The motherboard to get?

[vanibanez]

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Looks like I'll be upgrading earlier then planned. I'm shopping for an AMD AM3 board for maybe a Phenom X4 or X6 and run 4-6Gb DDR3. Whats a good board to get these days?

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I'll be overclocking of course and crossfire would be a nice option. I've been looking around Canadian websites for DFI motherboards but I can't seem to find any. My next choice would be an ASUS. These seems to be so many motherboard out there that its becoming hard to choose.

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I remember back when I bought my DFI Lanparty ultra-d, it was "the board to have". Any suggestions?

 

[beenthere]

There are many good mobos to chose from these days. AMD CPUs run dual channel so RAM is in quantities of 2-4-8-16 Gb. 6 Gb. of RAM only works on Intel 9xx series triple channel mobos. It's best to pick RAM that has been tested and confirmed AMD Phenom II compatible as not all RAM runs on both Intel and AMD mobos without issues.

I'd suggest spending some time at Gigabyte or some other website comparing side-by-side the 790 and 890 AMD chipset mobos to determine what boards best meet your needs/budget to narrow the choices.

 

[QuietIce]

If you're looking for a quality board like your Ultra-D was that would be the ASUS Crosshair IV, which, nowadays, is really more than anybody not running extreme cooling or benching needs. The ASUS M4A89TD is the next step down and is an excellent board. Gigabyte has also been churning out very nice AMD chipset boards for the past couple of years. Their 890FX-UD5 is also one of the best.

All 890FX (and 790FX) boards have 2x 16-bit PCIe. 790/890GX boards have 1x 16-bit or 2x 8-bit PCIe.


DFI tried their hand at the AMD chipsets and kept having BIOS problems, so they quickly lost out to ASUS and Gigabyte this time around. Even if you find one I wouldn't buy it ...

 

[Bustard]

Asus Crosshair IV

 

[vanibanez]

Good to know about the DFI's, thanks. I'll look into ASUS.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

Gigabyte 890fx/1055t @4424mhz. 2x pcie16, perfect. Really good board. And love Newfoundland, notice I didn't say it like the dog, long "New Found Land." Lived in Nova Scotia myself a while back.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1524511

 

[vanibanez]

Gigabyte 890fx/1055t @4424mhz. 2x pcie16, perfect. Really good board. And love Newfoundland, notice I didn't say it like the dog, long "New Found Land." Lived in Nova Scotia myself a while back.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1524511

HAHA yeah most mainlanders always get "Newfoundland" wrong. There are a couple of Gigabyte boards I have looked at like what you have mentioned. They seem to have less complaints then the Asus boards. I was just deciding to whether to get a 4 or a 6 core. The 4 core is much cheaper. Also there are huge price differences in boards. The GA-890FXA-UD7 is $250 at Newegg while the GA-790XTA-UD4 is $130. So I'll see what happens. The upgrade may have to come sooner rather then later.

 

[QuietIce]

The UD7 really isn't worth it unless you do extreme cooling and benching. Take a look at the 890FX-UD5 if you're looking that direction.

The 790XTA is also a good board though I'm not sure how well it'll handle an X6. It handles X4s easy enough but a lot of 790 chipset boards have issues with the X6's - don't know about that one specifically ...

 

[vanibanez]

That board is nice and goes for $190, I also seen the GA-890GPA-UD3H which goes for $150 and still seems to have the crossfire system which I want. It also has the 890 chipset so it should go well with a X6.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

I first got the ga890gpa/gx but decided I wanted 2x pcie16 lanes. It only runs at 2 x 8 lanes. So, I spent the money I could have used elsewhere getting the 890fx board to have the 2x 16. I like both boards and they are both good ocers. 2 hd5770's are in the 809fx and it works great. Here is cpuz from each board.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1524511

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1522655

 

[vanibanez]

That's a nice overclock on the X6 1055T. Perhaps I could go with the 1055T on the 890fx and 4Gb Gskill ripsaw ram. About $500 but probably worth it in the long run.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

The 890fx is good if you think you are going to crossfire. In benching toe to toe the 890gx actually seems to have a slight advantage in speed at same clocks. That is, according to some tests I've seen. The builtin graphics aren't any good but don't slow it down and it is cheaper.

 

[Theocnoob]

HAHA yeah most mainlanders always get "Newfoundland" wrong.

Not so.

-Mainlanders.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

I had a big, black hairy dog and most everybody pronounced it Newfndlnd, accent on first syllable, but I'm on West coast. As a result they pronounced the province the same way. Amazing good dog btw.

vanibanez I see that you have been a member for quite a while so I'm saying this for the public edification, like that word?

Having both the 890gx and 890fx and going through the trouble of crossfiring and hsf's and such I'll tell you what I would probably do now if I was going to start fresh. I already had 1 gigabyte hd5770, so it made sense (kind of) for me to get a second 5770 with a new mb.

The 890gx is a really good mb. It needs finessing to get the most out of it, but once there it is nice and stable and cool. You say $500. I say the 2 most obvious ways to get performance is cpu speed and video as far as price/performance. The 890gx is ~$50 cheaper than the 890fx. ~$70 for 4gigs of g.skill 7 or 8 cas. ~$40 for a good 120mm hsf if you're going air. $180 for a 1055t which is a little bit harder than a 1090t to oc, but either of these mb's will do it easily. What I'm saying is if you are planning already to use crossfire then the 890fx is the way to go. If you are going to buy a video card then get a really good card first that doesn't need to be doubled up and save the money with an 890gx board. 1 hd 6850 or 6870 ~$200. A good hsf is really important. These are without discount or rebates. One high-end card is usually better than 2 mid-range cards.

Here is a clock from the 890gx and 1055t, stable.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1444553

 

[Apht3rThawt]

This Gigabyte gpa890gx with phenomII x3 740 is really phenomenal. Check out the scores on HWBot. Fastest WPrime 1024M on air in North America for 3 core AMD.

http://hwbot.org/community/user/apht3rthawt

 

[vanibanez]

Thanks for the info Apht3rThawt I think that may be the way to go if I plan to Xfire later. The 890GX is a very nice board, and only costs $135 at NCIX. Big price drop compared to some of the other boards I have looked at.


-Most mainlanders usually say "Newfinlind" or "Newfoundland", we here on the rock all say "Newfinland", Just our lazy way I guess.

 

[Apht3rThawt]

Eh? Do love the tides in that part of the world. Bay of Fundy is amazing, as are the tides in Alaska. Not making fun. I live in Orygun, all too often it's Oragone. Been so long I'm hearing things.

The gx is not the one for crossfire, the fx is. Gx has 2 x 8 lanes, Fx has 2 x 16.