Motherboard Choice + B-Grade?

SMAndy

SMAndy

SMAndy

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400
Location
Gloucestershire
Alright Guys?

Following the annoying lack of overclocking on the M3A78 Pro, I've decided to boycott Asus from now on for my own hardware, starting by replacing this board.

There are a few choices in the list, but the two I'm most tempted by are both in B-grade, so I have a few questions.

On OcUK, what does B-Grade actually mean? What am i likely to be missing if i buy from B-grade?

2, which do you guys think is better.

Gigabyte GA-MA770T UD3P or GA-MA790XT ID4P.

To help narrow it down, I currently use a GTX260, so onboard graphics isn't what i'm after. I'm after functionality, potential unlocking of my X3 720's fourth core, overclocking ability, and upgradeability.

To go with this, since my old board is DDR2, I'm going to get some OCZ Reaper 1333Mhz memory, this one is purely because 1333 is cheaper than 1600, and i'm not going to lose out on much by getting the cheaper stuff.

Both of the motherboards mentioned are about £70 in the clearance, with a £6 difference for the 770, and a whopping £30 difference for the 790...

Of course, i'm willing to go to the £100 ish mark for a new motherboard, so please go ahead and recommend me one. Has to be AM3 socket, take DDR3, and be at least an SB710 south bridge for the ACC potential core unlock.

Also, how easy is a BIOS update for a gigabyte board? Asus had it right with the ez-flash, but they suck at everything else.

Cheers guys.
 
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as far as i know its the driver discs thatll be missing but best to download from site makeing sure you get latest drivers could also be cables ie sate maybe lucky and just have a damaged box the board itself should be fine
 
B-grade could be anything from just a bare board in a plain box to a full retail package. The boards could be customer returns, damaged packaging or end of life stock. OCUK needs to state what you are getting as some other retailers do this. You also only get a 14 day warranty with OCUK. Most other retailers give you a 90 day warranty.
 
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It wouldn't be all that worth taking a chance on B-Grade unless you get in contact with OcUK on that one.

They have some awkwardly priced old stuff that you just wouldn't pay, even if old.

B-Grade consists of damaged boxes, missing manuals, driver discs, minor blemishing/superficial damage.
 
I got my Asus GTX280 from the Clearance Lines section here, and it is still going strong.

I think that it was an RMA replacement I got, as the box it came in had an RMA number on the side.

All I got was the card itself in a brown box, nothing else.

It's still going strong and I haven't had a single problem with it.

As for flashing a Gigabyte BIOs, it is a piece of cake, just put the BIOS file onto a USB pendrive, then enter the BIOS, press F8 to enter QFlash utility, and then flash the BIOS from the USB pendrive.

There is also a utility for GB boards that allow you to flash from Windows, but everyone strongly advises against using this method.
 
Thanks guys.

I bought it... Went for the MA790XT-UD4P. It was £70, normal retail price on the site is £105, so i'm guessing i'll get just the board in a plain box, or a factory repair. Either way it doesn't really bother me. Factory repair means at least its been tested twice, right? 14 day warranty should be enough to find faults, as i plan on building it the day i receive it. - I'll post the results of it.

Thanks DavyBoy, the guide that Gigabyte have on their site says to use a floppy, but who actually still uses a floppy drive in this day and age? My Antec Three Hundred doesn't even have a slot for one.

If I get a box with an RMA number on it, i should be able to call Gigabyte directly and ask for details of the RMA, right? That way I can find out what was done to it, and find out if its worth the money I paid...

If I'm lucky, its a board in a plain box, that someone returned cos they decided they didn't want it anymore, or bought the wrong one that was incompatible...

Thanks for the responses everyone, a great help.
 
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Received my motherboard this morning. Opened the box to check...

All parts present and accounted for. Even the case badges are still there, which I will be adding to my pc...

I can see only two things wrong with it...

1. Sys Fan connector near the SATA ports is bent slightly. No pins are bridged, and it will still connect to a fan.

2. Optical/Digital out to audio, the entire block for those connectors is slightly bent towards the cpu socket. This was abrely noticeable, and it took me 3 looks over to notice it. I don't see that it'll affect fitting or using the board...

I'm at work right now, so i can't plug it all in to test, but so far it looks like its a return because someone didn't like the bent connectors! for £35 reduction on the "new" price, i think this is an awesome bargain. I'll be building it this evening, and I'll post my results! I'll take pictures of the bent parts to show how minor this "fault" really is.
 
Well, its not unlocked... ACC was on by default, and the pc would go blank screen while formatting the disk during the windows install.

I turned ACC off, and its now working fine, as you can see. Got it at 3.3GHz now, and i'll be working on it slowly, i think.

Had to boost the default memory voltage by 0.2v to get it to run at 1333 though!
 
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