Biostar TForce TA790GX thoughts

[Dapman02]

Hey all,
I want to go back to AMD in preporation for PII. How good is the Biostar TA790GX Should it do the deed of getting a phenom up to 4.0Ghz, or should I go a little more upscale. Yes I do know it's an open box, but I havn't had much issues with Open Box's yet.

 

[QuietIce]

I don't have problems with open box either - I've had a lot of them over the years and only a couple have been bad deals. But after my recent experience with my Biostar (T-series 790GX) I wouldn't recommend it unless you're ready to at least add a heat sink to the MOSFETs. One of the MOSFETs on my board blew out after two hours of OC'ing a 9950 - first and last Biostar for me. I don't like playing the Quality Control Section for anybody, even if it is cheaper ...

 

[satansangel114]

I love this board! It overclocks very well, and have nothing bad to say about it with the exception of lacking MOSFET cooling. but its nothing aftermarket cooling wont fix.

 

[mxthunder]

Just bought this board. So far so good, but I do plan to sink the mosfets when I migrate it to my new case so that im ready for the PII. Good overclocking options, 6 sata ports, has all the features of a higher end board plus support for the new Procs. The only downfalls I have seen so far, is that the main PCIe port is the lower one, which makes it awkward if you need to use both PCI slots and have a dual slot GPU cooler. Also, being an AMD chipset, it only supports crossfire, no SLI. Had I realized that before I bought it, I would have bought a better video card than my 9800GT, because I was planning to SLI later on.

 

[Bandit1]

I think it has been asked before,but i am asking agian,lol I have this board sitting in front of me and still trying to figure how to cool the mosfets.it looks like the mosfet area is something like 17mm(w)x65mm(l) and the Thermalright HR-09 solutions look too wide.Swifttech ram sinks?Tell me what you have done and thanksedit:my mistake,wrong printed specs on the thermalright HR-09U Type 2 Mosfet Cooler where i was looking.Now if i can only find where one is in stock(usa).

 

[mxthunder]

Ill post pics of the sinks I plan to use when I get home from work. Chopped up an old socket a heatsink. Similar to how this guy did it

 

[Bandit1]

Thanks.Danged if i did'nt throw away several old pcs on my last move.

Anyways,i thought i would test biostars tech support and recieved an answer within a few minutes.Here is the reply they gave me,and the question was just some general questioning about the mosfets.

If you plan to do any overclocking, we don’t recommend any stock coolers. Like Intel cpu coolers where the fans help airflow all the parts around the cpu like mosfet, chipset, and memory, same would apply for AMD platform. I would recommend good air cooling in key areas like chipset and mosfet if you plan to do any overclocking.



Mainly look for a cpu cooler or if you plan to use any liquid cooling to have good air flow or ventilation for the mosfet area.

 

[e6600]

how about the 790gx ds4h gigabyte? or for a few more you can get a 790fx

 

[QuietIce]

how about the 790gx ds4h gigabyte? or for a few more you can get a 790fx

IMO - that's a better idea ...

 

[mxthunder]

my solution. But I dont think it will work because all the fets are not on the same plane


EDIT: update here is what I ended up doing. I feel proud, its my first real mod and by far the most nerve racking. I hope it does some good and prolongs the life of everything. Im still hopeful to throw a PII in there sometime soon.