Piledriver OC on a budget

[bluebox]

My current Q6600 box has died and I'm on a strict budget from SWMBO so i5/i7 are both out and I'm looking at the 8320/8350. I'm not a gamer but need to run a few Virtual Machines so 8 cores and 16GB RAM ( will upgrade to 32GB later ) will be useful.

So my question is:
If I want to OC the 8320 or 8350 do I need a 990 motherboard or will the Gigabyte 970A-DS3 do the job?

 

[d_brennen]

Board should be fine

To enable AM3+ AMD FX-Series CPU support, please update your motherboard with the most current BIOS found in your motherboard’s download section.

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4122#ov

Might be limited in overclocking potential though

 

[Hagar]

Ideally 6 + 2 phase rather than 4 + 1 phase although people have overclocked on the latter. Make sure you are buying a board with the correct updated bios for piledriver if you are coming from Intel.

 

[bluebox]

Looks like the 970A-UD3 might be a better bet then with 8+2 power.
That decides the 8320 vs 8350 choice too as I'm guessing the 8320 in a UD3 is a better bet than the 8350 in a DS3.

 

[d_brennen]

Overclocking 95w+ AMD chips on 4+1 phase power is always touch and go, be prepared for the worst if you push it lol

I told this guy ZZZAC his board wasn't good enough for the mental X6 overclocking he had in mind, but he didn't listen and guess what happened?

 

[elroberto]

Looks like the 970A-UD3 might be a better bet then with 8+2 power.
That decides the 8320 vs 8350 choice too as I'm guessing the 8320 in a UD3 is a better bet than the 8350 in a DS3.

Get the 8320, you might get slightly higher clocks with the 8350 but there isn't a massive difference. And sell the game keys on if you want to make it a little cheaper.

 

[bluebox]

Have done it now FX 8320 and a Gigabyte 970A-UD3

Phoned up OCUK after I'd ordered online and been told the motherboard will definitely be at the right BIOS level to support the 8320.