AMD AM3+ Motherboard Thread

[StrangerGuy]

LOL_Wut_Axel: To be fair you are also paying for highest quality components TUF(the ultimate force) which is backed by 5 year warranty,very few boards give you that kind of warranty.

I would like to see some actual evidence on that than just reiterating the marketing slogans.

Besides given that BD isn't even out, so there are two scenarios with a $200 AM3+ board:

1. Buy it and replace existing AM3 mobo and wait for BD to release with no definite date = dumb.

2. Buy it and pair with a new AM3 CPU when a 2500K + $100 board smokes the former in every metric at the same price = even dumber.

 

[Mem]

I would like to see some actual evidence on that than just reiterating the marketing slogans.

Besides given that BD isn't even out, so there are two scenarios with a $200 AM3+ board:

1. Buy it and pair it with an existing AM3 CPU and wait for BD to release with no definite date = dumb.

2. Buy it and pair with a new AM3 CPU when a 2500K + $100 board smokes the former in every metric at the same price = even dumber.

It's quite clear in the last review ie ,

There are a number of components that that make the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX part of the TUF Series of boards. Among these components are the TUF Capacitors, the capacitors used on the Sabertooth 990FX are two and a half times more durable than the standard Japanese Solid Capacitors and 1.67 times more durable than top graded polymer tantalum HI-C capacitors.

The TUF Caps are only part of the mix, though; the ASUS TUF Mosfets are also part of the recipe. The TUF Mosfets are an ideal choice because they are able to sustain the thermal shock between -65 degrees Celsius and 150 degrees Celsius! For those of us here in the United States that are accustomed to temperature in Fahrenheit that's equivalent to ~85 degrees Fahrenheit to ~300 degrees Fahrenheit!

The third piece of pie is the TUF Chokes; instead of the standard iron chokes the TUF Chokes are comprised of various types of metal which will deliver up to 25% higher rated current as well as better emission of vibration noise. An added bonus (according to ASUS) of not using the standard iron chokes is better antirust properties.

Part of the evidence is the 5 year warranty.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

It's quite clear in the last review ie ,

It's been proven they're theoretically better. It'd be kinda nice to see if their claims actually hold water in the real world.

Apart from that, seriously, why are manufacturers expecting us to pay the same for our motherboards as for the CPU, especially now that so many components are integrated into the CPU die and therefore reduce manufacturing costs? Motherboards are getting more expensive when they should be getting cheaper.

 

[Mem]

It's been proven they're theoretically better. It'd be kinda nice to see if their claims actually hold water in the real world.

Apart from that, seriously, why are manufacturers expecting us to pay the same for our motherboards as for the CPU, especially now that so many components are integrated into the CPU die and therefore reduce manufacturing costs? Motherboards are getting more expensive when they should be getting cheaper.

I'm not going to bother arguing the point since you either believe it or not,end of the day one thing I do know is that AMD motherboards are a lot cheaper then Intel boards so its really down to how much you want to pay regardless of brand etc...plenty of boards that are a lot cheaper then the Sabertooth so still a wide choice for the buyer.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I'm not going to bother arguing the point since you either believe it or not,end of the day one thing I do know is that AMD motherboards are a lot cheaper then Intel boards so its really down to how much you want to pay regardless of brand etc...

Depends on where you look. For Performance boards Intel seems to be doing a bit better. For budget boards AMD is much better, for example the ASRock M3A770DE.

 

[Mem]

Depends on where you look. For Performance boards Intel seems to be doing a bit better. For budget boards AMD is much better, for example the ASRock M3A770DE.

You was talking about pricing,so was I ie still good range of prices for both AMD and Intel even on the AMD 900 series ie Asus M5A97 EVO ,Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X,it'll be interesting to see what the Asrock 990FX Extreme4 is priced at.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

You was talking about pricing,so was I ie still good range of prices for both AMD and Intel even on the AMD 900 series ie Asus M5A97 EVO ,Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X,it'll be interesting to see what the Asrock 990FX Extreme4 is priced at.

I hope it's around $170.

 

[drizek]

I've my heart set on the Sabertooth .

drizek : Did you notice how well it did on the USB 3.0 HD test?



I still say its down to ASMedia they use for USB 3.0 chipset.

I already bought the Sabertooth. Been using it for a couple of weeks. Overall I'm happy with it. It takes a little long to POST, and it doesn't have the ON/Off charge feature that I forgot to look into. I think it is, overall, a good board, but had htey been out at the time, I would have been very tempted by the Gigabyte boards.

I do have a Crucial C300 and the numbers from the legitreviews benchmark of SATA III are nice to see, although they are still around 15% slower than what Intel boards get, which is pretty disappointing. I have been running SLI GTX 460s and my computer is now a really kickass gaming machine. I can pretty much max out all my games at 1080p at vsync at 60fps (most of them) or 30fps (Crysis on Gamer). On some games I even undervolt (or, more accurately, stockvolt) the cards and still keep my 60fps, just with around 70-80W lower power consumption.

 

[JimKiler]

I see the Crosshair V and EVO are $10 off at newegg if anyone is interested.

 

[eastyy123]

saw a video review of the asus sabre tooth and crosshair V thing i didnt get does it just need the normal 4 and 20 pin power supply ? they said something about a 8 pin power on the board to

Also just a quick question are there any software that can tell me how many watts my current setup is drawing ?

 

[drizek]

You need a 24 pin and an 8 pin.

TO see how much power you are using, but a Kill-A-Watt. No software will give you anything close to an accurate reading.

 

[Mem]

Asus Crosshair V review@VR-Zone http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-crosshair-v-formula-review/12668.html

The Crosshair V Formula is a great motherboard in its own right. ASUS has got all the bases covered - a good UEFI BIOS, software suite, and many other overclocker-friendly features.

I had my heart set on the Sabertooth but must admit I do like the Crosshair as well .

 

[lau808]

i want a sabertooth really bad but i'm thinking of being realistic and getting a 980g whenever asus makes/releases it. anyone hear of anything on asus 980g's yet?

 

[The Keeper]

I'm a bit disappointed these boards doesn't seem to have PCIE3 and use 3rd party chips to provide USB3 support. It seems we'll have to wait until next year for real PCIE3 and USB3 support.

 

[Mem]

I'm a bit disappointed these boards doesn't seem to have PCIE3 and use 3rd party chips to provide USB3 support. It seems we'll have to wait until next year for real PCIE3 and USB3 support.

Nothing really needs PCIE3 yet,but what you do get is PCIE2 x16 boards even with SLI/Crossfire.

As to USB3 well not many devices really need more then USB2 at the moment,personally I just want to see some Bulldozers appear with real benchmarks, that's far more important IMHO.

 

[Mem]

HardOCP did not like the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 board much,http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/07/12/gigabyte_990fxaud7_motherboard_review/ .

They say everyone makes mistakes. When I think of the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 I realize that truer words were never spoken. From start to finish my time with the 990FXA-UD7 was miserable. I just wanted the experience to end but with all the problems, working with the board took far longer than it should have. It is without a doubt one of the worst motherboards I’ve ever worked with. I had more problems with this board during my review than any other before it and I’ve been doing this for some time now. I’ve certainly not seen any boards this bad in the last two years.

I guess one to avoid for now.

 

[DeeDot78]

The new Asrock is finally on newegg, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ck%20990fx As mentioned before, the spacing is more than adequate to add a sound cards. etc...

 

[Mem]

ASUS M5A97 EVO and M5A99X EVO@PureOC http://www.pureoverclock.com/article1333.html .

The ASUS M5A97 EVO and M5A99X EVO are great additions to the ASUS AMD lineup. Both boards have spacious and clean layouts, and are packed with impressive features such as SATA 6G and USB 3.0. The build quality is outstanding, as we've come to expect from ASUS, even on inexpensive boards such as these. The UEFI BIOS is very polished and ASUS has the best layout and functionality we have seen to date. And the addition of SLI is a very welcome sight on the M5A99X for the Nvidia faithful.

 

[happy medium]

The Asrock extreme 4 970 AM3+ for under 100$ (newegg) seems like a winner.
Crossfire and sli on a 970 board, nice.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

The Asrock extreme 4 970 AM3+ for under 100$ (newegg) seems like a winner.
Crossfire and sli on a 970 board, nice.

4+1 Power Phase design. :\

 

[Mem]

4+1 Power Phase design. :\

Asrock 990FX Extreme 4 looks good with 8+2 Power phase,

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=990FX%20Extreme4&cat=Specifications

 

[happy medium]

4+1 Power Phase design. :\

True, but not all power designs are created equal. High end caps and heatsink cooled 4x1 rated at 140 watts+ is more than enough to overclock a 95 watt, 8 core, BD cpu.
I've seen a a dozen or so people overclocking a 125 watt 9xx black edition with this Asrock board @ 3.8+, and a few overclocking a x6 also.

I was seriously considering this board untill I found out the AM3+ socket is a dead end in about 10 months.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Asrock 990FX Extreme 4 looks good with 8+2 Power phase,

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=990FX Extreme4&cat=Specifications

It does look great. A bit better bang-for-buck than the Sabertooth 990FX. For Bulldozer, though, I think the best route is 990X. Unless you're thinking of doing tri-SLI or CF, there's really no point in 990FX. For the best bang-for-buck Performance board I'd choose the Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 since it has most features people would need (including high OCing) and it's only $140.

True, but not all power designs are created equal. High end caps and heatsink cooled 4x1 rated at 140 watts+ is more than enough to overclock a 95 watt, 8 core, BD cpu.
I've seen a a dozen or so people overclocking a 125 watt 9xx black edition with this Asrock board @ 3.8+, and a few overclocking a x6 also.

I was seriously considering this board untill I found out the AM3+ socket is a dead end in about 10 months.

I'd rather not risk it, though. I'd prefer 6+2 or 8+2 phase, but not higher than that. If you get the 95W FX-8100, which will probably OC almost the same as the FX-8150, you'll probably also need similar voltage. The TDP for the 8150 is 125W, so it's safe to say with a medium over-volt it'll consume 175-200W. The only way AMD got a 95W TDP for the 8100 was through lower clock speeds in comparison to the 6100, though since they're all unlocked the 8100 makes more sense than the 8150, at least if it's priced $30 lower.

As for future-proofing, you're right. AMD took the wrong decision there. They decided to make it compatible with AM3 but forgot that it means in the future it's pretty much dead as they can only get so much future-proofing from an old socket. Because of that alone and the fact that Ivy Bridge is gonna use LGA 1155 I'm pretty much set on going Intel and getting an i5 2400, i5 2500K, or Xeon E3-1230.

 

[happy medium]

As for future-proofing, you're right. AMD took the wrong decision there. They decided to make it compatible with AM3 but forgot that it means in the future it's pretty much dead as they can only get so much future-proofing from an old socket. Because of that alone and the fact that Ivy Bridge is gonna use LGA 1155 I'm pretty much set on going Intel and getting an i5 2400, i5 2500K, or Xeon E3-1230.

Sucks, now I'm hearing rumors that the 1155 ivybridge will not overclock to protect the 2011 's socket performance? WTF?

Sorry for off topic but this really blows.

Edit : that Gigabyte 990xa is nice for 140$.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Sucks, now I'm hearing rumors that the 1155 ivybridge will not overclock to protect the 2011 's socket performance? WTF?

Sorry for off topic but this really blows.

That's more than probably false. Even the stock CPUs over-clock depending on how many cores are being used by the way of Turbo Boost. Coincidentally, Turbo is what actually allows these chips to use higher multipliers. The unlocked CPUs just have unlocked Turbo multipliers.

Intel would need to eliminate Turbo Boost in order to eliminate over-clocking, something I think is highly unlikely to happen.

I guess that's one thing I like more about AMD with the FX CPUs: they'll all have unlocked multipliers.