Is the MSI 970 Gaming a good motherboard for FX 8320?

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

I am going to be getting an FX 8320 with a Hyper 212 EVO, MSI 970 Gaming board and an MSI GTX 970. Just wondering how this board is for those components.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

Try and avoid MSI mobos at all costs , Get Gigabyte 970 UD3P

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

What's the reason for this? First person that has warned me..

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

Also that motherboard doesn't have SLI support for further down the line.

Joseph DeGarmo · Oct 6, 2014

MSI boards for AMD have been known to be a fire hazard. Get an Asus or Gigabyte board.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

Well This has SLI Support :

Gigabyte
GA-990FXA-UD3

Well MSI just have a higher failure rate than Gigabyte that's why they're risky.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

That's a pity because the MSI 970 is such a beautiful motherboard. Is the ASRock EXTREME4 any good for my build? I am only going to be overclocking the FX 8320 to around 4.4Ghz depending on how the chip runs it. ALso the GPU to around 1500Ghz.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

Also I can't afford anything more than £70 on the motherboard so I can't.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

Well this is Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 is just 9 Pounds over your budget and its really worth every penny , it also has SLI support.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

I am already £150 over budget so... I will check it out though.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

carterdarter :

Well can you post your budget and we'll make u a build thats not too much over it ( deffo not 150 Pounds over

)

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

How would this be?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/wNw6K8

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

Budget was meant to be £500 but I want a computer that will last so I am think around £600. I definitely want an msi gtx 970.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

Not too much over budget , Yes the GTX 970 is better than the 290 but by a very small margin and probably not worth the extra 55 Pounds , I'd spend those towards an SSD maybe .
Your build didn't include HDD too so I added one.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/M4TByc
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/M4TByc/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£131.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.74 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£223.19 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case (£31.33 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£43.76 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £588.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-06 15:02 BST+0100

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

I wanted to keep the case, I already have a good enough SSD and HDD in my current build also I have watched plenty of reviews and the 970 uses less electricity and stays much cooler thus lasting longer. I also prefer the nvidia features.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

Also I wanted an atx motherboard and would prefer a decent amd route if possible.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

If you don't mind emptying your pockets then yeah go for the 970 , What makes people so mad about the 970 is that packs a punch while maintaining a low price and doesn't seem like that in the UK , yeah it consumes less power and yes its cooler but its about 24% more expensive than the 290 in the UK .

I was talking about the MSI GTX 970 , refrain from the EVGA ACX cooler as its mis-aligned.

It doesn't last longer , cards are designed to run safer at a certain temperature . AMD Cards run hotter but they last as long as Nvidia cards so the temps should only affect you if you want something that's cool not something that lasts longer.

The question here lies within how much money are you willing to spend and is the 970 ~25% faster than the 290 ?

Long story short , its not and if you have the required PSU already to run the 290 then uses less electricity should be less of a concern.

The 970 is better but in your case I'd get the 290 however still its down to you to choose whether to empty your pockets or go budget friendly for slightly less performance

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

If you don't mind emptying your pockets then yeah go for the 970 , What makes people so mad about the 970 is that packs a punch while maintaining a low price and doesn't seem like that in the UK , yeah it consumes less power and yes its cooler but its about 24% more expensive than the 290 in the UK .

I was talking about the MSI GTX 970 , refrain from the EVGA ACX cooler as its mis-aligned.

It doesn't last longer , cards are designed to run safer at a certain temperature . AMD Cards run hotter but they last as long as Nvidia cards so the temps should only affect you if you want something that's cool not something that lasts longer.

I get that AMD are better, but I really like NONE of AMDs features. Nvidia either already has it, had it first or AMD doesn't even have it. Plus the MSI 970 cooler is an amazing piece of technology and I almost want it just for that.

The question here lies within how much money are you willing to spend and is the 970 ~25% faster than the 290 ?

Long story short , its not and if you have the required PSU already to run the 290 then uses less electricity should be less of a concern.

The 970 is better but in your case I'd get the 290 however still its down to you to choose whether to empty your pockets or go budget friendly for slightly less performance

I would agree that AMD has better price to performance but I MUCH prefer Nvidia features as there is almost no AMD features I like. Also the MSI Twin Frozr V is such an amazing cooler.

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

This is a full ATX mobo : Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£55.99 @ Amazon UK) , less quality than Gigabyte which I highly recommend but hey its your money .

I won't recommend going AMD's way if gaming is your concern and here's why .

even the new 8370 OC to 4.2 Ghz can't keep up with the i3 in a on older game with a high end card.

Its less of a concern however with a budget friendly mid ranged card ( 270X )

Again same applies to BF4 and if you're curious Bioshock infinite and Metro LL are among the list .

In conclusion : You shouldn't pair the AMD cpus with anything higher than a 280X because you'll experience a bottleneck of about 5-15% depending on the game.

That's tom's experts conclusion : Depending on the game in question, AMD’s new processor has the potential to keep you happy around the AMD Radeon R9 270X/285 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 or 660 Ti level.

A higher- or even high-end graphics card doesn’t make sense, as pairing it with AMD's FX-8370E simply limits the card's potential.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

TopLuca :

This is a full ATX mobo : Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£55.99 @ Amazon UK) , less quality than Gigabyte which I highly recommend but hey its your money .

I won't recommend going AMD's way if gaming is your concern and here's why .

even the new 8370 OC to 4.2 Ghz can't keep up with the i3 in a on older game with a high end card.

Its less of a concern however with a budget friendly mid ranged card ( 270X )

Again same applies to BF4 and if you're curious Bioshock infinite and Metro LL are among the list .

In conclusion : You shouldn't pair the AMD cpus with anything higher than a 280X because you'll experience a bottleneck of about 5-15% depending on the game.

That's tom's experts conclusion : Depending on the game in question, AMD’s new processor has the potential to keep you happy around the AMD Radeon R9 270X/285 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 or 660 Ti level.

A higher- or even high-end graphics card doesn’t make sense, as pairing it with AMD's FX-8370E simply limits the card's potential.

Ok well help me with a build for the 970 down the intel route. Thank you by the way.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

Try to keep the budget in and around £600 (above if absolutely neccesary), Corsair 230T, preferably an overclockable cpu as I would like to learn how to overclock, no ssd or hdd as I already have them, 8gb ram and the msi gtx 970. Thanks!

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/LrjyLk
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/LrjyLk/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£131.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.74 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£259.87 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£42.99 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.38 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £592.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-06 15:38 BST+0100

This is what I'd do , overclockable CPU will raise the budget about 100 more pounds and I think we're already stretched enough.

Your always welcome sir.

carterdarter · Oct 6, 2014

Great this means another full week of research down the drain. Yayyyy...........

TopLuca · Oct 6, 2014

carterdarter :

It would have helped in the long run

junkeymonkey · Oct 6, 2014

lol -- for me its looking up gpu's so many to chose from and I never can decide one just one so it comes down to a flip of the coin or just get tired of looking and through one in the cart and be happy

Is the MSI 970 Gaming a good motherboard for FX 8320?

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