Best AM3 mobo for £80 ?

Vogon

Vogon

Vogon

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As title, I was looking at the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 MA770, but every review I found seems to be for the DDR2 version, (obviously I want DDR3), or the UD3P, which I think is beyond budget.

What are the advantages of the 785 boards, and what would you guys recommend in that budget, and why ?

I am willing to pay a little bit more if a board is worth the extra, but I dont have need of crossfire support.
 
The only thing with that board, as I understand it, there is no multiplier for cpu NB, so overclocking may be compromised ?
Presumably the nb is 2000mhz on all phenoms ?
I am only going on what I have read, as I havent toyed with amd for a while now.

What advantages does the 790 chipset have over the 770 and 785 ?
 
790 chipsets have some description of crossfire implemented, and less options disabled in AMD overdrive (when they first released 7series chipsets, 770 had most features disabled, 790x had a few disabled and 790gx had them all enabled, but im not too sure if they still bother with that any more...).

thats all i can think of atm.

however, if you get a chipset with integrated (785G, 790gx etc), they are made on 55nm whereas non integrated are made on 65nm
 
Don't forget the amount of pci-e lanes, that's why some motherboards only provide a 4X solution to the second slot, its all down to the chipset.
 
stulid said:
Don't forget the amount of pci-e lanes, that's why some motherboards only provide a 4X solution to the second slot, its all down to the chipset.
Click to expand...

but the OP wasnt interested in CF, henca why i said "some description of" (only thing thats gonna take up more than 4x is a graphics card...)

but yeah - 790fx has an insane number of lanes (which is why the board have loads of pcie x16 slots), and 790x/790gx less (22 and 20 i think...) but can still do 8x/8x CF
 
thingemajib said:
however, if you get a chipset with integrated (785G, 790gx etc), they are made on 55nm whereas non integrated are made on 65nm
Click to expand...

Hmm ... so presumably less power consumption and heat on the 55nm, but offset by having integrated graphics that I dont want ?

Likewise the crossfire, I am not likely to use it so thats not important.

I am still concerned about the lack of adjustment on the NB frequency when oc on the asus, should I be ?
 
well you can turn the integrated bit off, and enjoy the benefits of the same/similar chipset but on a smaller process ;)

Vogon said:
I am still concerned about the lack of adjustment on the NB frequency when oc on the asus, should I be ?
Click to expand...

depends on the cpu you're using. if its a black edition, then it wont be affected. if not, then it could be a limiting factor.
however, my northbridge is good upto about 2400mhz (or bus speed of 240mhz), and ive seen some in the region of 2600-2700mhz
taking my old sempron 140 as an example, it was northbride limited (i also have some problems with nb multi, but now i have a BE cpu), and got it up to 3.3ghz from 2.7
 
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I presume you mean a BE would be unaffected due to being able to up speed on the multi, or do they generally get better bus speeds ?
I am looking at a 550 BE but would still want to get as much bus speed out of it as I can.
 
BE because of the multi.
Vogon said:
but would still want to get as much bus speed out of it as I can.
Click to expand...

if thats you're reasoning, then you wont miss out on much.
-bus speed itself does nothing. its just a clock generator from which others are governed by
-faster HT link makes no performance difference when its already that high at stock (might do when 6 core hits, but i somehow doubt it)
-Ram makes little performance difference, but they have their own multipliers (or ratios), so you should be able to find a workaround.
-faster northbridge only makes a small impact (generally it only improved memory thoroughput back when the controller still used to be on the chipset)
the only thing that you'd really miss out on is L3 cache speed, which id the same speed as the northbridge.
 
I presumed more bus speed would be better, but from your explanation it doesn't work that way with AMD.
Thats fine then, the Asus board and a BE looks to be my best bet. Cheers guys. :)
 
Vogon said:
As title, I was looking at the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 MA770, but every review I found seems to be for the DDR2 version, (obviously I want DDR3), or the UD3P, which I think is beyond budget.

What are the advantages of the 785 boards, and what would you guys recommend in that budget, and why ?

I am willing to pay a little bit more if a board is worth the extra, but I dont have need of crossfire support.
Click to expand...

The GA-MA770T-UD3P seems to have been replaced by the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-242-GI

The Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 adds USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 it seems.

Here are the Gigabyte webpages for both motherboards:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3096

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3272
 
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One thing to be aware of. When you overclock these gigabyte boards with the multiplier (on BE CPUs), cool n quiet is disabled. Personally, I wouldn't run with cool n' quiet disabled.
I understand for some manufacturers this limitation doesn't apply.
 
Really ? seems odd that, I am not sure if no cool and quiet would have a detrimental effect on cpu lifespan ?
Thanks for the heads up on that Q, and on the board replacement Cat.

For the extra cost, I like the better passive heatsinks on the Asus board, and the idea its on a lower fab. I am pretty certain thats the one I will buy, stock allowing, at order time :)
 
Vogon said:
I presumed more bus speed would be better, but from your explanation it doesn't work that way with AMD.
Thats fine then, the Asus board and a BE looks to be my best bet. Cheers guys. :)
Click to expand...

bus speed will have a minor effect, but nowhere near as much as CPU itself.

ie, you might notice a small increase in performance if running
4ghz with 250mhz bus with 16x multi

over
4ghz with 200mhz bus with 20x multi

always best to see what the cpu maxes out at, then drop the multi by one, increase the bus speed until the cpu reaches the same speed, drop the multi by another one etc.

as for actual reccomendation, i dont see anything particularly wrong with the M4A79XTD-EVO. its a little over budget, but try looking round (ebay?)
 
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