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Which AMD motherboard gives best bang?

H

holabr

Member
I'm building a new AMD system for general use. I do want to do some video editing and gaming but primarily I use the system for digital photo editing/storage, internet surfing and office applications. I usually keep my systems for 4 to 6 years, so I want to buy cutting edge but not nesessarilty bleeding edge (read expensive) technology. I definitely like the Gigabyte motherboards. I'm trying to decide between the

GA-870A-UD3 with an MSI R4350-MD512H Radeon HD 4350 512MB video card ($122 after rebates)
GA-880GA-UD3H with on-board 4250 video ($118)
GA-890GPA-UD3H with on-board 4290 video ($140)
GA-890XA-UD3 with the same MSI R4350 video card ($140 after rebates)

All use the SB850 southbridge and the northbridge is 870, 880G, 890GX and 790X respectively.

I will be using either an Phenom II X4 or X6 with 4GB DDR3 1600 memory.

Is the GA-890XA-UD3 the best choice with the idea of upgrading the video in the future?

Comments/suggestions.
 
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard - AMD 890FX, Socket AM3, ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, RAID, SATA 6.0GB/s


this is the board i am looking at right now. It seems like it can do the job for me. If your going to upgrade just do a good job doing so.
 
I like the Gigabyte boards since they have com and lpt headers for some legacy hardware and simple interface apps. Of the ones I listed, which would be the best. Also, does anyone know the differences between the northbridge 790X and the 8xx series? I'm leaning toward the GA-890XA-UD3, but am a little concerned that it uses the 790X. Is that older technology?
 
870 chipset: 1 pci-e x16 for 1 graphics card, no igp
880G chipset: same as 870 except with igp
890X chipset: 2 x pci-e x8/x8 for 2 graphics cards, no igp
890GX chipset: 2 x pci-e x8/x8 for 2 graphics cards, with igp
890FX: 2 x pci-e x16/x16 for 2 high-end graphics cards, no igp

Asrock 870 and 880 boards are exception to the rule, these do have x8/x8 lanes.

The Gigabyte uses the 890 chipset. Which uses basically the same northbridge as the 790 chipset, except the igp is clocked higher (but since it has none, there's no difference). All 8xx series use the SB850 southbridge with Sata III support.

Depending on how graphically intensive the games you play, you could choose between 870 and 880 chipset. So choose 870+graphics card if you need more power than the 880 igp can provide.

I should add 8xx series igp is DirectX 11. Not that it matters since theyre not powerful enough for playing dx11 games anyway.
 
Last edited:
holabr said:
I like the Gigabyte boards since they have com and lpt headers for some legacy hardware and simple interface apps. Of the ones I listed, which would be the best. Also, does anyone know the differences between the northbridge 790X and the 8xx series? I'm leaning toward the GA-890XA-UD3, but am a little concerned that it uses the 790X. Is that older technology?
Click to expand...

Do you need those connections? I would advise against using windows based interface apps.

I would stay away of the 790X. If you don't plan to crossfire within a few months the 870a makes the most sense for a gigabyte board.
 
I have my system set up to boot up a couple of different OS. The interface apps are some specialized things that do not run under Windows.
 
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