What 790X/790FX Motherboard is best?

Liqourice

I'm going Spider.

In a few weeks time I'm upgrading my motherboard so I can finally move over to PCI-E. I'm also planning to get two HD3870's to run in crossfire. Now I have a decent AM2 CPU so I plan to run that for a while until the new Phenoms get a bit cheaper. I'm perfectly happy with a motherboard with 2 PCI-E2.0 slots, I'm never gonna get 4 cards anyway.

What I wonder is, what card might be the best for overclocking. One of the Gigabyte, MSI or Asus boards?

Now I know these are all new motherboards so it's hard to tell but historically, which manufacturer have turned out the best products that are stable and good OC boards?

Pricewise the MSI K9A2 CF is the cheapest and fits my needs, but is it good enough? It's almost half the price of the cheapest Asus or Gigabyte motherboard with same chipset.

The second cheapest is the MSI K9A2 Platinum based on 790FX while the third cheapest is the 790X based Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 and those look very interesting as well.

The Asus boards are just to expensive so they have to be extremely good for me to consider any of them.

Any insight as to what board is the most stable and best for overclocking?

kris23

lol people and spider.... yorkfield smashed it sadly....

Gigabyte has a pretty well designed 790FX DQ6, quality, organized, and nice looknig

Liqourice

I know about that one. Thing is, it's a bit expensive and the fact that I don't ever see myself getting 4 gfx cards so the 4 PCI-E x16/x8 slots are a bit overkill.

I'm not really sure if I understand the main difference between the 790FX and 790X.

In that respect the DS4 looks more like what I need but maybe there is some other important feature with the FX that the X lacks.

As far as I understand though, the Gigabyte mobo's are generally better than the MSI ones?

PandaZ3

And Abit has a 770 board just out called the AX78, less features and dual slots, but I would imagine good performance at a lower price.

Liqourice

Doesn't the 770 board only have one slot and no support for crossfire?

Apparently I was wrong. Checked it up and it looks ok. Pricewise more than ok.

But.. I need to read up on the differences between the chipsets.

Liqourice

Well, the time has come. The 3870 X2 is out and it's the gfx card I want.

Now the motherboard, I haven't decided on MSI or Gigabyte yet but someone hinted that the MSI boards were a bit better. If that's so the choise is easy since they're cheaper as well.

No, the 770 boards lack some features so it's a 790FX or 790X based mobo I need.

Anyone know for sure which mobo is best?

kris23

790FX it has full X16 lanes if going with dual slots and X8 when going quad slots

790X only gots 2 slots and runs them at X8

Liqourice

Yes, I've figured that much.

The question is, is the MSI K9A2 Platinum better or is the Gigabyte DS5 or DQ6 the better choise.

All in all, I'm never gonna get 4 gfx cards so in reality the DS5 is the most logical choise in that sense (if I get the 3870 X2 I won't be able to use more than two of those anyway), but if the MSI card is a better performer then I'll go for that.

That's what I want to know.

kris23

i personally would go with the Gigabyte DS5, better quality components, better features, and generally less risk of killing the board (MSI only uses windows BIOS tools from what i recall)

PandaZ3

This is wrong the 790X chip-set board, MSI K9A2 CF has two PCI-E X16 slots and they support Version 2.0 of the PCI-e Standard

MSI also has the least expensive 790FX chip-set board the K9A2 Platinum, It has four PCI-E X 16 V2.0 slots.

I have both boards and recommend the Platinum as it has a better layout, more CPU support and the are just coming out with a Version 2 of the board.

But I guess you are right about the way they preform

" 4 PCI-E 16X (Support 16X+16X in Dual CrossFire, 16X+8X+8X in Triple CrossFire, 8X+8X+8X+8X in Quad CrossFire);"

PandaZ3

I think this is right for the 790FX. I know MSI is now producing a revision 2 of the Platinum board, but I don't know why or what was changed.

Liqourice

Well.. I'm gonna wait a few more days to see if there will be any chepar 3870X2's before I buy. If not I'll go with two ordinary 3870's instead since that'll be a bit cheaper.

The problem is though, I don't think I can wait long enough to that revision 2 to come out.. so most of you recommend the Gigabyte board then?

PandaZ3

Well I found that all the V2 does for the MSI is eliminate the e-Sata, I think you would be well served with any of the Gigabyte boards, but I am happy with my MSI K9A2 Platinum.

My K9A2 CF board however is going back on RMA again. They had returned it to me (Same board) and said it posted, so no exchange. I put a new 5000+ in it and it did post wowzer! But as soon as I tried to boot into Windows it burnt yet another chip-set. I don't know if these are Mosfets or what. The board was likely fatally injured in my first go-around using the 6400+.

I don't blame MSI or their tech folks and I expect if I ever get a uninjured CF board that I will be happy with it

OldBuzzard

There is also the DFI LANPARTY UT 790FX-M2R to consider.

Reviewed here: Introduction of DFI LP UT 790FX-M2R AMD 790FX chipset mainboard Review

Newegg has it, but it's not cheap: Newegg.com - DFI LP UT 790FX-M2R AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Sapphire is supposed to be marketing the same board with their name on it, but I don't think that it's available yet, and I haven't seen any pricing for it.

PandaZ3

The DFI is a premium board and they have a super BIOS (CMOS). Typically DFI is more finicky with memory and some PCI devices, but they have always been geared toward the enthusiast. ASUS supposedly has a good board, personally I have never liked their CMOS interface ans as far as that goes I do not like them. I am just not an ASUS fan, I am a abit fan but you can't even find their 770 chip-set boards a month or so after their release. I don't think abit will have a 790FX until the AMD 700 south bridge becomes widely available.

Liqourice

I've decided to go with the DS5 Gigabyte board. Since I'm getting the 3870X2 I won't be able to use more than 2 16x slots anyway.

Just waiting for the X2 prices to stabalise a bit, the order will probably go away on monday!

PandaZ3

They seem pretty stable now NewEgg has VisionTek, HIS and MSI (MSI with the highest clock speed) all for $449. Zip Zoom Fly has a HIS for $479 and Diamond and VisonTek for $449.

Seems like a monster card. I think waiting could bring higher prices, in the near term.

Liqourice

I wish we had those prices here. Add at least another $100 for the swedish prices...

If they were that cheap here I'd buy two at once!

savak

Off topic , how do you like your ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA. I'm planing to upgrade my p4 s478
to x2. With my x1950 AGP, hopefully it will run crysis nicely.

PandaZ3

Sorry I should have looked at your location.

Liqourice

It does it's job. It's a good motherboard, no question about that. It's a terrible overclocker though. 5% OC is the maximum I've managed so if you plan to OC then forget about it.

I've never experienced any problems whatsoever with it. All driver packages from ATI has worked immediately so the common ATI AGP problem doesn't seem to affect this motherboard.

Liqourice

No worries, it's not easy to keep track of that all the time!

savak

Thanks for the reply. Did you try to play crysis or one of the newer games that came out lately.

Liqourice

I've tried the Crysis Demo and it works very well with my setup. It's not blazingly fast but I didn't expect that with such an old card as the X850XT. Though, it was better than I expected so it plays very well with this motherboard, cpu and memory.

PandaZ3

Well an update is in order, I did get my MSI K9A2 CF board back and it was/ is the same board I sent back, but the two burnt chip-sets were very professionally replaced. Now using a 5000+ Blackie, 2 X 1 Patriot PC6400, X1900 XT, 500 W Seasonic. Allworking great with Vista HP 64.

Liqourice

THe deed is done!

Replaced the Asrock mainboard with a Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 and mounted a Sapphire HD3870X2 on it..

I'm happy but I'll get even happier when I upgrade my CPU as well!

PandaZ3

I am still a X2 fan, but I understand that Phenoms allow for 'Mo Betta memory, not sure that is too important, we only recently hit the spot where we can use the full potential of PCI-E and now we have PCI-E 2.0

Well I think you got a great board anyway!