Which AM3+ board for upgrade-proofing?

[~lynks]

Hi folks,

I've decided to put together an AMD rig (X4 955 BE), I do a lot of heavily multi-threaded tasking and spend most of my time in Debian/Linux. To that end I have decided to grab a mobo and ram that will allow me to upgrade to bulldo...I mean whatever AMD can bring out that doesn't suck in the future.

Couple of questions; do I have to buy a 990FX board? And even if I do, do we know yet what socket/chipset will be required for the generation following BD?

Which RAM clock should I be looking at? The X4 only needs 10666, I assume a later CPU will need a higher RAM clock?

The 10666 ram is so cheap, I'd be tempted to get it anyway, rather than buying a part that I dont need, that is likely to be a lot cheaper by the time I do need it!

 

[CinderzFTW]

The 990FX is mainly for Bulldozer, but I wouldn't bother with it until the price comes down. The quad verions are crap and a 955 would beat it in some areas.

I would opt for the Gigabtye 990XA-UD3. This board gives you HT 3.0, S-ATA 3 and nice overclocking for your 955.

AM3+ will be the main stream for the next couple of years, so you should be future proof with it and it's less than £100.

Plus I would get 1333mhz DDR3 to give better performance, or 1600mhz to be more future proof.

 

[zoomee]

AM3+ will be the main stream for the next couple of years, so you should be future proof with it and it's less than £100.

No Guarantee of this mate, and its the reason I'm refusing to upgrade to AM3+ - its going to be a shortlived one this socket

Piledriver (Next BD gen) is not guaranteed to work on AM3+, and if you wants to quote me on an NDA'd AMD slide - bear in mind their specs are subject to change at any moment (just like AMD not supporting BD on AM3 anymore like their early slides)

If your buying a CPU/motherboard/ram now - I'd recommend one of the newer Gen3 Intel boards, with a 2500K - better performance and upgradability for the next generation of Intel CPU's.

AMD's are just a crap state to be in at the moment

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hi folks,

I've decided to put together an AMD rig (X4 955 BE), I do a lot of heavily multi-threaded tasking and spend most of my time in Debian/Linux. To that end I have decided to grab a mobo and ram that will allow me to upgrade to bulldo...I mean whatever AMD can bring out that doesn't suck in the future.

Couple of questions; do I have to buy a 990FX board? And even if I do, do we know yet what socket/chipset will be required for the generation following BD?

Which RAM clock should I be looking at? The X4 only needs 10666, I assume a later CPU will need a higher RAM clock?

The 10666 ram is so cheap, I'd be tempted to get it anyway, rather than buying a part that I dont need, that is likely to be a lot cheaper by the time I do need it!

A 970 based motherboard will do the job and a Phenom II X6. 1600MHZ DDR3 will be enough for a Phenom II X6.

I know people who have the following motherboards and they are quite decent for the price

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-468-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-351-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046

If you do shop around they can be had for around £80.

Regarding the Bulldozer and Piledriver based CPUs I would wait for reviews done under Linux first. Phoronix probably is a good place to start.

 

[~lynks]

Thanks for the responses,

It does seem like a bad time to be buying a new rig, either I go AMD and hope that bulldozer/piledriver doesn't suck in the future, and hope that they will work with the AM3+ board.

Or I go intel and hope that my 1155 socket holds out into IB.

Either way there seems to be a good chance I'll end up having to upgrade the mobo.

I'll wait another month or so, see how things with AMD lie then.

 

[Fragg]

defo go with the crosshair v forumla if you plan to stay with amd!