Any MSI/Gigabyte AM3 790FX users out there?

[eidairaman1]

Ya I'm still on the fence about which board to pick, so I am asking the users here of these boards to state their overall rating on Overclocking, Features, what worked well and what didn't work so well and their full configs on these system boards.

The Boards are the MSI 790FX-GD70 and the Gigabyte GA-MA 790FXT-UD5P

I am thinking of dropping in a AMD PhII 965BE, HT Omega Sound card, Geil/Teamgroup/Kingston PC 1600 DDR3 (8GB). 4890 (XFX, Sapphire, Visiontek, Powercolor, HIS) or 5870. Full tower case (unsure) Enermax or Antec Powersupply, Harddrives (SSDs are going to take a bit before I buy) Cpu cooler. Also recommend me a CPU cooler and Full tower case for said above setup.

(PS Ive seen the physical boards myself at Fry's and I'm liking the MSI for its feature set (4x Full PCI-E 16x slots (2 x16 and 2 x8). If anyone has an objection to my CPU selection please tell me why and an alternative. Just remember this is an AMD machine and not an Intel so please don't state anything Intel related

 

[eidairaman1]

What no users!?

 

[erocker]

I would go for the 955 over the 965 and save a little money. The 965 is a 955 and it has a higher stock voltage to boot. I'm really liking my M4A79T, it does what I ask it, though between MSI and Gigabyte, Gigabyte seems to be doing really well for people lately. As far as RAM goes, go for lower latency stuff, AMD still prefers lower latencies over clock frequency and lower latency at lower speeds usually sells at a smaller price. Since Newegg is selling the 5850's for $259, It's a nice card that fits right in the middle of the 4890 and 5870.

 

[Assassin48]

UD5P FTW
they only reason i would go for the GD70 is if your thinking of filling up all those slots

Both boards will net you a nice 3.8-3.9ghz OC with 955/965 , but the voltage to get you there will be different since you dont have all those PCI lanes on the UD5P

I had both boards too
Right now im running a CH3 which hands the best AM3 board IMO

 

[eidairaman1]

well on newegg the ratings between the 2 boards are basically the same with the MSI having 1 point over the Gigabyte. Earlier today I seen both boards at Fry's and TBH im liking the PCI E slots more so on the MSI board due to being full size, but im not sure how overclocking is on both as neweggs stuff is inconclusive on that front. this build will be around xmas i believe. Just wish I could see some 3rd party Video cards, the 4890s that are below have had nice iterations, the only 4890 that seems stock is from Visiontek and XFX. Also you can forget Asus on my list as they have been problematic for me and quite a few users.

 

[Assassin48]

if the build is by xmas time why not save a little more and get the CH3 ?
Great Board Layout and its Solid

if you aren't going to fill the PCIE slots get the UD5P, its the 2nd best board

 

[eidairaman1]

im not fond of the CH3s layout. What about Single Video card mobos?

 

[Assassin48]

Well theres also the UD4P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128378

and the Asus Evo with on board video
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131406

 

[eidairaman1]

thats my other problem, I am unsure I will Run Dual Video cards and I know only 790FX provides 2x 16 slots at full speed. Sorry I will not run MATX as this will be a Full ATX system

 

[mav2000]

I have the GD70 and have played around with the crosshair 3 for a review. I would take the MSI as of today over the CH3.

But I have not played with the Giga, so no comments. I would think that the feature set of the MSI is slightly better, and man it looks very very nice, specially if you paint the inside of your cabinet too.

OC wise i really dont think you would get a lot better by choosing any of these three boards. I think the max difference you will be able to see would be around 20-40 Mhz, so I dont think that should be the factor that you base your choice on.

For ram, low latency 1600 Mhz would be your best bet. I like the OCZ AMD platinum set, but it looks like thats not available anymore. So look out for that or another set, but not every low latency ram works well with AMD, so please check reviews on XS before buying.

 

[eidairaman1]

i need more input

 

[wiak]

Ya I'm still on the fence about which board to pick, so I am asking the users here of these boards to state their overall rating on Overclocking, Features, what worked well and what didn't work so well and their full configs on these system boards.

The Boards are the MSI 790FX-GD70 and the Gigabyte GA-MA 790FXT-UD5P

I am thinking of dropping in a AMD PhII 965BE, HT Omega Sound card, Geil/Teamgroup/Kingston PC 1600 DDR3 (8GB). 4890 (XFX, Sapphire, Visiontek, Powercolor, HIS) or 5870. Full tower case (unsure) Enermax or Antec Powersupply, Harddrives (SSDs are going to take a bit before I buy) Cpu cooler. Also recommend me a CPU cooler and Full tower case for said above setup.

(PS Ive seen the physical boards myself at Fry's and I'm liking the MSI for its feature set (4x Full PCI-E 16x slots (2 x16 and 2 x8). If anyone has an objection to my CPU selection please tell me why and an alternative. Just remember this is an AMD machine and not an Intel so please don't state anything Intel related

gigabyte has more sata ports i think, it also have better layout like say 2 x16 slots, 4 is kinda waste, who the heck runs four graphics card?
techreport has a AM3 roundup and bit-tech also has both MSI and Gigabyte reviews, so check them

 

[wiak]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16702
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/790fx-socket-am3,2277.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/05/04/msi-790fx-gd70/1
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/05/25/gigabyte-ga-ma790fxt-ud5p-review/

btw am planning of getting Phenom II 955, Gigabyte 790FX AM3 board and OCZ Platinum 4GB kit 1600mhz 7-7-7-24

 

[eidairaman1]

ya thats nice info but it doesnt show either board dominating in overclocking.

 

[Polarman]

If i were to get myself a AM3 build, i'd go for:

Silverstone Raven 2 case (Got this one. Love this case)
MSI 785GM-E65 (Single PCIE is enough)
Phenom II 955BE (965 is 140W. too much)
OCZ DDR3 Black edition 4GB (Compatibility)
MSI R5850-PM2D1G (Again, more compatibility)

 

[eidairaman1]

have any reviews of the 785Chipset boards that are Full ATX

 

[commission3r]

my 2 cents

Gigabyte GA-MA 790FXT-UD5P got it and still usin it (there are 2 different version altho they carry same rev number) runin 720 x3, Patriot Memory PDC32G1600LLK 2GB DDR3-1600, 2 disc in raid 0, 4850 his turbo x-fire. the weak link in my setup is the mobo got it when it was launched way back when £160 piece of crap it was 6 more months b4 msi showed up im still using this board just waiting to replace it most probably with a crosshair. set ram to 1600 system becomes very unstable, lockups,restarts u name it i xperienced it but keep it below 1600 no problems. the other bullshit thing wont oc my cpu past 3.6 will boot @ 3.7 get to windows then blah blah blah to get 3.6 it needs 1.56 volts but cpu has no problems handling this amount (it can unlock to 4 cores) personaly i wont b using gigabyte ever again this the 2nd mobo from them ive had problems with last 1 being am2+ but ive had no problems with my asus stuff so im heading back to them, M3A32-MVP Deluxe, M3A79-T Deluxe being my am2 purchases from asus rock solid they were - do miss them-
good luck with your decision, given your choice id go msi

 

[eidairaman1]

well heres the deal back in the day i heard asus was pretty good, i was mistaken with a P4S8X which wound up being a PITA with my video card.

 

[PP Mguire]

Ive had almost all 790FX AM3 boads so far. I still have the Giga 790FXT, Asus M4A79T Deluxe, and MSI GD70. (GD70 bout to be shipped out)

On a 720 ive gotten up to 3.9ghz bench and 3.8 stable whereas the others 3.6 was the top stable. MSI ive also had the best luck with anything. I went ahead and gave it up though but in the near future will have another MSI board. The 980a AM3.

 

[eidairaman1]

any other takers?

 

[Enguss]

1st post for me
Running Gigabyte UD5P with

PhenomX4 955 BE
XFX 4890 XT
OCZ low voltage 1333Mhz 7-7-7-20 (but running at 9-9-9-20 right now)
Sound Blaster X-Fi extreme music (seems to have problem with spdif)

Silverstone Fortress 1 Case
Thermalright Ultra120 extreme
CPU idles at around 35 according to Everest

 

[mav2000]

Dont go by software readings for temps, they are not very accurate.

I say just go for any of the top 3 boards and u will be happy. trust me there is very little variance as far as OC is concerned.

 

[commission3r]

1333 @ 7-7-7-20 is pretty loose u shud upgrade ur ram, u can get 1600 @ the same timing.
my mobo cant or wont handle 1600 so im runnin 1530 @7-7-7-18-27-1T NB @ 2583, 287 bus speed. try keeping the ht speed @2000 or below gaming performance drops when the ht speed goes up (i think u need better ram ocz are not so good with ddr3 tho they rocked with ddr2)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-%282x2GB%29-Corsair-Dominator-GT-DDR3-PC3-12800-%281600%29-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-7-DHX-Fan
give these a try

 

[bhagood]

Dude, you tink you're old, dig this: This year, I asked for an electric ice-cream scoop for Christmas. Now that's just plain old people behavior. I'm sad about it.

Anyhow. I came accross 2 of these boards with Phenom II 955 black ed. cpus and 950w Antec psu units and 4 gigs pc3 1066.

I've been a very serious player of Americas Army 2 for 8 years and have a few questions about this setup, as it is so new and I usually wait for others to buy stuff and work out the kinks. This time I'm the guinea pig.

1. I don't know a lot about the BIOS of the machine and am scared to use the factory update program cause it threatens me that it'll kill the machine if I don't put in exact right revision.

2. I'm die-hard Nvidia user and would rather salute a Russian flag than go ATI after 17 years in pcs. Am I simply wasting my time/toys by using 2nd 8800gts ssc edition 640meg video cards? It gives me option to enable 2nd card as physics enhancer, but I can't figure out if AAO 2.8.5 utilizes physics.
Any thoughts?

3. There seems to be some debate as to whether to set the RAM to 1.5 or (stock) 1.6 volts for stability. Any input would be very appreciated.

4. What kinda system and cpu temps are yall getting on this machine.

My first time on a tech forum as a member. I hope there are good nerds here. I wanna contribute. Thanks in advance for any input.

Don't let your meat loaf.

Bryan

 

[bhagood]

any reccomendations on the RAM timing settings? I hate to admit being dumb, but I might as well ask wile i'm at it: Is a GSATA2 port backward-compatible? I'm running outta SATA holes fast.

Thanks,
Bryan