I've been saving up my money for a new cpu upgrade (FX-8350), and my old one's from Intel + the mobo only using DDR2 RAM, so obviously I need a new mobo/ram for the upgrade as well. I've picked out a decent MSI 970 mobo for $75, but my dad's telling me to get a 990 (cheapest I could find was $110) if I want the 8350 (Because with the newer chipsets, they fixed bottlenecking issues and help performance. Not sure if it's true or not). Some of my friend's are telling me to just go for the 970 since the 990's are mainly for extreme overclocking and have more USB 3.0 ports (I only have 2.0 products) or something. A thing to note: I don't overclock anything of mine, and I never will.
I know NOTHING about motherboards, so I'm coming to you guys for help. Here's the boards I found:
Edit: Forgot to mention, if I have my ram, 970 board, cpu, it'll cost around $354. If I got the 990FX, it'll be just under $400. I'd like to save the $50, but if my dad's info is true (Newer chipset = less chance of bottlenecking or something) then I wouldn't mind trying to get the money. But if it's false, and my friend's are right, I'll just go with the 970.
If you're not Oc'ing and honestly don't need the extra usb3.0 ports get the 970. The 990 doesn't have the advantage to justify the extra price. The 990 will perform better (<10%) but it honestly doesn't make that much difference.
If your dad is adamant on the 990 get him to pay the difference. otherwise the 970 is just fine.
Thank you for such a quick response :) I'll go for the 970 now. Do you know if the mobo I picked would be fine with the 8350? I know it says it works with the FX series, but I heard that some boards don't work properly with it. Unless it was just a BIOS version that was causing it.
I've heard the same thing but I'm using 990FX so i wouldn't know. I have heard that a bios update/flash will fix it but I'd search around some more. I'm not hands-on familiar with the 970.
Newegg reviews seems to show it working with the FX processors. I would NOT buy this board for heavy load working and overclocking though. It does have a cheaper VRM design and poorer cooling. But it should work fine.
990fx is also a must if you plan on crossfire/sli in the future, but yeah if you're not overclocking and dont need the extra features a 970 board is just fine
You can find the list of CPU support at the manufacturers page for each motherboard. The 970A-G46 would support that CPU. But look around for various boards, there are probably a lot to choose from that aren't very expensive.
the MSI 970 is quite good, I have a buddy that overclocked his 4350 to 4.6ghz so the 970 is still quite good; he has no overclocking knowledge and just did auto OC with the MSI Software. The 990 is really for gaming specific because of crossfire and SLI. the 970 can't really do multi gpu unless you buy a gtx 690 or hd7990. But overall the 97 is pretty much just as good. There are well priced 990 boards if you really want one. Gigabytes 990FX UD3 is quite well built. So is the M599FX Pro...whichever is cheaper.
your dad is a bit right, its better to get a 990FX chipset board, CF/sli is not the only thing that makes 990FX chipset boards better, but the most important things are the power delivery and powerphase design of those motherboards.
the AMD FX8350, is a very powerhungry 8 core cpu, it much better / safer to get a 990FX chipset board, like the Asus M5A99FX pro R2.0 with 6+2 powerphase and digi vrm. thease board have a much better power delivery for the 8 core cpu.
The Msi 970A-GD45/46 in particular are realy not designd for the powerhungry 8 core. thease boards have only a 4+1 powerphase and analog vrm, even at stock clocks thease boards are struggeling with the power hungry 8 core, i would recommend not to go higher then a FX6300 on the Msi .Because this board has very well known overheating vrm´s chokes an northbride chip issues!! even at stock FX8350 speed the board will burn some day
if you want the powerhungry highend FX8350 then cheaping out on the motherboard is realy the most terrible thing you could do. 970 chipset boards are just not realy made for it.
Grtz Angel. ☺
p.s there is only one 970 chipset board, that i personaly recommend to trow a FX8350 on, and that is the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 this is a special board and hard to get, with a 6+2 powerphase and digi vrm.
But my recommending would be the Asus M5A99FX pro R2.0 or the Asus M5A99X evo R2.0
Thanks for the information. I kinda wish I waited for more posts on this thread before buying the parts :/
But I looked around the interwebs about the board, and I haven't seen one thing that truly says "stay away from this if you're using a FX-8350" kinda thing.
Well the deal is that you can run a 8350 on a cheap 970 board but............ Its gonna shorten the life span of the board or burn your house down . Most people just spend the extra cash for a better board verses the known outcome .