recommend a am3+ for a 965be

[RobTi]

Okay after thinking for a bit i am looking for a board for my son to support a 965be that he will be overclocking and running a 6870 doesn't matter the size mATX or ATX he wont be going sli.

So any help

Thanks

[c12038]

Okay after thinking for a bit i am looking for a board for my son to support a 965be that he will be overclocking and running a 6870 doesn't matter the size mATX or ATX he wont be going sli.

So any help

Thanks

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...e-20-(x16)-atx

and

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...e-20-(x16)-atx

take your pick both good M/B's

and one of these to help overclocking

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-...ps-12v-fan-atx

For quality and reliabilty its advisable to get a certified PSU rather than cheap muck and have problems

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

These two:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...-%28x16%29-atx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-%28x16%29-atx

I have mates who own both motherboards. AFAIK,the Gigabyte has the edge for overclocking although the Asus has a UEFI BIOS.

[mikeo01]

I personally wouldn't choose the Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 or the Asus M5A97 because of the mosfets, not good for overclocking.

Apparently the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 gets very hot when overclocking, but in my experience the M5A97 PRO doesn't overclock well. Well I have overclocked using the FX-6100 and over at overclock net alot of people are complainning about the board with the same issue as myself. Not sure if this will be true for the Phenom.

The Gigabyte 970A-UD3 has good VRMs while the ASUS has the digi VRM.

You could also check out MSI 990X-GD55 (8+2 phase).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My mates have both those boards with unlocked and overclocked Athlon II X3 CPUs which seem fine. Bagnaj97 has an Athlon II X3 running at 4GHZ on the Gigabyte and he did so with a Hyper 212 initially and these have locked multipliers. As the Phenom II X4 965BE is unlocked it should quite easy to overclock in comparison. All the builds were done last year. The Asus has a better record for core unclocking at least from what I see. The Gigabyte uses a 8 phase VRAM and the Asus a 6 phase VRM. The Asus 970 and 990X motherboards have the same VRM sections,and you can hit around 4GHZ with a relatively toasty Phenom II X6. The Gigabyte does seem to be easier to overclock with.

AFAIK,mikeo01 has a faulty motherboard which Scan is replacing so perhaps it was a bad batch of boards or the FX supporting BIOSes are flaky. So hopefully,the replacement will be better. Sadly,it does seem,the FX CPUs have had a load of motherboard issues. Whole Gigabyte 990 and 970 motherboard lines had throttling issues with FX CPUs and it took a while for Gigabyte to released a fixed BIOS. It also does seem the Asus motherboards might have their own share of problems too. It seems only the 990FX motherboards have been relatively issue free. However,the motherboards chosen by AMD for the FX8150 launch kits were Asus 990FX motherboards which makes it all seem rather puzzling.

Some of the MSI motherboards have had VRM issues when overclocking,to the extent they have burnt out(!),so choose wisely,and these include 890FX,990X and 990FX motherboards.

[MrNeil]

if you want the Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 here's good price as i just got one last week But im not into heavy overclocking so this is ideal for me
This is the 4 pin not the 8 pin !!!


http://www.ebuyer.com/349910-gigabyt...rd-ga-970a-ds3

[mikeo01]

Yeah I received the replacement board today. So good choice going on the safe side with the Phenom

So from that, both boards seem good. A 8+2 phase is more appealing than a 6+2 phase, but then its preference. A nice BIOS interface with a lot of easy to use features with decent VRM. Or Gigabytes 8+2 phase.

ASUS has a chip that monitors CPU load and adjusts voltage according which can also be manually set. I don't think Gigabyte has this feature, but the down side is they apparently get toasty, adequate but run on the hotter side.

So really speaking its features over pure power performance.

I wouldn't go lower than the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 or ASUS M5A97 PRO, just because some lower models tend to use no heatsinks and smaller VRM.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Lets hope you new board does better than your old one!!

[mikeo01]

Fingers crossed. Think Hexus is full by my problems by now

[RobTi]

Thanks for the replies.

He wont be heavily overclocking, just the cpu to about 4ghz

which board would be best bang for buck with that in mind?

Thank you

[mikeo01]

Doesn't the Phenom eat a lot of juice when its overclocked? If so you will want a stable current. A 8+2 phase is the best for overclocking, but the ASUS M5A97 PRO is cheap and has a TPU and EPU chip for more precise power supply to the processor itself.

I own one and from experience it comes with pretty good features, and the UEFI BIOS is nice to use.

Both priced well I think, it depends if you want to spend extra for stability with the 8+2 phase (Gigabyte)

[RobTi]

Okay so if hard o/c then it would be the gigabyte with the 8+2 phase and if going to mildly o/c then the 6+2 phase Asus.

Is this correct as they are on special today only

Robert

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Asus is a reasonably decent overclocker in its on right with Phenom II CPUs,as TPU got a Phenom II X4 1090T upto 4GHZ,however I just get the feeling the Gigabyte has the edge.

However,Scan has the Asus M5A97 and Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 on offer,which are not the motherboards we are talking about.

Amazon is a bit cheaper for both motherboards though and you get Nectar points though:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-...825104&sr=8-14

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-M5A97-M...0825104&sr=8-8

[RobTi]

Sorry for that seen the error in what I was looking at.

Will go with your recommendations and talk him into getting the gigabyte

Robert

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Gigabyte is £75 on Amazon too.

[mikeo01]

£75 for Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, well worth it