chipset 970 vs 990 for FX6/8core cpu and ram speed

yanis31

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Hi Everybody,

I plan on doing a budget build with either one of these fx6300/6350/8320/8350
(mostly gaming and office) - so i will overclock somewhat, but only to 100% stable levels
It seems to me 970a chipset is totally enough for me and i just need to choose a motherboard
with a good power delivery design and i will be set,
but amd's HyperTransport link speed is bothering me,
Ram from 1866 to 2400mhz costs practically the same now where i live, so i figure i'd take an 8gb kit of 2 @ 2400mhz (kingston beast)
i have available mostly Asrock/Asus/MSI/Gygabyte motherboards where i live
-im leaning towards Gygabyte or Asus

1st. quetsion:
why is the 970 chipset limited to 4.8gb/s HT speed and 5.2gb/s on 990x ?
- will this affect performance at all?

2nd. question:
If the motherboard mem support list states the ram will be downgraded to 2000mhz is there anything to worry about? or these ram modules will work just fine?
(i guess i can always reduce latency on a higher mhz module?)

3rd. question:
will i gain much by taking a GA-970A-UD3P vs GA-970A-DS3 ?
or should i even step up to a GA-990XA-UD3?
 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
The 990 will handle DRAM the best but we're talking AMD here, and the 8350 is rated up to 1 DIMM PER CHANNEL AT 1866, very few can run 16GB at 2133 and even less (I haven't seen any run 2400 (at 2400) 16GB), so best bet would probably/maybe Try a sedate set of 2x8GB 2133/10, maybe 9 and keep it in the back of your mind that you may have to drop to 1866/ 8 or 9
 

yanis31

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well im looking at kingston ram and they are prettymuch 1866 CL9 and everything above = CL11, i bet there's not a mountain of difference between that, also i will only get 2x4gb, so far i haven't had a chance to exceed 4 gigs so 8 will do fine for a few years,
the only mystery im trying to understand is about the Hypertransport speed...
 

yanis31

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ok seems like cheaped out 990fx vs top end 970 will not feel good if i want to overclock
here's a comparison between some specific models with current price in my country converted to us dollars :
what do you guys think? is it worth going for the 990fx here?
it's hypothetical since plenty of asus/asrock and msi models available as well,
but if you were given this choice what would you do?

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 - $141
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P - $102
KINGSTON 8GB DDR3 PC12800 CL9 XMP BLACK SERIES KIT OF 2 KHX16C9B1BK2/8X - $93
KINGSTON 8GB DDR3 PC14900 CL9 XyperX Beast KIT OF 2 KHX18C9T3K2/​8X - $120.40
KINGSTON 8GB DDR3 PC19200 CL11 XYPERX BEAST KIT OF 2 KHX24C11T3K2/8X - $124.22
 

yanis31

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i guess i could throw in the beast 2133mhz CL11 between the two as well, they all cost pretty much the same,
but i haven't really paid attention to ram voltage - i see 1.65 on the kingstons, corsair has a 2000mhz cl9 XMS3 1.65v kit but i only see it in 4gb guise,
and a vengence black 1866 cl9 CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9
running @ 1.5v for similar price as the kingstons
- i hate the design but whatever,

and i also see this crucial 1.5v kit some $5 cheaper than kingston
CRUCIAL BALLISTIX 8GB DDR3 PC3-14900 CL9 KIT OF 2 BLT2CP4G3D1869DT1TX0CEU

-what difference does the voltage make for this kind of setup?
 

yanis31

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does this affect the memory controller's performance in any way?
or just a necessity for the ram module itself
-let's say 1866 cl9 1.5 vs 1.65 ?
 

yanis31

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hi all,
now im going to take this quite offtopic since things are not yet clear:
i really crave a small but powerful pc and just for that reason i'm starting to think maybe i should pony up that extra cash for intel,
since there's no way to get a decent fx board in smaller than ATX format,

since im completely uninformed about the Haswell chipsets and what to look for on those boards can somebody give me some kind of a overview?
it looks to me if i wanted a board similar to the GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 just for intel
- i might need to spend even some $20-$30 more on a good Z87 board....
but would i really need one for a 4670k or 4770k?
i would run only 1 single chip gpu, 1 ssd, 1 hdd and that's about it... but i would want to overclock.