Would upgrading my motherboard be a good idea??

Associate
Joined
4 Jun 2013
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88
Hey guys,
so I've had my pc for quite a few years now, upgrading it now and again, however my motherboard is still the one that originally came with the PC.

It's a Gigabyte 78-LMT USB3; Other PC specs include GTX 970 4gb, AMD FX-8320 and 600W Corsair PSU.

I was curious as to whether you think that this would be a good upgrade, I want to utilize more overclocking speeds from the CPU which I think is currently limited. Also if I wanted to upgrade CPU in the future, a better more stable motherboard would probably be best. Was thinking of getting the 'ASUS AMD AM3+ 990FX SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 4*DDR3 6*USB3.0 MOTHERBOARD'.

Sorry I'm a bit of a pc noobie, any suggestions on whether this is a good idea or any cheaper recommendations of motherboards would be great.

Many thanks for any help!
 
Man of Honour
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Aberlour, NE Scotland
The thing is you have no cpu upgrade path on that socket so there is little point in spending money on what is basically a ancient platform. Yes there are a few faster cpu's than yours but they are no better than yours is when overclocked. Some manufacturers have tried breathing new life into the platform by updating some motherboards with new features but they still lag behind. AMD is soon to replace AM3+ with AM4 and it's new Zen cpu's which will use DDR4. If it will be any good or not nobody can tell as there is very little information that has been released about them. Most of the so called info available is just speculation so we will have to wait for it to be released and reviewed to see what it is like. Hopefully they will have caught Intel up so there will be competition again. I reckon though that if it is any good that the days of AMD being the budget option will be over and that prices will be similar to Intels.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
4 Jun 2013
Posts
88
The thing is you have no cpu upgrade path on that socket so there is little point in spending money on what is basically a ancient platform. Yes there are a few faster cpu's than yours but they are no better than yours is when overclocked. Some manufacturers have tried breathing new life into the platform by updating some motherboards with new features but they still lag behind. AMD is soon to replace AM3+ with AM4 and it's new Zen cpu's which will use DDR4. If it will be any good or not nobody can tell as there is very little information that has been released about them. Most of the so called info available is just speculation so we will have to wait for it to be released and reviewed to see what it is like. Hopefully they will have caught Intel up so there will be competition again. I reckon though that if it is any good that the days of AMD being the budget option will be over and that prices will be similar to Intels.

Wow thanks for lengthy response, I had no idea that they were upgrading them, I suppose I might as well wait. It was just I had heard that this current board I have (78-lmt) , is not very good/stable with overclocking? Meaning I can't get all my potential total power from my 8320?

Just looking for a cheaper upgrade in motherboard that will allow me to successfully squeeze as much power out as possible.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
12 Jul 2005
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Location
Aberlour, NE Scotland
This is why the choice of motherboard is so crucial when you build a pc. Don't go for a board just because it's cheap as you will most likely end up replacing it like you are planning on doing.

If you are keeping the cpu for a while yet then ideally for overclocking you want a 990 chipset board to get the best out of your cpu. The Gigabyte 990X Gaming SLI is one of the updated boards and comes with USB 3.0, USB 3.1 and a M2 port although like all AMD boards they are still stuck with PCI-e 2.0 and not PCI-e 3.0. I really wouldn't pay anymore than this taking into consideration how old the platform is and that it is now a dead socket.
 
Associate
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6 Dec 2007
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Cambridge
It's always good to source a mobo with 1 eye to the future. Are you likely to add a 2nd GPU further down the line? If so, you'll want to put support for SLI and Crossfire on your list. Are you buying a lower end CPU with the aim of a serious overclock? If so, it might be worth paying more for an overclocking friendly motherboard.

It's also worth seeing what tech's on the horizon - you don't want to buy an obsolete socket if a new one is about to be announced (AMD is more friendly than Intel in this regard, as my experience with Intel is that unless you're going low end to high end, your next CPU upgrade will mean a new mobo anyway).
 
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