Motherboard Help? MSI 970A-G43 vs Asus M5A97 R2

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Solution
ingtar33
msi has some really poor AM3+ motherboards... so i generally don't suggest them... ever. as to your question, the biggest difference is the quality of the vrm/mosfets and their cooling. The asus uses high quality mosfets with ample heatsinks, the msi uses cheap ones and no heatsinks. In short you'll get better and more stable overclocking out of the Asus, and the asus likely will last longer. If you're planning on a 125W tdp fx cpu, i would highly suggest you avoid the MSI as inadequate to your needs. It will run a 95W tdp cpu just fine, with a slight overclock... but i wouldn't do more then that with it.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Inori

Inori

Honorable
Apr 25, 2013
70
0
10,640


okay i was just wondering if the "safety" was worth the extra money? Also it says these motherboards can support 2133mhz ram, but would it be safer to just go with 1600 since 2133 is right at its limit?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
9,017
198
45,840
msi has some really poor AM3+ motherboards... so i generally don't suggest them... ever. as to your question, the biggest difference is the quality of the vrm/mosfets and their cooling. The asus uses high quality mosfets with ample heatsinks, the msi uses cheap ones and no heatsinks. In short you'll get better and more stable overclocking out of the Asus, and the asus likely will last longer. If you're planning on a 125W tdp fx cpu, i would highly suggest you avoid the MSI as inadequate to your needs. It will run a 95W tdp cpu just fine, with a slight overclock... but i wouldn't do more then that with it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Inori

Inori

Honorable
Apr 25, 2013
70
0
10,640


Okay, so what do you think of this build? it's for my friend with a 850$ budget

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.95 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($52.99 @ Amazon)
Other: H60 Refurbished @ Frys ($30.00)
Total: $852.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-10 23:00 EDT-0400)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Inori

Inori

Honorable
Apr 25, 2013
70
0
10,640


thanks :) i went with the asus board
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ingtar33

ingtar33

Glorious
Dec 17, 2012
9,017
198
45,840
good luck! you can probably save a little $$ going with a 7950... but really i think the 760 will perform better for you with an FX cpu. either way you'll have fun with that build. good luck!

(btw: frys is currently offloading ALL their h80s... the h80 is a better cpu cooler, and right now fry's is dumping them for $45, might be worth looking at)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Lateralisis

Lateralisis

Honorable
Oct 21, 2013
7
0
10,520



I would go for MSI.. Cheaper and you get almost the same features except for propriety stuffs.. Good quality and you can use the extra savings (if you don't buy ASUS) for other parts.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
EcoMCG

EcoMCG

Honorable
Nov 22, 2013
720
0
11,160


What if I do not want to overclock can I still get the MSI Mobo?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
67,883
40
126,960

_________________________________

Won't touch MSI mobos, poor QC
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom