A88x vs A85x

[mojothehut]

Hey all,
I'm going to be building a little rig for a friend who does some light gaming.
He wants an AMD APU system, so hes going with the A10-6800k.
Anyway, I've got everything in order but stuck on two motherboard choices.
1st. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131883 $109

2nd. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132045 $85

I'm a fan of both brands, but haven't really been following the FM2 scene.
Which chipset should support the next gen of APUs that are coming out I believe early next year? I assume the A88x is slightly newer and that probably answers my question?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I'd go for option 2. It lacks a few features compared to the F2A85-M PRO (displayport, optical out, ESATA on backplate), but its a newer board, is cheaper and even has drop-in capability for Kaveri...

 

[Warsam71]

I agree with Insert Nickname, and you as well. Option 2 is the way to go for your A10-6800K, it has the FM2+ socket which is what you'll want looking ahead...

 

[mojothehut]

Alright cool, going with the A88x.
I know this may fall into more of a "cpu" question. But he currently has 8gb of corsair 1600 (2x 4gb) and was wondering if the difference between 1600mhz ram and say something higher like 1800-2100 will be super noticeable for the light gaming he will be doing with the 6800k. In other words, should he buy new ram?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

say something higher like 1800-2100 will be super noticeable for the light gaming he will be doing with the 6800k. In other words, should he buy new ram?

As in will games go from unplayable to playable? In that case, no 1600MHz is just fine. Just avoid anything slower. 1866MHz and faster do add some more performance, but its not what I call earth-shattering. I'd recommend going discrete before you buy faster RAM. Unless of course you have the same problem as my mediacenter and can't fit a discrete card.

Tomshardware did some research, but I'd take their findings with a pinch of salt. In particular their memory bandwidth tests seem way off to me. My 6800K+2133MHz is pushing 21.3GB/s...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-scaling-trinity,3419.html