AM3 Motherboard with core unlocker

HecFam

HecFam

HecFam

Soldato
Joined
18 Nov 2011
Posts
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London
Hey guys,

I want to get a new motherboard, but im slightly stuck.

I have a Phenom II x4 960T which I can unlock to 6 cores on my Asrock board. Im looking for a new board, to cater for USB 3 and Sata 3.

I was looking at the Asrock 990fx since i trust asrock with their UCC. I was also looking at some gigabyte boards, but i have seen that they have somewhat stopped the core unlock on some boards. So im just in a pickle for which one.

I looking to spend around £100 on the board i suppose, I want to buy a new modular PSU as well. This One.

I want to spend around £150 in total, so any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers.
 
I have had that PSU in a 750w and i have blown two of them in 6 months. Avoid power cool, that money can buy a way better psu.

Whats your whole rig/ thoughs on future upgrades?

sli or xfire?

Do you overclock much?

Get a Seasonic PSU. Cant tell you which untill i know your power drain though.

This one is 650W and is made by Seasonic (i think all XFX PSU's might be but dont quote me)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

Had a look at the MOBO you suggested. I personally wouldnt get it, though asrock are good bang for buck and i myself have been satisfied with many asrock boards before switching to the Crosshair V-Z, i notticed the board you suggested has only 4+1 power phasing. Its been a while since i owned a phenom but a OC'd 6 core might be a bit too much of a power drain for its VRM's.

What about this board:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-349-GI

I have never used one but it offers everything you want for the same-ish price. Also has 8+2 power phasing which would be easily enough for an OC'd 8 core fx chip if you want to upgrade in the future.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions. As for xfire, i have a 6870, so if i was to upgrade i probably would get a new card rather than xfire, so no to that. Overclock, yes. At the moment im getting a slightly unstable 3.9 out of my cpu, but i would like to push higher. I will definitely take your advice on the psu and probably the mobo, ill have a look into it and see how easy it is to unlock, but as of yet it seems like a great suggestion. Thanks.

As for the complaints of it being hot, i have a alpenfohn k2, two 200mm fans and one 140mm fan. Running at 31c idle (@ 6core 3.9) on my current board, shouldnt be a problem should it?
 
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Did some more searching on the board i suggested, apparently people are struggling to unlock cores with it. Some people think the feature was removed or changed in a bios update after the UD5 came out. Worst comes the worst, you could just update to the latest version with the 'Core Boost' feature.

EDIT!!

AMD removed support for core unlocking after the 7xx series motherboards. Motherboard manufacturers have developed their own unlocking features since but its not really advertise as much. Asus still call it 'Asus Core Unlocker', Gigabyte call it 'Core Boost'. To make choosing a board with unlocking even more annoying, some boards are advertised with the support but after updates, the feature is removed from the bios entirely like in the gigabyte UD3/UD5 boards and the Asus Sabertooth (revision 2.0, 1.0 still has core unlocker). I do know that some Asrock boards like the Fatal1ty 990fx can core unlock cores and boost performance automatically using their 'UCC' feature (press a button auto overclock) but whether you can manually do it, i have no idea. People have successfully unlocked cores on Crosshair V 990fx but that board is way too OP to just use it to unlock a phenom, for that sort of money you could get a reliable 990fx board and piledriver lol.
 
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Cool, ill hang around and see if there are any other suggestions. I could push the total budget to around £200 if it will get me the "perfect" board. Thanks for your help
 
This One looks like it will do the job, seems like a simple option in the bios to unlock it. Seems like everyone has a good opinion on it. Is it worth stretching to another board?
 
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