Choosing a Mobo for my FX 6300.

[TeaAddiction]

Hi everyone, was looking for a cheap motherboard that I can use to overclock my FX 6300.

I’ve chosen a few motherboards below from around £50-80 and was wondering how important phases and vrm cooling are? Not sure if the price jump is worth it.

I was looking to buy one of these (unless there are better alternatives):

Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 (£55) No vrm heatsink
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 (£69) Revision 1.0 (no idea if it will work with FX 6300)
Asus M5A97 R2.0 (£72)
Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 (£77)
MSI 990XA-GD55 (£77)

Any help and advice would be appreciated!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0

[TeaAddiction]

Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0

If the MSI 990XA-GD55 is the same price with a larger phase count would that make it automatically better? Or is does it have problems or less features?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If the MSI 990XA-GD55 is the same price with a larger phase count would that make it automatically better? Or is does it have problems or less features?

MSI AMD motherboards on average have had the most reliability problems of any brand.

[MrNeil]

Hi everyone, was looking for a cheap motherboard that I can use to overclock my FX 6300.

I’ve chosen a few motherboards below from around £50-80 and was wondering how important phases and vrm cooling are? Not sure if the price jump is worth it.

I was looking to buy one of these (unless there are better alternatives):

Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 (£55) No vrm heatsink
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 (£69) Revision 1.0 (no idea if it will work with FX 6300)
Asus M5A97 R2.0 (£72)
Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 (£77)
MSI 990XA-GD55 (£77)

Any help and advice would be appreciated!

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 (£69) Revision 1.0 (no idea if it will work with FX 6300) Yes it will This is what i have
But if you get this i would 1st install an older cpu before the FX 6300 so you can update the bios to F6 as this will make it work !! Very easy to to i found but some people wont !!

oops !! i have this one ! http://www.ebuyer.com/349910-gigabyt...rd-ga-970a-ds3 same apply's but my one is a bit cheaper .

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The revision 1 will work with an FX6300 with a BIOS update as a mate has one,but it lacks LLC which can be an issue when overclocking.

[TeaAddiction]

Ah now this feels more like a discussion.

MSI AMD motherboards on average have had the most reliability problems of any brand.

Well I wanted something reliable that would last me for 3-5 years, so taking that into consideration I think I might have to stay away from MSI boards.

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 (£69) Revision 1.0 (no idea if it will work with FX 6300) Yes it will This is what i have
But if you get this i would 1st install an older cpu before the FX 6300 so you can update the bios to F6 as this will make it work !! Very easy to to i found but some people wont !!

I don’t have any old CPU’s to use in case the board doesn’t post. Also Visually the revision 3.0 boards seem to have different capacitors to the revision 1.0. (I thought it was purely the BIOS update version that was changed on these revisions)

The revision 1 will work with an FX6300 with a BIOS update as a mate has one,but it lacks LLC which can be an issue when overclocking.

Do you know if it is possible to update the BIOS without the CPU?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you know if it is possible to update the BIOS without the CPU?

I don't think so,although as I mentioned the revision 1 motherboards lack LLC which is not good for overclocking. I would go for the Asus EVO or the latest version of the Gigabyte UD3.

[TeaAddiction]

I don't think so,although as I mentioned the revision 1 motherboards lack LLC which is not good for overclocking. I would go for the Asus EVO or the latest version of the Gigabyte UD3.

Well at the moment scan sells the UD3 Revision 3.0 (i think) for the same price as the EVO that is on Amazon. But i've yet to get free delivery for Scan and i'm unsure if the £77 for the EVO at amazon will remain that price for the next week or so.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well at the moment scan sells the UD3 Revision 3.0 (i think) for the same price as the EVO that is on Amazon. But i've yet to get free delivery for Scan and i'm unsure if the £77 for the EVO at amazon will remain that price for the next week or so.

My mate got upto 4.3GHZ with his FX6300,but it does seem the motherboard was holding him back a bit.

[TeaAddiction]

Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 is what i'll order. Seems more feature rich and user friendly. 6+2 Digi+ VRM seems more up my street compared to the ud3 8+2 phase.

Many thanks CAT-THE-FIFTH

[DanceswithUnix]

Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 is what i'll order. Seems more feature rich and user friendly. 6+2 Digi+ VRM seems more up my street compared to the ud3 8+2 phase.

Many thanks CAT-THE-FIFTH

Bit late to the party, but just to say that is the board I got for my FX8350 because it seemed to have the features I wanted and looked well built. Still not sure about the whole UEFI bios and having SATA ports pointing out sideways rather than vertical was a pain in my Antec 300, but basically have been pleased with it. I didn't need a BIOS update to use it either.

[TeaAddiction]

Bit late to the party, but just to say that is the board I got for my FX8350 because it seemed to have the features I wanted and looked well built. Still not sure about the whole UEFI bios and having SATA ports pointing out sideways rather than vertical was a pain in my Antec 300, but basically have been pleased with it. I didn't need a BIOS update to use it either.

Well glad to here that as i've already payed and ordered it haha. Yeah i'm still looking to buy a case so i'll take that into consideration.