Asus M4N98TD-EVO - AM3 on nv , any good?

[HalloweenJack]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...3Gb-s-RAID-ATX


am torn between getting an AM2+ cpu (phenom IIX4 940) and some slightly faster ram than i have (1066 against my 800) or , get the above with some DDR3 and an X6....


anyone know if the AM3 nvidia (980a) is any good? or should i just stick with this MSI K9A2 with a new cpu?

[scaryjim]

Odd, can't find any reviews for it at all. That's not normally a good sign...

nvidia chipsets always *used* to be pretty decent (whether for Intel or AMD processors), but I don't know anything specific about that board I'm afraid!

According to techpowerup the 980a SLI chipset is probably just a rebranded 780a SLI (nvidia rebranding an existing product? surely not ), and I've found a review of an MSI motherboard based on the 980a SLI* which might give you some pointers.

EDIT: the MSI board reviewed has onbaord graphics, so although it says it's based on 980a SLI I don't know if it's actually the same chipset!? nonetheless, it might give you some pointers about nvidia 900 chipsets in general...

[HalloweenJack]

aye the same for me - literally found 2 ihv`s making an 980a board , msi and asus , technically both have been available for 18 months , yet scan didnt get any till 6 months ago; wanted to stay `current` and go sli with my lubbly gtx460

[Domestic_Ginger]

If you do upgrade your ram try and I would get some DDR3 for longetivity. Going from 1066 to 800 surely can't make that much of a difference as the timings will most likely be looser.

Hang in there for next Gen? Ok its quite a few months away....

[scaryjim]

The ASUS 980a board is DDR3 anyway. iirc AMD processors work best with lower memory clocks and tighter latencies, so low latency DDR3-1333 is probably your best choice.

Although you'll be spending more, the 980a / X6 1055T / DDR3-1333 will be a longer lasting upgrade than a 940 + faster DDR2: don't forget that when it's running less than 4 threads the 1055T turbos to 3.3GHz. IMNSHO it's an inherently better processor than an X4 940 (particularly if you can source a 95W version). You should also find that your K9A2 platinum has a good resale value - it was one of the best of the original 790FX boards (again IMNSHO - I picked up an "untested" one off ebay for about a tenner but unfortunately I've never been able to get it to post ). Alternatively, you could pick up 4 GT430s and use your existing rig to make a killer folding workstation

[HalloweenJack]

looked at some user reviews on ocuk - seems touchy on which ram it uses (but then again i like crucial so stable vs speed) but so far it seems `ok` - wonder if scan would let me review one for them