MSI 790FX-GD70 or Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P for new Phenom 965?

Restorer

Restorer

Restorer

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11 Jun 2005
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I understand the 790FX chipset is best for the Phenom II 965s (I'm probably going for the 125W if it appears soon). I am very taken by the features and reviews of the MSI board but I am aware many dislike the company. Am I taking a risk with this board? Would the Gigabyte be a safer (though less feature-rich) bet?
 
Personally i'd go for the Gigabyte just because i've never had any problems with them in the past. Their RMA service is supposedly really good too while i've heard bad things about MSI (and a lot of good things though) It's up to you, both should be good boards and i still think you will be able to reach 4GHz (if you get the new X4 965 125W Version) quite easy with any of them.
 
Well i have been running the MSI for about 3 weeks with a 965 and 8gb ram and its been rock solid and the features on the board are brilliant.
 
Wow. I hadn't realised it was that well thought of.

Don't think I'll be using the 4 GPUs lol but I like the idea of OC on the fly. Might encourage me to dabble a bit more with the 125w Phenom II 965!

Thanks for the comments guys. Helpful as always. definitely going for the MSI :).
 
Hey Restorer, just a quick question . . . If your spending over £100 on a motherboard and over £100 on an CPU how come your not going with an Intel Core i5 system?

I'm just getting going myself with some new AMD kit but that cost less than £100 for *both* the motherboard and CPU so it works out tremendous bang for buck but if I had proper money £££ I think I would be buying Intel!

Interested to know your viewpoint! :)
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hey Restorer, just a quick question . . . If your spending over £100 on a motherboard and over £100 on an CPU how come your not going with an Intel Core i5 system?
Click to expand...

I have recently built an AMD system, but for the overall price, I think it works out at better bang for buck than Intel Core.

This was my build;
--
Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P

AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition

Corsair Dominator XMS3 4GB DDR3 1600MHz C8

Corsair TX 650w

XFX ATi HD 4890 1GB

£567.52
--

Admittedly, I never priced up an Intel equivalent.
 
That looks like a juicing system Morlock and I'm sure it mullas everything you throw at it . . . . just from the way I'm seeing things though with that kinda budget a Core i5 would be a faster machine . . .

I'm just interested to know peoples reasons, I have a few ideas it may be like they are familiar with AMD kit or they plain hate INTEL etc :p
 
Big.Wayne said:
That looks like a juicing system Morlock and I'm sure it mullas everything you throw at it . . . . just from the way I'm seeing things though with that kinda budget a Core i5 would be a faster machine . . .
Click to expand...

I should have said I presumed it would be better bang for buck.
I considered an Intel Core i5 to be a more expensive option, perhaps a false impression. That was my main reason.
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hey Restorer, just a quick question . . . If your spending over £100 on a motherboard and over £100 on an CPU how come your not going with an Intel Core i5 system?

I'm just getting going myself with some new AMD kit but that cost less than £100 for *both* the motherboard and CPU so it works out tremendous bang for buck but if I had proper money £££ I think I would be buying Intel!

Interested to know your viewpoint! :)
Click to expand...

Well, it's a long story :). I started planning the new system many months ago. I have always had AMDs but started out open-minded about which quad core to get. Advice generally on the forum for my budget of £500 (for board, RAM, CPU, large HDD and W7) leant me towards the Phenom IIx4's. At that stage I was going to go for the 140W Phenom II 965 with a cheaper motherboard (GA-MA770T-UD3P).

Well then I read about the 125W 965 coming out and how it should be easy clock to 4ghz. Then I started looking at better boards. I liked the reviews of these two for an inexperienced clocker like myself!

TBH I didn't consider changing horses by this stage - too much energy already invested in the AMD route :D.

Anyway I took the majority view in this thread and went for the MSI board. In the end I saved a few quid too by going for the cheaper 1333 memory. I got the new rig up and running this week and am absolutely delighted with everything at stock speeds. I was a little nervous about the move up to Windows 7 64-bit but my fears were not founded. My old Epson R200 installed automatically and I even found new drivers for my Terratec TV card.

My first upgrade from here will be GPU when I will start to put the CPU through its paces :D.

Thanks as ever for all the information and advice. This forum is second to none when it comes to learning about this stuff.
 
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