I got an FX-8320 for my bday, now I need a motherboard that will actually run it decently and allow me to overclock it.
I'm really low on cash though :( being a student and what not. But I've basically narrowed it down to a handful of mobo's that I should be able to purchase next month. The Evo is really pushing my budget though.
-Asrock 970 Extreme 3 R2.0 - 69,90€
-Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P - 74,90€
-Asus M5A97 R2.0 - 79,90€
-Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P - 84,90€
-Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 - 89,90€
Which one do you recommend? Which one will work best for overclocking my CPU? Which Brand do you recommend out of those three? And if you recommend one of the higher priced boards in my list, like the Evo, please tell me why I should go for that one and not its cheaper counterpart :)
Thx for the answer. What makes the 990FX boards better than the 970 ones?
EDIT: I've found somewhere else on the forum people were recommending the Gigabyte UD3 over the Asus Evo because of the 8+2 power phase. Is this still valid advice? source: https://teksyndicate.com/forum/motherboards/best-budget-board-fx-8320-overclocking/135950
990FX boards generally have more power phases and a better power phase design. The 8 Core processors use a lot of juice and some of the 970 boards can't really keep up and will fail or strangle the CPU. The 990FX boards also have more features. More USB 2, more USB 3, more PCIE, more SATA 6, more everything haha.
The Gigabyte is a good choice if you are going with a 970 board.
thank you for clarrifying :) Yeah the Gigabyte board has the upperhand as of now :P From what I understand its power phase is very similar to the 990fx boards, it just has less... stuff :P But since im doing this budget I don't need more stuff per se :P
My next upgrade will be going from a 7750 GPU to a 7850 (or something higher, but just 1 card), so crossfire isnt a priority :P If this cpu+mobo can run at a decent clock for 2 to 5 years it's all good :P By then I'll have a job and will (hopefully) be able to afford moar stuff :P
I'd just stay away from Gigabyte mobos for AM3+ period... there's a few people on this board that use them... 1 hates his and the other two seem to have forgotten it took the 4 revisions to keep their low end 990 chipset from exploding...
Pairing one of the most power hungry processors in the world with a cheap motherboard is a recipe for blown capacitors and bad performance...
If you already have the FX 8320, then consider this fair warning to get a board that will support it... the Asus M5A99FX PRO/EVO R2.0 boards are by far and above the most highly recommended mobos for the AM3+ chipset, period... more specifically when paired with the FX 8320/50...
In the best case when cheaping out on mobos and PSUs, it'll cost a lot more money to upgrade.. in the worst case you could end up with fried components... so my advice is stretch your budget to get what you need to get, which is a tried time and again and proven Asus 990 chipset
When DrunkenPanda says that 1 user on this forum hates this motherboard he forgets to add that the user hates it because of the overclocking layout in the bios, not because of a physical flaw. The reviewer above seems to be satisfied with the process of overclocking, I would say that this is more of a personal preference.
The motherboard (GIGABYTE 990XA-UD3) is not cheap, neither price-wise (it's the same price as the ASUS M5A990FX EVO R2.0), neither quality-wise. People have been saying for some time that there is basically no hardware distinction between current motherboards (I've seen Linus said this a few times in different videos, and a user also posted about this on these forums).
I don't deny that have been issues with previous revisions of this board, but these seem to have been fixed with this revision.
I personally don't recommend ASUS to anyone. They have issues with virtualization (corrupt IVRS tables in the BIOS that prevent AMD-vi), the M5A99FX PRO motherboard uses a PLX chipset to get 16X on both PCI-E lanes, which makes PCI passthrough impossible (virtualization feature). To give you an idea of how these features might be used, you can install linux and create a Windows virtual machine, and make that Windows machine have direct access to the video card, allowing you to play Windows games without a performance drop (a user reported increased performance from doing this, but I haven't researched his claims). Without AMD-vi and PCI passthrough this is impossible. When I pay for a motherboard, I want to get all the features that come with the chipset and the CPU.
If that's not an issue then go with what you like best (even in terms of aesthetics).
I can vouch for the rev 4 990XA-UD3. It's just like Jay said. Can't vouch for the previous revs. Known issues. This one is solid as a rock. But sadly though it's more expensive than the ones on your list,it's a little bit over 100EUR in Europe. If you can't get it get a asus board,not gigabyte,not sure how well the 970 ones perform,better safe than sorry.
I've heard of people running the 8320 on the ASUS M5A97 R2.0 but they not recommend to OC, if you're going to overclock, take the evo version. you could take in account virtualization, butonly if you're going to use it, my expierence with my board is that is rock solid (m5a97 r2) and I will get a 8320, but wont OC it because of the 4+2 power phase, don't want to break anything.... So if you're going to OC get the EVO version at least
Sabertooth is offcourse a great choice, but i suppose since, i look at the list OP is posting, He probably looks for a cheaper solution. ☺
If money is not an issue, then offcourse Grab an fantastic board, like the Asus Sabertooth. Also the Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0 is a decent choice.
But the list he posted above, the Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 is the best choice, since that board has the same, 6+2 powerphase and digi vrm design, as the Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0 has.
I'm just gonna say I just picked up a 8320 for my ASUS M5A99FX R2.0. I love it i'm currently overclocked to 4.5 ghz. If you can save up get the M5A99FX R2.0 you won't regret it.
