Need advice on a good mobo :)

[bennyy007]

Hello

Need some advice on a good solid motherboard capable for overclocking and also to get the best performance out of my current processor. At the moment I have a entry-level motherboard so I haven't overclocked my processor just for safety of my motherboard and cpu, below you will see my specs for my current build.

And I've built this pc myself so I'm no novice

My specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Quad-Core (Black Edition) @ 3Ghz
CPU Cooler: Stock Cooler (Looking into getting a better cooler)
Motherboard: ECS-GF8100VM-M5 (NVidia Chipset nForce 720a)
RAM: 2Gb Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-6400 800Mhz)
Case Cooling: Cooler Master Storm Scout w/ two additional fans on the side panel
Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce 8400 GS

I have come accross two motherboards that's taken to my eye, and both are within my budget but can't come to a final conclusion which will do the trick in hand.

MSI 790FX-GD70
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P

Though this may be off-subject but will a AM3 socket accept a AM2+ processor as my prcoessor only fits in a AM2+ socket ?

Also any suggestions on motherboards will be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advanced,
benny

 

[OvrClkr]

790x :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128387R&cm_re=790x-_-13-128-387R-_-Product

That is the only AM2+ i can recommend.....

You cannot use an AM3 board with the x4 940 because the 940 does not have a DDR3 controller.

 

[bennyy007]

790x :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128387R&cm_re=790x-_-13-128-387R-_-Product

That is the only AM2+ i can recommend.....

What's that mobo like for overclocking ? and to be honest any mobo would beat ECS out of the water in my opinion.

 

[OvrClkr]

The 790x is a superb overclocker. I used it in a build not too long ago and it screams, specially with the 940....

 

[bennyy007]

The 790x is a superb overclocker. I used it in a build not too long ago and it screams, specially with the 940....

Any places where I could get it as I live in the UK i've tried Scan.co.uk but no luck...

 

[OvrClkr]

Yea, you will have to search... I normally buy from Newegg and MC, basically stores that you do not have over in the UK.

Other great overclokers :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138143&cm_re=790-_-13-138-143-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138130&cm_re=790-_-13-138-130-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157156&cm_re=790-_-13-157-156-_-Product

 

[notty22]

Does your ecs m/b not have a user configurable bios ? There no reason if it does not to experiment now.

 

[bennyy007]

It does as soon as i fitted the new processor it gave me a new menu to alter the multiplier but, I tried to overclock to 3.50Ghz but can't seem to find the correct Vcore voltage to make it stable. Also I did a stress test on it when I overclocked it using prime95 and it lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes before two cores failed with rounding errors and I've read around about rounding errors and it comes down to Vcore.

Any ideas ?

 

[notty22]

OvrClkr might, he's a AMD guru. Your cpu is 3.00ghz, so go for 3.4, play with things from there. Little multi, and changing fsb ?

 

[bennyy007]

OvrClkr might, he's a AMD guru. Your cpu is 3.00ghz, so go for 3.4, play with things from there. Little multi, and changing fsb ?

Any ideas where I would find the FSB on my bios, its the AMI Bios, also would 3.4ghz run on stock voltage ? as default setting for this processor is 1.350v

 

[OvrClkr]

Yes, first off you should see your FSB on the same Bios page as the CPU frequency and voltages. Not sure if 3.4Ghz will run on stock voltage, you need to first make sure your ram timings/voltage and frequency are set as specified by the manufacturer before you do any overclocking, this is necessary for maximum stability. After you take care of the ram you can try upping the multiplier a bit while leaving the CPU voltage on AUTO. But AUTO is not recommended since the board will supply more voltage than needed. My sugestion would be to manually key in all the values instead of leaving them on AUTO. Let me know if you hit a wall =)

Just like notty said, play with your voltages till you find your sweet spot. As long as you do not over-volt the CPU you have nothing to worrry about....

Raising the FSB will also raise the RAM and CPU frequency so don't get carried away since this function does not neccesarily make the overclock more stable, some just like to raise the FSB to squeeze a bit more speed (RAM-wise)....

1.35v should be more than enough voltage for 3.4Ghz

 

[bennyy007]

Thank you OvrClkr I'll give it a shot and see what the outcome is and I'll defiantly let you know, shall I run a stress test or not once I've overclocked ?

 

[OvrClkr]

Yes but first I would write down all the values (settings) that you manually key in. This way if you decide to push it a lil further you still have the settings that worked prior to the second overclock. This is neccesary since it is most likely that you will get a BSOD and you will need to revert to the previous settings =)

 

[bennyy007]

Yes but first I would write down all the values (settings) that you manually key in. This way if you decide to push it a lil further you still have the settings that worked prior to the second overclock. This is neccesary since it is most likely that you will get a BSOD and you will need to revert to the previous settings =)

I haven't done much changing to be honest, other than the voltage which when i enable the multiplier its set at 1.550 which way too high for start so i lowed it too 1.350 default setting, and then change the multiplier to 3.4Ghz. So I'll give a stress test now, any ideas on how long i should leave the stress on for ?

 

[OvrClkr]

I haven't done much changing to be honest, other than the voltage which when i enable the multiplier its set at 1.550 which way too high for start so i lowed it too 1.350 default setting, and then change the multiplier to 3.4Ghz. So I'll give a stress test now, any ideas on how long i should leave the stress on for ?

Try blend testing for at least a few hours. Then later on you can test with LARGE FFT's for another few hours and you should be fine. I normally test for at least 12 hours when I am done with a build, best way to do this is let the PC running at night and check in the morning after you wake up

 

[bennyy007]

Try blend testing for at least a few hours. Then later on you can test with LARGE FFT's for another few hours and you should be fine. I normally test for at least 12 hours when I am done with a build, best way to do this is let the PC running at night and check in the morning after you wake up

Just reporting back And I was successful and I did both tests Blend and LARGE FFT did both for 6 hours and everything went smoothly all cores remained active none failed! So thank you OvrClkr

Now all I need to do is get myself some good RAM in there :lol:

 

[OvrClkr]

Just reporting back And I was successful and I did both tests Blend and LARGE FFT did both for 6 hours and everything went smoothly all cores remained active none failed! So thank you OvrClkr

Now all I need to do is get myself some good RAM in there :lol:

Sweet

 

[bennyy007]

Any ideas why I can't get my mobo to accept two ram sticks ? only seems to work with one but two it just won't boot not even show bios-post...

 

[OvrClkr]

run memtest on each stick :

http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

 

[bennyy007]

is that necessary when they are brand new, only brought them today quite odd...

 

[OvrClkr]

yes, just to make sure that you do not have any bad sticks, ram manufacturers will send out faulty sticks every now n then... I have had my share with OCZ in the past.. Now I only buy G.Skill or Mushkin...

Do you have both sticks under the same color?

 

[bennyy007]

Yeah brought them as a pair not separate, but pc seems to be running alot quicker even with one in although not forgetting the overclocked processor so i'm happy for now but tomorrow i'll look into getting it sorted so i can get playing with 4gigs

 

[OvrClkr]

What I meant is when you install the ram, both sticks must be under the same color (slot) in order for them to run in dual channel =)

 

[bennyy007]

Oh sorry lol yeah they both the same colour slots, its one of those boards where you only have two slots mines a micro-atx board.

 

[notty22]

Did you try reseating them, and switching them ? If they both seem to work independently maybe you need a little more voltage or a little timing (less) tweak to get the pair going.