AMD AM3+ Motherboard Thread

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Hothardware have their 990FX roundup including Asrock 990FX Pro board with Asus Crosshair V and Gigabyte http://hothardware.com/Reviews/AMD-990FX-Motherboard-RoundUp-Asus-ASRock-Gigabyte/ .





As to the winner
Read the review to find out .

Gotta love the bias some editors have. So their reason for picking the Crosshair V vs the Fatal1ty was it has "a little bit more of refinement" (what's that supposed to mean, anyway?) over the Fatal1ty, which has more features and a lower price?

 

[Mem]

Gotta love the bias some editors have. So their reason for picking the Crosshair V vs the Fatal1ty was it has "a little bit more of refinement" (what's that supposed to mean, anyway?) over the Fatal1ty, which has more features and a lower price?

I would of put Asrock up there with Asus at the very least joint first ,add in the Asrock has more features and better pricing its very hard to see how they gave top spot to Asus.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I would of put Asrock up there with Asus at the very least joint first ,add in the Asrock has more features and better pricing its very hard to see how they gave top spot to Asus.

Yeah. AsRock have really stepped up their game lately. They've been making really solid P67 and Z68 motherboards for Intel, too.

 

[sequoia464]

Just had an ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX fail on me. Worked great for 36 hours, Started freezing, crashed, started once in safe mode, now I can not even get into the bios. Did all of the usual things, cleared cmos, pulled the battery etc. - it will start up, tell me to go into the bios, but won't let me in. Dissapointed in Asus.

 

[Mem]

Just had an ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX fail on me. Worked great for 36 hours, Started freezing, crashed, started once in safe mode, now I can not even get into the bios. Did all of the usual things, cleared cmos, pulled the battery etc. - it will start up, tell me to go into the bios, but won't let me in. Dissapointed in Asus.

Bad luck I guess.

I had a motherboard I sold to a friend go faulty one day after selling it,bad luck again.

 

[Rhezuss]

The Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 look really nice. Will probably be my next mobo if BD is worth it.

 

[sequoia464]

Bad luck I guess.

I had a motherboard I sold to a friend go faulty one day after selling it,bad luck again.

Back up and running - replaced with another Sabertooth. We'll see....

Now, if only AMD would release Bulldozer.

 

[Rhezuss]

Back up and running - replaced with another Sabertooth. We'll see....

Now, if only AMD would release Bulldozer.

The Sabertooth look like an awesome motherboard.

And i'm with you about Bulldozer...AND HD 7xxx series...

AMD, what the fart?

 

[mv2devnull]

The Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 look really nice.

How much worse might GA-970A-UD3 be in practice?

 

[Mem]

Back up and running - replaced with another Sabertooth. We'll see....

Now, if only AMD would release Bulldozer.

I've the sabertooth on my shortlist but leaning towards the Asrock Fatality Pro 990FX.

I'll wait until BD is available before deciding.

 

[Rhezuss]

How much worse might GA-970A-UD3 be in practice?

Same set of general features but the 990x has better CF/SLI than the 970.

 

[sequoia464]

I've the sabertooth on my shortlist but leaning towards the Asrock Fatality Pro 990FX.

I'll wait until BD is available before deciding.

I got the Sabertooth because I am all SSD's now and the Sabertooth reviews show some sweet read and write scores - even compared to other 900 series boards. Lost all of my recent favorites in a failure or I would post some additional links.

I did find this one review. ...http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1639/12/

 

[lau808]

m5a97 vs m5a97 pro...
will the 6+2 phase of the pro have benefit when oc fx4100 compared to 4+2 of the vanilla? or will that remain to be seen when bd is finally released?

 

[Mem]

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional Motherboard Review@kitguru .


ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional Motherboard Review .

Overall we are very impressed with the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional motherboard and can’t actually think of anything significant that could be improved. The red and black colour scheme may not be to everyone’s tastes but on a hardware level it is among the best available.

The Fatal1ty board boasts a wide range of connectivity including USB3.0 and SATA-600 which ensure the fastest possible transfer rates. One minor complaint we have is that there are only two USB3.0 ports on the back panel whereas most motherboards feature four. That said, ASRock include two front USB3.0 headers as opposed to the single header that is present on most motherboards. You can always use the included USB3.0 bay adapter ASRock include, but this may not fit in aesthetically with all cases and may well be hidden behind a case door.

I like their end remark,

ASrock have reached new heights in 2011, this is the best 990FX motherboard on the market today.

 

[Sbrowne]

The 990FX Extreme4 board even includes a floppy connector, proof that ASRock has thought of everything. Floppies are still handy for flashing bios and transferring small files.

An alternative solution for the majority of current mobos which don't have this is to use an "external" USB floppy drive and adapt it to the case 3.5" slot.

On the 990FX Extreme4 I also like the rear external CMOS Reset button, which saves the difficulty of poking around the innards.

- SBB

 

[Mem]

The 990FX Extreme4 board even includes a floppy connector, proof that ASRock has thought of everything. Floppies are still handy for flashing bios and transferring small files.

An alternative solution for the majority of current mobos which don't have this is to use an "external" USB floppy drive and adapt it to the case 3.5" slot.

On the 990FX Extreme4 I also like the rear external CMOS Reset button, which saves the difficulty of poking around the innards.

- SBB

You don't need floppy drive nowadays,you can flash via USB flash drive which is faster too and can hold a lot more data.

I actually use USB flash drive for transferring small files as well.

 

[Googer]

MSI 990FXA-GD80 pics and info http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=30495 ,

They should ditch the blue and replace it with olive green pci-e slots.

 

[jcniest5]

The 990FX Extreme4 board even includes a floppy connector, proof that ASRock has thought of everything. Floppies are still handy for flashing bios and transferring small files.

An alternative solution for the majority of current mobos which don't have this is to use an "external" USB floppy drive and adapt it to the case 3.5" slot.

On the 990FX Extreme4 I also like the rear external CMOS Reset button, which saves the difficulty of poking around the innards.

- SBB

Floppy disk has too little space to even store most BIOS files these days.

 

[Mem]

HardOCP gave Asus Crosshair V Gold award,review here http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/09/09/asus_crosshair_v_formula_amd_am3_motherboard_review/1 .

ASUS has once again put together a hell of a motherboard. The Crosshair V Formula overclocks like a beast, runs for days under stress, has a great layout, and of course comes in our favorite HardOCP red and black color combination. (You think that is a coincidence? ) It was easy to use, and besides a couple of flukes in our testing which is not unusual, which I cannot pin on ASUS, the board worked perfectly.

 

[Sbrowne]

I'm opting for the ASRock 970 Extreme4, since I don't do multiple video cards. After some experimenting I've decided to use an "external" USB floppy drive when something floppy needs doing; it can be put away in a drawer when not. (Yes, I also have a USB Flash drive.) The 970 has five SATA3 internal connections - not enough for my tower system, so I'm adding a PCI-E 1x to 2x internal SATA2 card. I'm not sure if SATA3 makes any difference for optical drives, anyway. So far so good.

 

[Mem]

Asrock have a new AM3+ 990FX board out ie 990FX Extreme3 .

More info at their homepage here http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=990FX%20Extreme3 .

 

[Neutralman]

^^^^^ I like this new board!

 

[Mem]

OCC have reviewed the ECS A990FXMA http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/ecs_a990fxma/ .

Pros:
Very clean design
Extra tall EPS12V power plug
Loads of connectivity options
Can OC a little further with less power than last generation boards
Pleasing when it works


Cons:
Temperamental BIOS
Temperamental OC software
Mildly aggravating when it fails...continuously

 

[drizek]

OCC have reviewed the ECS A990FXMA

Pros: Who cares?

Cons: It's an ECS motherboard.

 

[MaxDepth]

I'm sitting this series out. I think the 900 series northbridge is nothing more than the 800 series with just a few instructions tacked on to support the new CPUs. I think AMD is using this chipset to bridge users to more powerful processors and to wean people off the Athlon and Phenom.

I will move to the AMD A85FX, if and only if, it shows to be more responsive to SATA throughput and if I can finally replace my PS2 keyboard for a USB.

Right now, I have a GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 paired with an AMD 6950 and using the SATA for RAID, so why would I need to upgrade? The only issue with this setup is that I cannot play Batman Asylum on it for some reason. (Steam demo won't even load or throws up a garbage start menu.)