually used is FanXpert to adjust my fan speeds for better cooling.

 

[Stealth3si]

ASUS AI Suite V1.06.22 - Has easy access to all of the ASUS software such as EPU, TurboV, and FanXpert. Shows CPU usage, speed, voltage, fan speeds, and temperatures.

ASUS TurboV EVO 1.02.35 - Software overclock utility. I do not recommend using it.

ASUS EPU V1.02.22 Power saving feature. [It doesn't even work on my board. Has an error that says "Device IO Control (Read) !! (6)"]

AMD OverDrive Utility - Another software overclock utility. I also don't recommend using it.

ASUS Update V7.18.03 - A BIOS update utility. I haven't used it, the only update I've done has been directly in the BIOS.

In other words, a bunch of crap that I thought was cool but it turns out it's useless. The only thing I've actually used is FanXpert to adjust my fan speeds for better cooling.

the turbov evo...is this the turbo boost feature?

 

[Aldakoopa]

the turbov evo...is this the turbo boost feature?

TurboV EVO is the overclocking software made by ASUS. You can use it to adjust the frequencies, multiplier, and voltage so you can overclock in real-time without having to restart your computer over and over again every time you change a setting. You can use this to find a stable overclock you want with it but then I would suggest setting that overclock in the BIOS and turning the software off.

The processor's turbo boost is not affected by this. You can turn the turbo on and off in the BIOS or in AMD OverDrive, but TurboV EVO does not have any options for it.

 

[Stealth3si]

is turbo boost on by default? or is it a feature that is turned on manually to overclock?