BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX vs GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H

[jibberishballr]

Which one for the Phenom II 940?

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Reading about too many problems with the Gigabyte UD's... plus a handful of Gigabyte mobos I've used in the past have been underwhelming, and their customer service stinks.

Every Biostar "T" I've used has been gold. I'm using a TA790GX 128M right now, very happy with it.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I voted for the Biostar but only because I ordered that one myself and I hope it's good!

 

[jibberishballr]

Hmmm. Well I like the idea of the 790gx motherboards but just cant figure out which one I like the best.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Another factor if you really can't decide is price. If you're truly at an impasse in deciding, you could always just order the cheaper one. NewEgg has a great combo deal on the Phenom II 940 right now, $50 off when you buy it with the Biostar TA790GX. Of course that only helps if you don't already have the CPU.

 

[jibberishballr]

I haven't bought anything yet but have all my parts lined up minus the motherboard. I need one with excellent onboard graphics and easy use. Good onboard audio is a plus. I will need 1394 but could get a card if needed to use it. I wont be overclocking, but If I decide to it would be very basic.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Well, the Biostar doesn't have 1394. I was looking over the manual in anticipation of getting mine and there aren't any 1394 headers on it. Oh well, I never use it.

The onboard video on the Biostar should be good if that's important to you, though. HDMI + DVI + VGA, all onboard. I don't know if it supports multiple monitors, but you at least have all the connections you need for any one screen. Also, it has separate memory specifically for the onboard video so it doesn't take any from your system RAM.

One problem with the Biostar is the graphics card slot is in the middle, not at the top of the slots, and apparently it causes the graphics card to block one of the two PCI slots if you have a large card. But you're talking about using onboard video so maybe it doesn't matter in your case. And a smaller, single-slot graphics card (should you decide to get one, perhaps a 3450/3470 for hybrid crossfire with the integrated chipset) won't block any PCI slots either.

I'd suggest looking at all the NewEgg reviews of both boards to see if there are any common praises or complaints, and also look over the manual for each one as well.

 

[jibberishballr]

Yea I've been looking for a while. I am just trying to find the right motherboard that fits my needs at the lowest price. Any other suggestions on boards are appreciated.

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
Every Biostar "T" I've used has been gold. I'm using a TA790GX 128M right now, very happy with it.

x2 :thumbsup:

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
Well, the Biostar doesn't have 1394. I was looking over the manual in anticipation of getting mine and there aren't any 1394 headers on it. Oh well, I never use it.

The onboard video on the Biostar should be good if that's important to you, though. HDMI + DVI + VGA, all onboard. I don't know if it supports multiple monitors, but you at least have all the connections you need for any one screen. Also, it has separate memory specifically for the onboard video so it doesn't take any from your system RAM.

One problem with the Biostar is the graphics card slot is in the middle, not at the top of the slots, and apparently it causes the graphics card to block one of the two PCI slots if you have a large card. But you're talking about using onboard video so maybe it doesn't matter in your case. And a smaller, single-slot graphics card (should you decide to get one, perhaps a 3450/3470 for hybrid crossfire with the integrated chipset) won't block any PCI slots either.

I'd suggest looking at all the NewEgg reviews of both boards to see if there are any common praises or complaints, and also look over the manual for each one as well.

I've used 2 monitors with the onboard DVI & VGA ports successfully.

 

[jibberishballr]

so according to my needs would the biostar be best suited?

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: jibberishballr
so according to my needs would the biostar be best suited?

Other than your need for firewire....it is a great board, at a fair price.

EDIT: it has a $10 rebate now..

 

[jibberishballr]

Finished and ordered for my build:


$715 Shipped


http://i54.photobucket.com/alb...Hunter_01Mar171938.gif

 

[poohbear]

tell us how it turns out. I read the biostar uses inferior parts hence its lower price. u also need to use a dummy card in bottom PCI-E slot to use the top slot which is rather annoying if u have aftermarket cooling on your vid card.:/ i opted to go for the foxconn 790-gx and pay a little more for what reviewers were calling a fantabulous board. at any rate @ $75 shipped u can't go wrong.

sorry if its late, but here's a nice mobo roundup for most 790gx mobos:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/.../roundup-790gx-p1.html

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: poohbear
tell us how it turns out. I read the biostar uses inferior parts hence its lower price. u also need to use a dummy card in bottom PCI-E slot to use the top slot which is rather annoying if u have aftermarket cooling on your vid card.:/ i opted to go for the foxconn 790-gx and pay a little more for what reviewers were calling a fantabulous board. at any rate @ $75 shipped u can't go wrong.

sorry if its late, but here's a nice mobo roundup for most 790gx mobos:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/.../roundup-790gx-p1.html

Interesting article. I have to wonder at their lack of success overclocking a 9850BE - they only reached 3 Ghz on the Biostar TA790GX, while I reached 3.2 on a non-BE 9850, and probably could have gone higher.

Also, I got way better Rightmark Audio scores...

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: poohbear
tell us how it turns out. I read the biostar uses inferior parts hence its lower price. u also need to use a dummy card in bottom PCI-E slot to use the top slot which is rather annoying if u have aftermarket cooling on your vid card.:/ i opted to go for the foxconn 790-gx and pay a little more for what reviewers were calling a fantabulous board. at any rate @ $75 shipped u can't go wrong.

sorry if its late, but here's a nice mobo roundup for most 790gx mobos:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/.../roundup-790gx-p1.html

Interesting article. I have to wonder at their lack of success overclocking a 9850BE - they only reached 3 Ghz on the Biostar TA790GX, while I reached 3.2 on a non-BE 9850, and probably could have gone higher.

Also, I got way better Rightmark Audio scores...

I wouldn't be surprised if the use of lower quality parts doesn't result in a guaranteed lower level of performance but rather a greater variation in performance.

I may have chosen a different one than the Biostar had I known about that review earlier, but honestly, for the price, the only way I can go wrong is if it's actually broken.

 

[jibberishballr]

I got the 128m version

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: jibberishballr
Finished and ordered for my build:


$715 Shipped


http://i54.photobucket.com/alb...Hunter_01Mar171938.gif

I'm curious - why did you get the WD 320gb HDD for $55 when for $10 you could get the 500gb version?

 

[DragonsBane]

@jibberishballr
I'm curious what your benchmarks are. I just received everything to build my Gigabyte system with similar specs. I went with the Corsair Dominator RAM instead of G.Skill though. Let me know if you'd be interested in running a comparison.

On a side note, the Gigabyte board comes with 3 Firewire connections (2 on board, 1 on the back plate) along with SPDIF sound. And if you are looking for USB, holy crap. This thing has 4 ports on the back (not many, but not bad) but it can handle 4 add-ons. So if all of those are used, you can get a total of 12 USB ports from this board.

GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
LITE-ON 22X DVD Burner with LightScribe

I will be cooling this with a SILVERSTONE NT06-E Heat sink w/ 120mm Fan
I have not ordered a new video card yet, so I am stuck with my old 256MB 7900GS. A little outdated, but I mainly play older games. The most graphic intensive game I play is BF 2142, and it works just fine for that.

 

[jibberishballr]

What do I use to do benchmarks. I'd be happy to let you know. I love my setup, finished building it yesterday and all I can say is It is amazing. The biostar board impresses me all the time and everything runs at a cool 17-21C idle and havent gotten cpu useage over 16% yet. Onboard video is amazing and sound is great. Everything I could have hoped for. Can't wait to render some video.

 

[zeblade]

lol very very misleading when someone says.. "many problems with the Gigabyte UD" .. I build alot of these and yet to have one problem. They ALL no matter what brand will have problems sometimes. You can goggle any motherboard and find a post with problems and post it.

I test alot.. Windows 7,Vista 32/64 XP, server 2008, and OS X 10.5.6 (bought) voodoo kernal yet EVERYTHING works super.. You can only get an IDEA of something like this when you search it.. yet you should never let some review or post be your reason for not buying lol. Make sure you can return whatever it is and try it. You might be surprised that for some odd reason it works GREAT for you but not the poster.. lol..

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: zeblade
lol very very misleading when someone says.. "many problems with the Gigabyte UD" .. I build alot of these and yet to have one problem. They ALL no matter what brand will have problems sometimes. You can goggle any motherboard and find a post with problems and post it.

I test alot.. Windows 7,Vista 32/64 XP, server 2008, and OS X 10.5.6 (bought) voodoo kernal yet EVERYTHING works super.. You can only get an IDEA of something like this when you search it.. yet you should never let some review or post be your reason for not buying lol. Make sure you can return whatever it is and try it. You might be surprised that for some odd reason it works GREAT for you but not the poster.. lol..

Not misleading at all. There are more complaints - more posts - about the Gigabyte UD's than other 790GX motherboards, and there also seems to be more complaints on the Intel variations as well. This may be somewhat mitigated by the fact that the UD's are "enthusiast" boards, and enthusiasts will more readily voice their displeasure online that "typical" consumers, and also perhaps more Gigabyte UD's are sold to the DIY crowd than other brands. I don't have the sales reports on that.

As far as, "yet you should never let some review or post be your reason for not buying lol", that is antithetical to the point of product research. Don't just purchase based on specifications; read multiple detailed reviews and peruse user opinions, to get an idea of what's in store. If you are knowledgeable, you should be able to often distinguish between user errors and equipment flaws.