i have been deciding between two motherboards recently.
the gigabyte 990fx ud3- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CKnhqr3oqb4CFa1cMgod-RMAZw&Item=N82E16813128514&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-AMD+Motherboards-_-N82E16813128514&ef_id=Uk7IZwAABQ65fyLJ:20140513211306:s
and the asrock fatal1ty 990fx killer- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=COO7jLboqb4CFVQiMgod7RwAtA&Item=N82E16813157479&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-AMD+Motherboards-_-N82E16813157479&ef_id=Uk7IZwAABQ65fyLJ:20140513211251:s
normally i would just go straight for the gigabyte because asrock doesnt have the best reputation, but my color scheme is red and black. i am getting a red gpu and red ram, so this is not too big of an issue with the gigabyte. i just want to know which one performs better. please, no fanboying.
well it depends abit on if you are an enthusiast overclocker or not? The killer is a nice board with nice feutures, but the OC ability is very limited, this board has thermal issues, on higher overclocks, vrm´s getting hot, and throttle the cpu, since there is no LLC option to correct the voltage drops, you are getting abit limited in overclocking. But the board is basicly designed towards games, not realy towards overclockers. About the gigabyte am3+, i personaly still sceptical, i never trusted nor liked them in the first place. I still read soms sort of issues with the gigabyte board But its not completely clear to me if they talk about the rev 4.0 or the previous revisions, cause those previous revisions where realy rubbish!
I´m personaly more into Asus wenn it comes to AM3+ but yeah the ROG red/black is alot more expensive. On the Asrock side there is a Asrock 990FX FAtal1ty professional which is a good board, also the 990FX extreme 9 is great, but yeah they are expensive aswell.
The Asus sabertooth R2.0 or the M5A99FX pro R2.0 are also good boards, but they will not match your color scheme.
Partly in reply to MisteryAngel, the reason you only really hear bad things about the Gigabyte (or boards in general) motherboards because rarely does a person who doesn't experience any problems actually say anything.
I personally have had a lot of problems in the past with AsRock boards, over the last 10 years only 2 of about 12 or 13 boards weren't DOA. (Unless I just have really bad luck with their boards)
As for the Gigabyte boards (on AM3+) I have a 990xa (Rev 1.0) and it's a super stable board ran a 8150 at 4.8Ghz for around a year and then a 8350 at 5.2Ghz for a couple of months before switching to a 990fxa-ud3 (rev 3.0), which I also run the 8350 at those speeds on. The 990xa board is in a server system with a 6300 at 4.0Ghz and has been stable since turning it on and no issues.
Yes the VRMs do get a little warm (bear in mind that's with an OC), although it will be fine with an air cooler due to the incidental airflow.
Though I do agree, the Asus boards are really good and I have built systems for other people with them in.
My experience with cheap am3 boards is that the as rock board I got is rubbish and the gigabyte is great. Both boards are cheap, matx and 785g based. A world of difference between them. Both have athlon x2 240's in them.
I would not trust anything cheap from as rock, I just don't feel that they take any care with those products.
Some people on this forum have the gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 rev 4.0 with the new heatsink design, and they seem not to have much issues with it. But im personaly still sceptical, gigabyte am3+ cost me to much headaces in the past.
i personaly prefer Asus 990FX boards. But offcourse you can also have bad luck with an asus. its just elektronics you know. ☺