870A-UD3 vs 880GA-UD3H: Which should i choose? with or without video?

[polishpaul]

So i've decided to upgrade the core hardware and get something a bit more up to date. This will be my first Gigabyte board and i'm hoping for a good experience.

I've narrowed it down to these 2 boards based on price, SATA 6GB, USB3, 4 ram slots...

I could not find any major differences between the 2 boards, other than the obvious fact that the 880 chipset has an onboard video card (I have my own). Any suggestions on which i should choose?

[geekyadz]

I hope these are the AM3+ boards?

Well, looking at the back panel of the 870 board you get 4x USB 2.0, 2x eSATA and 2x firewire ports, plus your 2x USB , 2x USB 3 and sound outputs.

On the 880, its graphics, 4x USB 1, 2x USB 3 and 1x firewire.

If you have a graphics card already then I say go for the 870. You cant have too many USB ports

[absic]

As cchaos says:

I hope these are the AM3+ boards

and if you can wait for a couple of weeks to make sure that the board you get is AM3+ then that is what I would do.

As to which motherboard to go for, given your situation I would personally go for the GA-870A-UD3. As you say there isn't much between them but unless you really need the On-board graphics option given by the GA-880GA-UD3H. And I too like as many USB ports as possible, without using a hub, but I'm greedy!

[polishpaul]

On the other hand i'm thinking, why NOT get the video just in case? For example there are hybrid video cards that will run together with the built in video card.

When you say wait a few weeks, is there a specific time line before the newest revision? I hope the price remains the same.

[Dark Mantis]

Regarding the prices they normally drop especially when a newer platform comes out so you should be fine waiting a few weeks.

[polishpaul]

The boards are already shipping to me, i'm just going to return the one i choose not to keep. I still can't think of a reason NOT go keep the on-board video card...

[absic]

Using on-board graphics for hybrid crossfire will bring the video down to the lowest component, the on-board video. Whilst the trade off of not having to buy an additional GPU can seem tempting the reality is often disappointing and if you are thinking of going for a crossfire set-up in the future then stick with the GA-870A-UD3 and add another decent GPU when you can afford it. In the longer term it will be much better for you.