Biostar TA790GX vs. Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0

[dndavis57]

The Foxconn has ferrite chokes in the power supply and a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller. The Biostar has iron-filled chokes and the ubiquitous Realtek 8111. I've seen one review, I can't remember where, that knocks the Realtek in passing, but Google's not turning up any other negative remarks.

Putting aside the fact that the Foxconn is an AM3 board, I'm wondering if it will be worth the extra $65 for my build. I intend to use the PII x3 720BE cpu. I'm stretching my budget to build this at all, so I'm interested in real, not theoretical or incremental, advantages.

 

[Sylvanas]

So what will you be using this for... Do you need the onboard video/sound? Do you intend to overclock? What is your budget? What memory do you intend using or is that still to be decided? Answer this and it may narrow it down a bit. Generally- no DDR3 is not worth it (in terms of sizable real world gains) over DDR2 for these current P2's but if you can find 4gb DDR3 for the same (or close to) the price of DDR2 then by all means go with DDR3 + board. FYI, Tony from XS has demonstrated that low latency 1333mhz DDR3 is better than higher clocked (and costing) DDR3 currently available (1600mhz +). The biostar is a solid board and many people have been using these for unlocking the 4th core of an X3- but as I understand it most SB750 boards can do this anyway. If you don't need the onboard video, you could perhaps have a look at the 790x and 790FX boards (including my DFI which I very pleased with)- but it depends on your answers to the questions posed above.

 

[dndavis57]

Thank you, Sylvanas.

The rig will be a general-purpose box, used for home office stuff, web and email, photo editing, watching DVDs and streaming media. No video encoding at this point. Gaming is light: I like flight sims, but can't do FPS games without becoming ill. It's on 24/7, doing Folding @Home when not otherwise occupied. It replaces my Athlon 64 3000 that died late last year, after 6 years of use, when the PSU died and took the mobo with it. I'm making do right now with a Celeron D/onboard graphics box that a friend gave me. Even with 2GB of RAM from my old rig, it struggles with almost everything now.

The Newegg Biostar/720 combo is a killer deal right now but, since I don't do a new build every couple of years, I'm willing to stretch a bit for the long haul.

I may overclock a bit. I bought a Noctua cooler just in case, plus I like quiet, I'm Folding 24/7, and it get's bloody hot in my place in the summer if the air conditioner isn't on. Rock-solid reliability is my prime criterion.

I probably will run with onboard video initially and add a discrete graphics card later, after I've put new tires on the family van. Something on the order of a 4830/4850 or GTS 250 should do fine for me. Somewhere down the road I"ll pick up a bigger and better (non-TN) monitor as well.

4GB of DDR-3 seems to go for about $5 ($60 vs. $55) more than 4 GB of DDR-2. The real price delta here is from Newegg's $40 combo discount + $10 rebate on the Biostar/720 combo.

Here's what I already have:

Corsair TX650W PSU (purchased from Newegg 2 weeks ago)
Samsung SATA DVD burner (on special yesterday at Micro Center, too cheap to resist)
Noctua NH-C12P cooler (enroute from Heatsink Factory)
Antec Sonata case (original version, from my old rig) - I may replace this
M-Audio Revolution sound card (from old rig)
Monitor, mouse, keyboard

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

I've been using the Biostar TA790GX AM2+ 128M for several months now, no problems. I'm a big fan of Biostar's "T" series stuff.

Honestly, for most uses, I don't think there's much of a difference between most of the boards, when they are based on the same chipset.

 

[dndavis57]

Thank you, Flipped Gazelle.

I spent all day shopping the various combos and specials on Newegg. I decided that, at this point, AM3 is the way to go for a new build. I finally pulled the trigger on the Asus M4A78T-E AM3/PII x3 720 combo for $259. I also ordered 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 CL8 RAM (according to the ASUS QVL, this will run at CL7 timings on this board) and a 640GB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD. Total before tax and shipping was $388.97.

Fry's have the Antec Sonata Elite case on sale for $80 this week, so I probably will buy one rather than reuse my first generation Sonata.

This will be my first build without a floppy drive. I go all the way back to 5.25" FDDs. Heck, I go all the way back to punch cards.

 

[Sylvanas]

Nice, enjoy your new build .

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: dndavis57
Thank you, Flipped Gazelle.

I spent all day shopping the various combos and specials on Newegg. I decided that, at this point, AM3 is the way to go for a new build. I finally pulled the trigger on the Asus M4A78T-E AM3/PII x3 720 combo for $259. I also ordered 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 CL8 RAM (according to the ASUS QVL, this will run at CL7 timings on this board) and a 640GB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD. Total before tax and shipping was $388.97.

Fry's have the Antec Sonata Elite case on sale for $80 this week, so I probably will buy one rather than reuse my first generation Sonata.

This will be my first build without a floppy drive. I go all the way back to 5.25" FDDs. Heck, I go all the way back to punch cards.

I still have a floppy drive. I can't help myself.

Good luck with the build - I hope everything goes smoothly!

 

[dndavis57]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: dndavis57
Thank you, Flipped Gazelle.

I spent all day shopping the various combos and specials on Newegg. I decided that, at this point, AM3 is the way to go for a new build. I finally pulled the trigger on the Asus M4A78T-E AM3/PII x3 720 combo for $259. I also ordered 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1333 CL8 RAM (according to the ASUS QVL, this will run at CL7 timings on this board) and a 640GB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD. Total before tax and shipping was $388.97.

Fry's have the Antec Sonata Elite case on sale for $80 this week, so I probably will buy one rather than reuse my first generation Sonata.

This will be my first build without a floppy drive. I go all the way back to 5.25" FDDs. Heck, I go all the way back to punch cards.

I still have a floppy drive. I can't help myself.

Good luck with the build - I hope everything goes smoothly!

Well, it's up and running quite nicely since last Wednesday. It turns out, though, that if I want AHCI or RAID drivers, I still need a floppy drive!

I ended up putting the whole thing up in an Antec P182 case. I stopped in at the Fry's near my work last Sunday morning after I got off duty and found they were closing out the P182 for $99.99. It's 18" from my ear right now and nearly inaudible.