Asus Vs Gigabyte

[grcf450]

Sup guys, I m building my first gaming pc/work computer, on a budget of course. I already bought the case(Azza Solano 1000r) and the processor( Amd Phenom x4 BE) Im looking for the motherboard and I cant decide if I should get the

Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3
or
Asus M4N98TD EVO
or
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H

What do you guys recommend? I want to overclock my processor just a little not much.

 

[Brutus04]

Are you going to be using the onboard video? If so, the EVO is no longer in contention. I like GB but may opt for the ASUS since the M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 supports USB 3.0. Have fun!

R/ Brutus

 

[grcf450]

I think i would use the onboard video, but I would end up getting a good card...

 

[faxon]

the UD3H has been getting amazing reviews all over the net. @ the frys i work at, i have to constantly monitor stock on it so that we dont run out, because we generally have to transfer more in every other week just about since we arent receiving them fast enough. the Pro/USB3 is a different story, i dont think we have even sold one in a month, and im not sure we even stock the EVO. we havent had a single return on the UD3H either, and i have hadm ultiple return customers tell me how much they liked it. would get that one for sure. as for what brutus said, the UD3H also supports USB 3.0, so thats a moot point

 

[Jovec]

I haven't owned Asus in a while. My current crop of AMD Gigabyte mobos have served me well for the most part, but they do have some issues:

1) Setting Vcore to Auto results in a significant overvolt even at stock speeds. This is something of a known GB issue. Manually setting Vcore usually sets it correctly, but I do have one board that still overvolts with it manually set to stock voltage (so I slightly undervolt).

2) No CnQ with the CPU multiplier above stock. Basically means BE CPUs are worthless since you are limited to FSB overclocks if you still want CnQ. I've heard that there are some software apps that try to manage p-states, and I've heard that other mobos don't always enable CnQ with a higher multi either, so maybe this isn't a big deal...

3) One mobo would reset voltage settings when coming out of sleep back to "auto." Upon reboot the bios would show my manually set undervolt settings correctly, but when coming out of sleep it would act as if all voltages were set to auto. Combined with issue #1, I would have a 620 x4 running at 1.3vcore at boot, and 1.5vcore after sleep

4) One board won't come out of sleep if I overclock the CPU-NB. It is a 550BE with both cores unlocked so that may be the issue, but even as a dual core the problem still exists. This could be a CPU, mobo, or PS issue so I wouldn't consider it a knock against Gigabyte.

Just my experiences. YMMV

 

[grcf450]

I haven't owned Asus in a while. My current crop of AMD Gigabyte mobos have served me well for the most part, but they do have some issues:

1) Setting Vcore to Auto results in a significant overvolt even at stock speeds. This is something of a known GB issue. Manually setting Vcore usually sets it correctly, but I do have one board that still overvolts with it manually set to stock voltage (so I slightly undervolt).

2) No CnQ with the CPU multiplier above stock. Basically means BE CPUs are worthless since you are limited to FSB overclocks if you still want CnQ. I've heard that there are some software apps that try to manage p-states, and I've heard that other mobos don't always enable CnQ with a higher multi either, so maybe this isn't a big deal...

3) One mobo would reset voltage settings when coming out of sleep back to "auto." Upon reboot the bios would show my manually set undervolt settings correctly, but when coming out of sleep it would act as if all voltages were set to auto. Combined with issue #1, I would have a 620 x4 running at 1.3vcore at boot, and 1.5vcore after sleep

4) One board won't come out of sleep if I overclock the CPU-NB. It is a 550BE with both cores unlocked so that may be the issue, but even as a dual core the problem still exists. This could be a CPU, mobo, or PS issue so I wouldn't consider it a knock against Gigabyte.

Just my experiences. YMMV

Which board would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[one30eight]

I have the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H and am liking it a lot.

 

[classy]

There are quite a few reviews on both the Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 and the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H. The Asus has been rated slightly ahead in just about every one of them. The Asus is about $10-20 more but it seems to be the best bang for the buck, for a semi top end board.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/890gx_ga_asus/

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/print/amd-890gx.html

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18539/1

 

[Jovec]

Which board would you recommend?

Thanks

All my GB boards are 7xx series DDR2 boards. I'm considering the same two boards you are for a move to DDR3.

I don't think you can go wrong with either board. I also don't think review sites spend enough time with these boards to find out every little nuance. Regardless of which you get, you'll probably run into a tiny issue here or there.

Having said that, I'm leaning towards ASUS just to mix things up, unless I can grab the GB board much cheaper.

 

[grcf450]

Thanks for help guys! I ordered the Asus last night and i just got it a couple minutes ago. now i need a graphics card, ram, hdd, ps, dvd burner, operating system might be looking to get windows xp because of some programs i have might not be compatible with windows 7.

 

[AstroGuardian]

I would go for the Gigabyte. Known to have better build quality and better component compatibility. However the difference is very slight since both Asus and GB are fierce contenders... No one would let the other get away with pros....

 

[lopri]

2) No CnQ with the CPU multiplier above stock. Basically means BE CPUs are worthless since you are limited to FSB overclocks if you still want CnQ. I've heard that there are some software apps that try to manage p-states, and I've heard that other mobos don't always enable CnQ with a higher multi either, so maybe this isn't a big deal...

This issue was prevalent on both ASUS and Gigabyte boards in the past. It now seems to have been fixed. (Especially with C3 stepping and later revision CPUs)

 

[JETninja]

........operating system might be looking to get windows xp because of some programs i have might not be compatible with windows 7.

What programs? I've yet to run into anything that wont run on Win 7. Even my old games seem to run just fine after a tweak. (compatibility mode to XP sometimes etc) I wouldn't touch the security hole called XP for anything. Soon to build a new Gaming PC also, but I like 7 so much I got it to work on my old nForce 2 MB. LOL!

 

[Jovec]

Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H

I don't think you can go wrong with either board. I also don't think review sites spend enough time with these boards to find out every little nuance. Regardless of which you get, you'll probably run into a tiny issue here or there.

I picked up the quoted board. There are always quirks. 9 out of 10 times with my new 890GPA rev2 I'm mashing the DEL key to get into the BIOS it's not recognized and boots into the OS. Happens maybe 7 out of 10 if I'm cold booting. Tried different USB ports, USB 3.0 on and off, etc. Only devices are USB keyboard, mouse, and webcam. Who can say if it's my board only...

This issue was prevalent on both ASUS and Gigabyte boards in the past. It now seems to have been fixed. (Especially with C3 stepping and later revision CPUs)

From testing the above board with my 955 C3, at 16 multi (stock), 17, and 18 CNQ throttles down as it should. At 19 it doesn't and stays at 3.8 regardless.

4) One board won't come out of sleep if I overclock the CPU-NB. It is a 550BE with both cores unlocked so that may be the issue, but even as a dual core the problem still exists. This could be a CPU, mobo, or PS issue so I wouldn't consider it a knock against Gigabyte.

Put my known good 955 C3 into this board and it still has the same problem. At Auto or x10 on the CPU-NB it sleeps (S3/STR) and resumes fine, at x11 or higher it looks like it tries to resume (blank screen) but isn't successful. If I power down with power button (triggering S1/PoS) and then turn it on again, it usually comes out of hibernation but this takes way too long (even longer than a fresh boot). Same Windows power and bios settings aside from the CPU-NB multi. Next up is a board swap.

Update: Board swap didn't work. To recap, I placed my 955 and mobo that ran at 3.8/2.6 for the CPU and CPU-NB with no sleep issues into a different computer, and as soon as the CPU-NB multi is over 10 sleep isn't working properly (with and without extra CPU-NB voltage). I'm wondering if it's the PS? It's a 450W Thermaltake. I don't think total wattage is an issue since the computer only has 1 HDD, 1 DVD, and a 5770 and has no problems being p95 and linpack stable at stock speeds. However, the PS only has a 4-pin (instead of 8-pin) ATX12v connector, but it's hard to imagine leaving the CPU-NB voltage at stock or giving it a minor bump is going cause PS issues if the multi is at 11 but runs fine at 10

 

[Jovec]

I suppose I kind of hijacked this thread, but the issue is so odd that I wanted to follow up on the CPU-NB multiplier issue for search purposes.

Just because it was easy I took out the video card and used the on-board video, but the computer would still not properly resume from sleep with the CPU-NB multi above stock. So that leaves the power supply as the likely culprit now, but don't have one handy to swap in.

I am currently running it at 3500/2500 (250 FSB, x14 CPU, stock x10 CPU-NB, x8 HT) with stock CPU voltage and +0.150v on the CPU NB.

This is the same 955 c3, RAM, and mobo that I had running at 3840/2640 with a 240 FSB, x16 multi and x11 CPU-NB with the only differing parts being the PS, video card, hdd, and DVD. I also had this same 955 c3 in a 890 mobo with an x13 CPU-NB multi stable.