which motherboar with ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD or ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 97

[tech0z]

I am going to buy at New Egg an AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor.

In addition, I will like to buy a motherboard.

I like 2 similar models from ASROCK: the ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS and the ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboar.

Looking at the last 6 months of review at Newegg, the 970 extreme 3 has almost 200 reviews from probable 200 owners.

However, the 970 extreme 4 has only 30 reviews on the last 6 months.

I start to lean toward the extreme 3 by the number of reviews.

Finally, the Asrock 970 extreme 3 was " Newegg Customer Choice Awards July, Aug 2012" over all the AMD motherboars.

Has anybody has any experience with the extreme 3 or 4.

I plan to buy at least 2 8mg memory, any suggestion.

I already built an intel 2500k and this phenom II x4 965 black edition is my backup computer.

I do not play games very frequently so games on computers is not my preference.

Any ideas well appreciated.

Thank you.

[alexruiz]

Welcome to the forums.
The extreme 4 can do PCI-e 8x/8x in crossfire, while the extreme 3 can only do 16x/4x.
The extreme 4 has also a front usb 3.0 header, the extreme 3 does not. Oh, and you also noticed the all black color shceme for the extreme 3, while the extreme 4 has blue and white

Personally, after using virtually every 970 board available, I am partial to the Biostar TA970XE, and the gigabyte GA-970A-UD3. I would pick the TA970Xe for that build, as it is the fastest performing 970 board

[jhansman]

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Originally Posted by alexruiz

The extreme 4 has also a front usb 3.0 header, the extreme 3 does not.

This. I have the Asrock 890FX, which I really like and bought with that feature in mind. This board came with a special bracket that uses a floppy bay in my case, and those ports up front give me a lot of flexibility with 3.0 external and flash drives. On the downside, the front USB 2.0 ports have died on my board, and since it is out of warranty, I'd have to replace it to get those back (fortunately, there are plenty on the rear panel). I have had my eye on the Exteme 4 for some time just for that reason, but cannot bring myself to spend upwards of $100 just for the convenience of front USB 2.0. The overall design of the Extreme 4 is really nice.

[VirtualLarry]

I would get the 990FX Extreme4. 990FX is certified for SLI, while I don't believe the 970 is.