New MB needed for AMD FX8320

[MrEd]

In another thread I discuss my new IBUYPOWER purchase that has tanked on me. It seems that my MB was under powered to handle the FX8320. So I need a new MB, PCPartpicker gives me too many choices for a newbie. What do you recommend?


CPU FX8320
CPU Cooler, unknown model of Zalmon
Old MB Gigabyte GA 78LMT

 

[caddi daddi]

asus sabertooth is the go-to board for fx.

 

[Mr.Scott]

^^^ Yup.

 

[bassnut]

Depends on your needs and your budget. If you plan on Overclocking and going for max OC or a more mild or no OC. For a max OC there really is just 3 good boards......

Asus Crosshair Vz $$$$$
Asus Sabertooth R2
Asrock EXT9

If you are looking for a lesser board for a mild Overclock or no Overclock there are a couple you can choose from .....

I'll list the Gigabyte 990FX UD3 REV4 because I have had some experience with this board, It will work with a possible decent OC for less cost. DISCLIAMER Gigabyte Boards have a very bad rep with the AMD crowd for good reasons and I will only recommend the R4 version all bets are off with any other revision of this board.

There are a couple others that I am not up on and am sure someone will pop in and post them before long.

 

[caddi daddi]

I have had both versions of the saber tooth, have 6 crosshair 5 formulas and a formula -z for fx, and 1090T chips you can't prise them out of my hands.

 

[RGone]

MrEd, I went and looked at your other thread. You left out a lot of what people were asking of you over there when wanting to know the specs of the Ibuyer system. Ibuyer has a model number of 'what' they sold you. I mean if you are going from purchaser to 'builder' in one fell swoop...let us see if we can do it right.

Need to know:
1. Ibuyer part number for Pre-built you bought so we can try and see what case you have. It maybe far too small for an Asus Sabertooth FX-990 R2.0.

2. Or give us the model and name of the case since some of those cheap pre-builts are mATX cases only. The Sabertooth FX990 R2.0 is certainly the larger ATX mobo.

3. What was sold you in the pre-built for a cpu cooler? Not just Zalman but model of Zalman or a picture of it.

4. With the assurance you can use a full size ATX mobo and that you will NOT be overclocking ever, we can get you into a cheaper board that will fit and not have to spend a lot of time with setting up since you do not plan to be an overclocker like so many of us.

5. Also I think you are in the Usa? Right? Then what 'state' and I will look and see what board your local microcenter may have for sale and not what most of us might buy from NewEgg online Etailer.

RGone...

 

[MrEd]

OK RGone, let's take a step back and start over

1. Sounds like my MB is shot, which started this thread.
2. I would like to salvage this computer and get it working
3. Unless you think I should switch to Intel or something

What do I want to use this for you ask? All of my work tasks, email, surfing, etc. can be done with anything. So a rig for gaming now.
-*- Old computer is a Dell Pentium dual core E5400 2.7Ghz 6 GIG ram, upgraded onboard graphics to GT610
Games I was playing worked reasonably well, LOTRO MMO for a couple of years with this rig. Then went to AC3, Hitman Absolution, hit a snag at AC4 even at lowest settings. Then I decided it was time to update my computer that was almost 15 years old.

Here is what I bought. (thinking I was getting a reasonably good gaming machine)
Bought from Tiger Direct, built by IBUYPOWER


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9179709&CatId=114

Photo of Zalman CPU cooler (no # anywhere on this thing)
https://goo.gl/photos/uCUWB7nEipbYNVY76

Photo of case, (I can't seem to find a designation on it that makes sense)
https://goo.gl/photos/tjXaHL7T3eaLBMhL8
https://goo.gl/photos/GWv9kHbWns9kUXiZA

1. I don't want to overclock right now
2. Let's say money is not an issue for now
3. I upgraded the GPU to a GTX970, (which is when problems started)
4. Bought new PSU when original one burned up, (multimeter tests say it is still working ok)
5. Looks like I need a new, better quality PSU
6. Also, I bent 8 pins on my CPU, I can straighten them out again, did I damage that also?
7. I live in Pittsburgh

Thanks for all the help in advance. I don't think I am as inept as I sound, I just need to slow down and take my time now.

 

[RGone]

Dimensions of a full-size ATX board are 12 in × 9.6 in (305 × 244 mm). What size is the mobo you had in the unit to begin with?

Answer the dimension of mobo that came from iBuyer and then can go on.

RGone...

 

[bassnut]

Motherboard ...... http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4305#sp

Case ....... http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Chassis/Mid_Tower_/Chaser/C_00002125/Chaser_A21/design.htm

Looks like these are the components from the system. According to Thermaltake it does support an ATX Motherboard. The biggest question I have looking through the link provided from Tiger Direct is ........ 400 Watt power supply for an 8 core FX. No picture and no description ......

One thing that cooler will not support an FX8320 when overclocking, it might be enough at stock settings but I am not sure about that even though probably better then the stock cooler hard to say without an actual model # as there are a couple models that look the same.

 

[MrEd]

Yes to Bassnut, that is my case and MB. My MB is 24.4x24.4 per that info, with it in the case I cannot measure accurately. About 9x9 inches. Looks like 12X9.6 would fit. (Looking at my pic of case, extra space from MB down to PSU would accomodate 12.6 inches)

My thought for now is to get this rig going, then worry about overclocking or changing to a better rig later

But I am open to suggestions, I figured this will do me for a while, since I don't know what I might need in the future. I know we have not talked about things like: 1080, 1440, 4K, to overclock or not

But referring back to my OP, I only just hit a game I could not play in the last couple months. I did go back on my old dual core pentium and play AC4 at low settings. I don't want that anymore

Lastly as another solution, I could do the minimum possible to get this rig going then sell it on ebay. Then build a totally new rig from the ground up. I read somewhere that I don't need 8 cores for gaming and the quad core I5 is better. But in my head I figured more cores is better...... So I am learning

 

[Johan45]

I would try something like this for a cheap fix http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651
This motherboard should provide the power that's needed to run that 8 core CPU.

 

[bassnut]

For gaming.... yes an I5 will do you very well for gaming. Check your minimum requirements for that game you have found that is not playing well, an R7 250 might just be a little lite for it. Me personally am not a big gamer I do video work and the 8 core FX chips shine there, not so much for gaming though. I am sure better advice will follow as far as gaming with your setup. I'll check back later when I have time.

 

[MrEd]

Me personally am not a big gamer I do video work and the 8 core FX chips shine there, not so much for gaming though.

That is what I read also, 8 cores rock for video and editing work. No advantage for gaming. (I do no video or editing)

 

[RGone]

MrEd...

...Okay the Asus board at the link below is about the cheapest thing in stock and one we also know about and it does fine up to about 4.5GHz when overclocking an 8 core FX processor. IF one has excellent case cooling and cpu cooling which is not your concern now anyway you say.

A couple of slightly cheaper boards for getting going and working without an overclock are "out of stock" at that store so they are out of the running.

Philadelphia/St. Davids 6 in stock.
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Socket AM3+ 990FX ATX AMD Motherboard $129.00 Aisle #30

That board should get you going and stand you in pretty good stead if you decide to overclock some within the limits I said above. We that help are pretty well versed in the board also.

Additionally I make attached an image addressing the 3 added mounting points for the full size ATX mobo.

RGone...

 

[MrEd]

Current plan is to get this rig up and running for now as cheaply as possible, but also as reliably as possible. The consensus is I need a MB, here are the suggestions:

(Prices vary)
$89 GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P AM3+ AMD 970 6 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$114 - Gigabyte 990FX UD3 R4
$175-200 - Asus sabertooth
$160 - Asrock EXT 9

I like the $89 to get this rig going with NO OVERCLOCK, i can deal with that issue another day when I learn more.

 

[RGone]

Go for the $89.00 if that is what you wish. It should manage okay enough with stock speeds and even to a minor overclock which is likely to be hampered more by the cooling of cpu you have and not a board as long as the board is at least decent.

However adjustments wihtin bios are far easier to accomplish with that ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0. There are settings within that boards bios that can make life easier for a user that begins to want to get "more" out of his system. Heck the fairly new GA-970A-UD3P has had some more features removed from bios according to users in another forum and they are not happy that no sooner than they got the UD3P, that Gigabyte has changed the board "again". That is the flaw with how Gigabyte has treated their AMD AM3+ motherboard users.

Up to you. Your monies.

RGone...

 

[caddi daddi]

I think I have preached this before, but here I go again, with fx, to game on a good card, you have to get up to 4.5 or you bottle neck the card.
I have gamed with my 8350 and my 970, 280x's, 760's, 770, and 7970's, they all take 4.5 on the cpu and 4 cores to push the pictures.
I have downloaded and played some of the big games and game demos and found the same, 4.5 with a single card.
4.5 with an fx 8 core is not so hard to reach, a good air cooler and good case flow are what is needed.

 

[RGone]

Or go another route altogether...

...Now one can quit worrying about better with Intel.


This is fine in as much as it won't bottleneck a discrete GPU and offers enough threads for games like Far Cry 4 to run on, so you could knock yourself out with one of these and twin GTX 980 Tis in SLI if you wanted to.


ASRock Z97 Extreme6 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard << then you have a pretty awesome mobo you don't have to wonder about.

Ram as required not sure what is in your mobo now. Cooler as required since the one from your AMD rig likely will not fit.

RGone...

 

[MrEd]

I apologize for all my jumping around and rambling questions, I am learning here and appreciate all the input.
PS my current configuration is below in my signature

That being said, this may seem like I am switching gears again........ Caddi Daddi and Rgone have both mentioned 4.5 as a good number for this system. So I assume that means overclocking my FX8320 from 3.5GHZ to 4.5 GHZ. So can I do that well on the Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+???

Or do we need to look at one of the higher end cards previously mentioned like the sabertooth? (I know that this will require better cooling, but let's stick to the MB for now, then I will attack the cooling end).

(Risk/reward sidebar)
What am I gaining when I OC my 8320 from 3.5 to 4.5?
What issues do I face besides heat?

 

[bassnut]

The big question ........ do you plan on keeping this system long term or going with a different direction all together? Follow that up with do you plan or think you may like to Overclock beyond 4.5GHZ in the future?

If yes then you would be best served to get the Sabertooth R2. Otherwise the Asus board RGone has mentioned will work fine up to that 4.5GHZ ish area where we see the best performance increase without dealing with that massive CPU voltage jump and the heat that comes along with it. The only real disadvantage to Overclocking these FX CPU is the heat they create you will have to deal with that. One thing for certain if you decide you want to overclock even to that 4.5GHZ you will need some good cooling either an AOI like a corsair H100 or top a top end air cooler to purchase along with the board.

If you think you will want to go beyond that 4.5GHZ and chase the big numbers then start planning on big cooling, think custom water cooling. Careful this hobby can be addictive and once you get bit also expensive chasing those big numbers. Either way you decide and there will be someone here that can help you make some good decisions on the parts you buy so you don't spend money on parts you don't need or are not good for the build.