AMD Motherboard suggestions?

[Irony]

I have an AMD 1090T, and an ASUS M4A88TM-LE mobo and I want to upgrade. This is the board I was looking at, but I wanted to hear an opinion on the AM3+ socket for this CPU.

thanks,
_-Irony

MSI 970A-G45 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX A...

 

[RevengE]

I have a gigabyte 990fxa-UD7 and it's one of the nicest boards I have ever owned. are you planning on OC'ing? My last board was an MSI I liked it never let me down.

 

[erocker]

4+1 phase design on that mobo with a 6-core. No.

Do you plan on overclocking?

 

[Irony]

Yeah, I am planning on some overclocking.

 

[RevengE]

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD7 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s U... Same board as mine.

 

[Irony]

I love that board, but I don't want to spend much more than 100 bucks.

 

[RevengE]

I love that board, but I don't want to spend much more than 100 bucks.

Can you sell your current board and maybe save alittle? It's worth it trust me. Here is another great board that is alittle cheaper ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s... I have never used an asus board but from what I have read these are pretty good overclockers.

 

[Irony]

4+1 phase design on that mobo with a 6-core. No.

Do you plan on overclocking?

I see that erocker is offline now; what was he saying about the 4+1 phase design?

Edit: yeah, I could sell my old board and defray it a bit.

 

[erocker]

Try to find one that has a better VRM design here: http://www.overclock.net/amd-motherboards/946407-amd-motherboard-vrm-information-list.html

 

[RevengE]

I see that erocker is offline now; what was he saying about the 4+1 phase design?

Edit: yeah, I could sell my old board and defray it a bit.

It has to do with the Power phase design and how the board responds to overclocking. 4+1 Usually under stress can go BANG, that of course is under "extreme overclocking conditions" If you are going to do a slight overclock you should be fine. I wouldn't run a 6 core in that board but that's just me.

 

[Irony]

Okay, I see.

@erocker: my current board is apparently a 3+1 according to your link, but it can handle reasonable overclocking.



Oh yeah, My other question: will my CPU work with an AM3+ socket? nevermind. I found an answer.



What do you think of this board? Its ugly, but It'll be hidden by my cooler and 200mm side fan. It has all the features i have been looking for, usb 3.0, SATA III, 4 RAM slots, crossfire support, cheap price...

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3...

 

[erocker]

Okay, I see.

@erocker: my current board is apparently a 3+1 according to your link, but it can handle reasonable overclocking.

Okay. I'm just making suggestions. Read up on what it actually means and decide if you want to take the risk or not.

 

[cadaveca]

The number of phases cannot tell you how powerful the VRM is without inscpecting the indivdual components that make up each phase.


Generally, yes, less phases = less possible power for OC'ing, but again, its's very possible that those four phases can do 45w each, say, for a total 180w, while another board with 8 phases that can each do 20w can only do 160w.

 

[erocker]

Though, I think most of us can agree that MSI + a smaller phase design will too often end up in failure. There are some inexpensive boards on that list that have much better designs.

 

[RevengE]

The number of phases cannot tell you how powerful the VRM is without inscpecting the indivdual components that make up each phase.


Generally, yes, less phases = less possible power for OC'ing, but again, its's very possible that those four phases can do 45w each, say, for a total 180w, while another board with 8 phases that can each do 20w can only do 160w.

I agree, You just have to research.

 

[Irony]

Alright, thanks everyone. I'll go do some research and find something that meets all my needs. It'll probably still be a couple of months before I get one. If I have a job by then, I might get a Crosshair V or something.

 

[JrRacinFan]

My insight: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.... or ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 A...


EDIT:

But in all fairness, that Gigabyte UD3 is pretty nice.

 

[RevengE]

My insight: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.... or ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 A...


EDIT:

But in all fairness, that Gigabyte UD3 is pretty nice.

UD3 is another good board that is cheaper than the UD7. I only bought the UD7 to have a bigger E Peen..lololol.

 

[cadaveca]

Though, I think most of us can agree that MSI + a smaller phase design will too often end up in failure. There are some inexpensive boards on that list that have much better designs.

Sure, I guess perhaps I used to belong to that "most of us", but after playing with the Z68A-GD65(G3), I am much more willing to reconsider my personal opinion of MSI in particular.

One of MSI's failing points before was their BIOS...OMG was it bad, and across all prodcuts. However, now that they've release the new version UEFI BIOS, I really gotta give them credit for getting it done right this time around.

The 9-series boards are oh-so similar to 8-series products, but there are some distinct differences in requirements to the VRM that I am not so eager to discount a board purely based on reputation. I guess, in my position, that's a good thing though, as I am not sure hidden bias based on the past really proves useful to those that read my reviews.

I haven't spent alot of time with 9-series products as of yet, but soon that situation will change, once Bulldozer comes out. Already working towards bringing those reviews to TPU, but as I've mentioned before, I kinda shy'd away from those products over the past several months waiting for Bulldozer to be released.

The $100 price point the OP is looking for is a tight market, too, where we tend to see some of the smaller names release fantastic products, while ignoring the "normal enthusiast"-type products.

All that said, you're not going to get alot from a $100 board for AM3, for sure. That price point is more intended for the APU market, so in the end I am just as leary of such products still too. Hopefully there are more "good" boards than "bad" ones.

 

[Irony]

I appreciate the input

 

[Super XP]

I have this board, just waiting for the AMD FX line to get released. This thing looks awesome.

ASUS Crosshair V Formula - AM3+ - 990FX - ROG Series
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00539LP34/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=uniqueapparel-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B00539LP34&adid=1RRZCPHG09PCMFPYZQWW&

 

[reverze]

since he only wanted to spend 100 ish dollar , here is the cheapest board with 8+2 VRM phases.

www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GA-970A-UD3-AM3-SATA-Motherboard/dp/B0055Q88EO/

quality board overall

 

[Inceptor]

The 970A-UD3 is a decent board.
Some good features, although the reason it's cheap is due to the fact it has two PCI legacy slots, 1 PCIe x16, 1 PCIe x4, and 3 PCIe x1. So, if you're OK with that, the rest of the features are good, and similar to the 990FXA-UD3 which is about $50 more.

If you want UEFI, you might also want to consider the Asus M5A97 which has comparable features to the GB 970A-UD3, except that it comes with a 6+2 phase VRM.

Something else to keep in mind is that the AMD 970 boards have HyperTransport 3.0 bandwidth up to 4800MT/s. The 990 boards have it up to 5200MT/s..

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

id spend the extra get the Asrock 970 extreme

its got SLI AND CROSSFIRE on 970 chipset its the cheapest board out there that allows sli and crossfire at x8 x8 in terms of features it cant really be beat and its price is pretty close to $100 aka $109

none of the other boards offer the features this board does.
Asrock as UEFI bios SLI and Crossfire support etc

Gigabyte board is using old school bios aka no UEFI, has 1 PCIe x16 slot and in general just dosent have the features to match.

ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3....

 

[eidairaman1]

id spend the extra get the Asrock 970 extreme

its got SLI AND CROSSFIRE on 970 chipset its the cheapest board out there that allows sli and crossfire at x8 x8 in terms of features it cant really be beat and its price is pretty close to $100 aka $109

none of the other boards offer the features this board does.
ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3....

2 Months ago I built my bro a machine with that same board, i would upgrade the bios first before putting any special settings in, even tho the initial bios is good, but it is Bulldozer ready too, works well- unlocks X2 Phenom BEs, boots very fast, utilizes UEFI n has several software features.