Motherboard Choice!

[toostrike]

Hey..

I need some advice on motherboards.I have only owned 2 gigabyte motherboards,a 790 & 970.The 970 replaced the 790,but that board ran for 2 years with zero issues.The 970 is not a high and board,in the sense it has stock cooling on the * north bridge,held in place with plastic push pins.It seems everyone invests in after market cooling for the cpu,but motherboard manufacturers hardly put any thought in north bridge cooling.I have been running the 970 for 4 months using all the sata connections,between hard drives and burners.So far, It seems to run fine.I have excellent cooling with 7 fans and 2 more on a Hyper 212.At this point,I dont want to get a FX chip with B2 stepping.AMD's new line up will hopefully provide better options.My 955 Quad has been running stable @ 3.8G for 2 years on 1.35v,so that should work fine for now.

* northbrige temps ,according to open hardware monitor sits around 39C,Not sure what it hits when gaming,but that program supports max/ min temps ,so I will have to monitor those temps.


I need a good motherboard that will support the new Piledriver.What do you think of this motherboard? Definitely looks sexy in all black,but my concern is performance vs looks.

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514


Current Specs

Antec DF-85 Black Steel /  ATX Full Tower Computer Case
ASUS VH236HL-P Black 23" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen Full HD 1080P LCD Monitor w/height & swivel
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb @ 3.8 w/1.35v on cpu-vcore
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus  Idle:24C-45C
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8 GB PC3-12800 1600mhz 240-Pin DDR3 Dual
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB 1024 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini-HDMI
Logitech X-540 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System with Subwoofer
Microsoft Sidewinder X4/MX 518 optical mouse
Corsair Enthusiast Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Bronze
(1)Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache                                          
(1)Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"      
(2)Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
(2) LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support

[autotech]

Well you are looking at the lowest of the series that being the ud3  but it has the top chipset of 990fx so your options should be really good.  As long as it is right for your hardware having the right slots you need you are good to go. The bios on this board will be almost exactly to the 990fx-ud5 and 7 boards.

[toostrike]

Well you are looking at the lowest of the series that being the ud3  but it has the top chipset of 990fx so your options should be really good.  As long as it is right for your hardware having the right slots you need you are good to go. The bios on this board will be almost exactly to the 990fx-ud5 and 7 boards.

Good point. I also overlooked the board I referenced, was also in the UD3 line-up.

What about this board? Is it worth the cash?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128509

[absic]

Hi there,

I have a GA-990FXA-UD5 and it is a good solid board. It has done a fair amount of work as I have used it for O/C'ing and various reviews and it is still going strong. If you want to know a bit more about it check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,5704.0.html

[toostrike]

Hi there,

I have a GA-990FXA-UD5 and it is a good solid board. It has done a fair amount of work as I have used it for O/C'ing and various reviews and it is still going strong. If you want to know a bit more about it check here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,5704.0.html

Sweet! Thanks for the information.I have some time to save some cash before AMD new line up.This seems like a top end board designed to work with new generation cpu's,but also supports Phenom II  

How does the Gigabyte line up usually work? Will there be a new release of boards for the pile driver,or just board revisions? Some first generation fX chips are not supported out of the box with this board,but bios updates with resolve those issues.The reason I stayed away from higher end boards was that I'm only using (1) video card,but for gaming and overclocking I need more power.It has the 8+2 power  phase,which my current board does not.

There is also alot of negative comments about vdroop issues on the 990 boards.I did some research,and found the answer through Gigabyte Tech Support.Here is the response from someones e-mail concerning vdroop.I was considering Asus,but I hear the support really sucks.Having a 970 board, I have not experienced vdroops,but  pc voltage fluctuates from 1.36 to 1.39 consistently,but it does not affect performance,at least in my case.I  turn off all power saving features in bios.

Sent : 7/9/2011 19:10
Question : New question for you.
I plan to buy the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 or
Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 motherboard but I see lots of people having CPU vdroop issues.
Why is this so and what is being done to fix it?


"GIGABYTE 990 series motherboards strictly follow the AMD AM3+ load line calibration design guide, and so CPU

V-core voltage will drop according to loading. Such calibrations are built into the platform to protect the user’s purchase

and prevent damage to the PC system."

[toostrike]

Let me clarify that comment in the form of a question. Gigabytes response concerns load line calibration,but the real question I have,does load line calibration affect overclocks when gaming?

[absic]

The Load Line Calibration takes a little getting used to and it had me confused at first but it works well when O/C'ing. Just remember that you will need to raise the base line voltage for the CPU higher than you would normally think you would have to to allow for the reduction in voltage under load.