Best am3/am3+ board

Hardware Motherboards
1

i have an ol athlon ii quad i'm not looking to upgrade any time soon, this is a very capable chip and if i really must upgrade i will go to the phenom ii x4 or x6

i currently have a really crappy msi 880gm-e41, it wont let me lower the cpu voltage anymore than 1.389 when all the people i find online say they have theirs at 1.325 with overclocks and such

so i'm looking to upgrade my mobo so i can take advantage of sata 3 for my ssd and i wanna better overclocking abilities

i want literally the best single socket am3/am3+ motherboard there is. i don't even think anyone makes new ones these days do they? they may make new of the old models but noone is inventing actual new designs anymore for the am3 socket, right?

i'm willing to spend good money on an am3 board because the next time i upgrade my cpu, it will be a phenom ii x4 or x6 like i said above

from my research the asus crosshair v formula-z seems to be the best, but like always there are good and bad reviews..... whats up fellas?

2

I mean you said you want to OC but tall about lowering your voltage. If you're going down the quality of the motherboard isn't too important. 

An M5A97 or M5A99FX from Asus would be good. But even then those boards are a little expensive for an old CPU. But they are fully featured. 

But yes if you do want the best the Crosshair is probably your best option. The Sabertooth 990FX is also very good, I pushed my 8350 to 5.1Ghz on it, and is slightly cheaper than the ROG Mainly because it doesn't have all the ROG stuff which you don't really need. 

3

I'm so confused. You want "the best" Am3+ motherboard for relatively low power 4 year old CPU? That is kind of pointless. You can get away with a good middle of the road board and be just fine if all you want is SATA3 and newer features.

I used the Fatality 990FX for a few builds over the past couple years. Never had a bad experience.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157479

If you want the BEST power delivery plus the best board, its between the ASRock Extreme 9 and the two ASUS boards mentioned above. All that being said, unless you plan on buying an FX 9590, just buy the Fatality. It even has an M.2 slot for newer SSDs like the Plextor M6e, which are about 2x as fast as SATA 3 drives.

 

4

https://teksyndicate.com/forum/motherboards/new-mobo-max-330-dollars-fx-9370/186345

5

I am using MSI gd 65

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130677&cm_re=gd_65-_-13-130-677-_-Product

with fx 6300 set up at 4.212 Hz (+ zalman cnps10x optima inside zalman z3 plus) without any problems, there are also two pci-e Gen2 (2x16) on this board. Temperatures at full load don't go higher than: cpu 58 Celsius and VRM 70 Celsius (it was cooler before upgrading gpu to R9 290). The only thing missing is front panel USB3 connection, anyway very happy with it.

6

im looking to keep everything cool in my new system. i don't want to worry about capacitors blowing causing a fire or anything of the sort

thanks for the suggestions i will continue my research based upon it

7

Oddly, I've had more bad experiences like that from EXPENSIVE boards, than from mainstream boards.

 

8

okay best am3+ boards in my opinnion>

990FX:

  1. Asus crosshair V Formula Z 8+2 powerphase digi vrm, intel lan, shielded audio
  2. Asrock 990FX Extreme 9  12+2 powerphase digi vrm, intel lan
  3. Asus 990Fx Sabertooth R2.0 8+2 powerphase digi vrm
  4. Asus M5A99FX pro R2.0   6+2 powerphase digi vrm
  5. Asus M5A99X evo R2.0     6+2 powerphase digi vrm (only 20 pcie lanes)

970 boards:

  1. Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 6+2 powerphase digi vrm
  2. Msi 970A Gaming  6+2 powerphase digi vrm, killer lan, alc1150 audio chip.
9

That's exactly how it is (lol), i just wouldn't buy any of 990x/fx chipset board for mentioned cpus, not worth in my opinion. @fridgeRaider buy any of those boards above if your next upgrade will be fx 6300 or higher.

10

i'm just sad i never got the chance to use the phenom ii in my lifetime, and i want one

11

Just get one used of ebay. They're cheap. Sometimes you even get lucky on a 6300.

12

i'm gonna end up getting a 970 chipset and pair it with a 6 core phenom 2. are all thubans black editions? or only the 1075, 1090, and 1100?