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Thread: What motherboard to choose?

  1. #1
    Senior Member mikeo01's Avatar
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    What motherboard to choose?

    Hi all,

    I have narrowed down my choices in motherboards.

    Going to used for:
    Gaming
    High overclocking
    Something reliable for years
    mATX
    Good quality power phase!

    My two choices:

    Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H 880G
    http://www.ebuyer.com/281781-ex-disp...-ga-880gm-ud2h

    Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Motherboard Rev 3.1
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...16)-d-sub-dvi-


    If anyone thinks they are rubbish tell me.

    My specs:
    HD 4870
    Sound card (x-fi)
    Athlon II x3 (95w)


    Any other suggestions would be great thanks.
    Wanted a motherboard within the £45-50 range.

    Been looking at ASUS in that price range, but they only have 3+1 power phase, which I definitely do not want to go to. 4+1 up.

    Does anyone know the quality of the phases?

    And as suggested to me before, a fan blowing on it will be ok. Could I just shove a 40MM fan over the thing? Or is there any heatsinks I could buy?

    Because my CPU is 95W, and them boards can support 125W, with 4+1 phase I would like some good cooling on it.

    Definitely 125W supported motherboard.

    Thanks everyone just need to see if I am buying the right motherboard in that price range. Need something strong that will last years, and something that doesn't mind a bit of overclocking on.

    Over £50 is a no go, on a budget

  2. #2
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    I wouldn't touch a 760G mobo for overclocking. It's a budget chipset. 880G should be a better option. If you really can't go over £50 then you are likely to end up motherboard limited for overclocking - the extra money goes on better VRMs and more robust components to support higher overclocks.

    If you move quickly and stretch the budget to £75 for the motherboard, you could get this: http://www.ebuyer.com/290045-ex-disp...-ebr1-ta890gxe which is the 890GX enthusiast chipset, supports 140W TDP CPUs, and has the modern SB850 southbridge which supports SATA 3 (6Gbps). Much better choice for overclocking.

  3. #3
    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    If you are looking for an AM3+ mATX with a decent VRM it will be hard to find IMHO. Your best bet ATM seems to be the mATX AM3 motherboard suggested by scaryjim.

    Edit!!

    The OP has a case which can take ATX motherboards.

    This ATX motherboard is not too bad for the price:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/320151-msi-870...d-870s-c45-fx-

    However,I would suggest going for the following motherboard:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/270702-asus-m5...oard-m5a97-pro
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 18-01-2012 at 02:52 PM.

  4. #4
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    The OP has a case which can take ATX motherboards.
    Assuming they still have that case, of course

    If they have I'm impressed - looks like a beast, and Hexus gave it an "Extreme" award certification (apparently in 2006 there was a distinction drawn between the two! )
    Last edited by scaryjim; 18-01-2012 at 04:20 PM.

  5. #5
    Senior Member mikeo01's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    I can't really push it over £50, if I could I would go for a more expensive motherboard.

    I really have to choose between that MSI or the Gigabyte one, just haven't the money for anything above £50

    I know more expensive motherboards have better quality VRM and all, but how much of a limit would a budget board allow for an overclock?

    I have pretty damn good cooling for the CPU, so heats not an issue. But I read somewhere as long as you cool the VRMs down a lot TDP shouldn't be an issue.

    Why is the 760G a bad chipset for overclocking? Would the 880G do? As long as I can overclock a bit I don't mind, because I am also wanting a board for future proof, say in the future I might want to go to hex core (which I wouldn't overclock).

    Obviously if the disabled core on my Athlon is fine I won't be overclocking (That might be why I had artefacts, whenever the wattage bumped up the artefacts would go crazy, and compute wrong).

    Either way I basically need this:
    Decent overclock that will be fast enough for my programs (games and bits and bobs, nothing extreme)
    HT 3.0, just for bandwidth purposes
    Something which will last years.

    As long as my processor can compute things fast enough for multiplayer and general tasking, like opening programs up, reduce bottleneck (if any)

    (I am not a big gamer, BF3 is probably the only demanding game, a part from Crysis, rest are old games)

    Put it this way I doubt I will ever go to 8-core, crossfire, high end overclocking etc.

    I am happy with my Gigabyte board now M68MT-S2P rev 3.0 (£35). The only thing it lacks for me is the HT 3.0, able to overclock more than 3.2 Ghz and that I suspect the bus can't handle the data. Which means my CPU and GPU isn't at its full potential.

    Thanks for the suggestions!!

  6. #6
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    Quote Originally Posted by mikeo01 View Post
    Would the 880G do?
    Probably. It'd certainly be better than the 760G chipset. Bu the point is that cheap mATX integrated motherboards are not designed for overclocking, they're designed to go in granny or grandpa's web browsing machine.

    To get a good overclock you need a motherboard and BIOS that's been set up to enhance overclocking - like I said in your other thread, things like untied PCIe clocks make a big difference. A cheap board is unlikely to have those features, whereas a more expensive board will. The 890GX chipset is intended to be an enthusiast chipset, and the board I linked to has a lot of overclocking specific features.

    For instance VRMs. They're not all the same. It's not as simple as saying "if they're well-cooled they'll be OK" - the components used have different tolerances and limits. The VRM components on a more expensive, enthusiast-oriented motherboard will be designed to cope with higher temperatures and more load than the ones on a budget board, so they'll last longer and be more stable, regardless of cooling etc. It's a bit like comparing a £2 kitchen knife to a £20 kitchen knife - when you first buy them they both do the job equally well, but after a few months you'll find the cheaper knife has gone blunt while the more expensive one still works just as well. Why? Because the materials used in the more expensive knife are more durable - that's why it's more expensive.

    You say you want to be future-proofed? Well buying *another* budget motherboard now is not going to do that. I suggest you either somehow find the extra £20 - £25 now for a decent motherboard that will support stable overclocking, or you put your £50 away and save it towards a complete system upgrade in the future. You say you're happy with your current motherboard, and tbh there's not much you can do with £50 to get significant improvements in things like opening programs (you need an SSD for that). There's no guarantee that *any* motherboard will overclock your CPU beyond 3.2GHz, and the less you spend on a motherboard the less likely it is to give you a good, stable overclock.

    As to CAT's point, is that any good reason you've specified mATX? Assuming you're still using the CM iTower 930 it'll fit a full ATX case. The brings the 870 / 970 chipset in to play, and those motherboards, since they don't make use of integrated graphics, are generally more overclocking-oriented even at the lower end.

  7. #7
    Senior Member mikeo01's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    Thanks for clearing up some information on motherboards

    And yeah I didn't mean using an SSD to open up programs, I meant really more bandwidth for my CPU and PCI-E/PCI slot.

    I wouldn't get full use out of an expensive board, but in term I want something decent and cheap for what I want to use it for.

    My setup can run every game yes, but I just need a little more umff to allow for the full potential of my CPU and GPU, which is where I wanted HT 3.0 to come into play.

    If £50 isn't going to get me anywhere I suppose I really should leave it then for overclocking, and either get another board for HT 3.0 and a little better quality.

    Considering Gigabyte are reliable and are good quality I think really I should leave overclocking for the time being. My old Acer board (Apparently either Foxconn or an ECS) lasted around 4 years, so I assume a Gigabyte board would last about that or more?

    I will leave the overclocking, and really buy a better CPU in the future if thats the case.

    Wonder why they put Overclocking features on lower end motherboards? In the manual it does state it can handle Phenoms, and allows easy overclocking lol.

    Least I have learnt something new thanks!

    Thanks for the help! Cleared information up about it.

  8. #8
    Senior Member mikeo01's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    For arguments sake, what do you think is the best choice for me?

    Apparently MSI are notorious for their VRMs to be of low quality, and that the Mosfet drivers are terrible and lack OCP, which result in them frying up.

    So, what board would you recommend for me either way I will be placing a 40mm fan on top of the VRMs, just for cooling sake, regardless of overclocking.

    I know you said 760G is terrible chipset, but the only thing that stood out to me is the 140W CPU support (for the ASUS board).

    The rest are either AM3 or AM3+ with 870 chipset.

    But I am more looking towards the first link, the MSI 125W CPU support, 8-pin power (more thinking of reducing vDroop) and they are all 4+1 power phase. (don't think about overclocking in mind, think about it as to support a CPU and future CPUs such as the Bulldozer which I may buy in years to come when they are as cheap as Athlons )

    http://www.ebuyer.com/320151-msi-870...d-870s-c45-fx-

    http://www.ebuyer.com/281781-ex-disp...-ga-880gm-ud2h

    http://www.ebuyer.com/269076-asus-m5...rd-m5a78l-usb3

    Thanks everyone!

    P.S I know I said I didn't want ATX, but for this price I think it is OK, it has the features I want

  9. #9
    Senior Member mikeo01's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    OK, from other posts about AMD FX, I am now narrowing motherboards down. Could someone explain WHY say a 880G chipset is better than a 760G?

    OK it may be better but what makes it so much better? My two motherboards are:

    MSI 870S-C45 (FX) 125W support 870 chipset
    ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 140W support 760G chipset

    Both are AM3+, one has 140W support (more room for overclocking) and one has 125W (less overclocking, better chipset).

    Just need an explanation onto why a 760G chipset is terrible and a budget compared to 880G chipset.

    Just so I can have an incite on why chipsets matter for overclocking. Any links or suggestions would be great, its not just for motherboard decision making, but for my personal knowledge in future to come thanks everyone!

  10. #10
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    • scottxxx's system
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    What about this board? Micro-ATX, 140W CPU support, 890GX chipset, £62 (+P&P). Its slightly over your budget but its probably one of the most feature-rich AM3 mATX boards.

    http://www.lambda-tek.com/890GM-PRO3...cs-~cs/B451306

  11. #11
    Senior Member mikeo01's Avatar
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    Re: What motherboard to choose?

    Hmm yeah I know its cheap, but I am more thinking its Asrock...

    They may be OK, but I would rather go for a good make such as ASUS. I don't know the quality of them capacitors on the Asrock.

    It looks too good to be true for me, I know they are budget motherboards but how long would that thing last?

    This was my choice:
    ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 140W, 760G £49.99. Same has Asrock, more features, made by quality ASUS. The only difference is that Asrock motherboard has 890GX chipset, which I won't be needing.

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