which of these am3/am3+ mobos help!

elbandito · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:02

I have narrowed down my search for an am3/am3+ to one of these 2 mobos which do you feel would be the better buy?
I will be using an AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz cpu.

Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX (Socket AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard or the Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 PCI-Express ATX Motherboard?

I like the look of the 1V Formula mobo as i think it will look better in the Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus Case. But is it the better choice? Thanks for any help.

dfour · 20 Jun 2011 at 11:36

I would get a AM3+ board over a standard am3 so you have s seamless upgrade path with BD at a later date. If you can do without the extras of the crosshair get the cheaper asus board

EGuitarStar · 20 Jun 2011 at 11:40

Just like dfour has said, get a AM3+ motherboard will leave you with upgrade options for the future. I take it you already have the AMD X6 CPU?

elbandito · 20 Jun 2011 at 15:41

dfour said:
I would get a AM3+ board over a standard am3 so you have s seamless upgrade path with BD at a later date. If you can do without the extras of the crosshair get the cheaper asus board

oh decisions decisions!! but the asus crosshair 1V looks so good style over content hmmm?

dfour · 20 Jun 2011 at 16:15

elbandito said:
oh decisions decisions!! but the asus crosshair 1V looks so good style over content hmmm?

hardly style over content. The Crosshair will do everything the other one will do but with spades on top and still look superb

Reaper 392 · 20 Jun 2011 at 16:32

i would go with an AM3+ motherboard only if you already have the phenom II X6 1100T. if you are buying a new motherboard and CPU then i would suggest an i5 2500k or i7 2600k depending on what you will be doing with the computer, with a P67 or Z68 motherboard, again depending on what you want to do with it.

i5 2500k vs Phenom II X6 1100T
(the i5 2500k will overclock far better as well

)

since i dont know if you already own the 1100T, here are my motherboard choices:

AM3+: Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X
reasons: x8/x8 crossfire+SLI, USB3, sata 6GB/s, way cheaper than the competition

P67: MSI P67A-GD65 with free Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler
reasons: cheapest that does crossfire + SLI + USB3 + SATA 6GB/s, gets you a nice cooler
cons: with two graphics cards case connectors are difficult to install onto the motherboard

Z68: Asrock Z68 Extreme4
reasons: cheapest that does crossfire + SLI + USB3 + SATA 6GB/s + all of the Z68 chipset features. also, it is very much approved by stulid since he has one

Terminator1612 · 20 Jun 2011 at 17:25

dfour said:
hardly style over content. The Crosshair will do everything the other one will do but with spades on top and still look superb

Totally agree with this comment!

I have the Asus Crosshair IV in my current rig, and it is an amazing motherboard - possibly the best I've owned to date (and I've had a decent amount over the years). It certainly isn't lacking in features, it's powerful and my system is absolutely rock solid with it. On top of this it makes overclocking my Phenom II 965 quad-core to 4.0ghz+ an absolute doddle. Not much more I can ask for, and I seriously do recommend it.

Also, correct me if i'm wrong here, but isn't the Crosshair IV compatible with the new AM3+ chips also?

Hatton · 20 Jun 2011 at 17:51

I would go for the Crosshair IV Formula

I am getting a new motherboard soon too and will be going for the Crosshair V Formula

Elevon · 20 Jun 2011 at 21:46

Hatton said:
I would go for the Crosshair IV Formula

I am getting a new motherboard soon too and will be going for the Crosshair V Formula

Sabertooth IMHO,btw been a few issues with Crosshair v see here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1616542 might been worth waiting until they fix those issues.

chris_holmes · 20 Jun 2011 at 21:48

reaper beat me to what i was about to say 2500k and a z68 is so much better

dfour · 20 Jun 2011 at 22:38

chris_holmes said:
reaper beat me to what i was about to say 2500k and a z68 is so much better

Its only better at the moment while the true extent of BD is not publically known.

Terminator1612 · 21 Jun 2011 at 09:35

chris_holmes said:
reaper beat me to what i was about to say 2500k and a z68 is so much better

Better in performance - I fully agree. But not that the average user would really notice all that much, when doing their daily tasks.

A friend of mine recently got the i7 2600k Sandybridge chip, and to be fair it's not THAT much faster than my Phenom II (that's not to say the i7 isn't a truly great processor - it really is!).

Sure, you get improved framerates in some games (when vsync is disabled), and encoding videos and music files is slightly faster, but these don't exactly make the Sandybridge's "so much better". Saying the Sandybridge range is so much better implies the Phenom II is lacking in some way, when in practice mine easily handles any task I throw at it.

And not forgetting Sandybridge CPU's have newer architectures than the Phenom II line, so they should be somewhat superior really. As dfour rightly said, this may very well change one Bulldozer arrives on the scene. We'll just have to wait and see for that one!