Best Motherboard for AMD Phenom II X4 940?

Hello all,

Putting together a new rig to last at least 3 years and going with the new AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor. I am stuck on which motherboard to get and cost is not an issue here as I am looking for something that is rock solid stable that can run DDR2 1066 well, can do a good crossfire setup, and has no major issues to deal with.

I understand that I may need to do a bios upgrade. I simply want a good unit for gaming, hdtv, multimedia, etc...

I know I want to use at least one ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB card to begin with and maybe add another down the road.

Pondering on Windows XP 64bit or Windows Vista 64bit for operating systems until Windows 7 is released.

Power Supply is also an issue but not as hard as the motherboard.

Any information, suggestions, referrals, etc....will be greatily appreciated.

Michael

Some MSI boards aren't great though.

Also just leave a note in the comments section asking them to update your BIOS, it'll save you time and possibly money if you end up having to buy another CPU to update the BIOS.

This would be my vote:

GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128381 $114.99

All the benchmarks I've seen show very little difference between 8x crossfire and 16x crossfire. It's kind of like the difference between the Intel P45 and X48 chipsets. The X48 is very rarely recommended because the P45 does crossfire just fine even though it's only at 8x link speed.

Think I found my motherboard!

ASUS M4A79 Deluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131361

I like the features it has and yes its a 790FX northbridge with a SB750 southbridge for excellent overclocking potential.

Has 4 PCI express slots which will give me plenty of room to crossfire in.

motherboard can support AM3 processors as well for future upgrades.

RAM can work at 1066 if you configure it properly DDR2 1066*/800
*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+ / AM3 CPU for one DIMM per channel only---oh well no biggie!

Asus and AMD seem to go well together...now off to figuring out a good power supply and which 64 bit OS to use

Thanks all!

Michael

Ya I was considering Vista 64bit for dx10 and more ram usage...the power supply you recommended is rated well and I heard some good things about it...also was looking between the 700-800watt range so I thank you for the input.

Think I am going with either Coolmaster Hyper TX2 or the Xigmatek HDT S1283 for my cpu cooler. Probably the Coolmaster because its much more quiet.

Then its time to concentrate on the case lol...i know alot of people do that first but that is usually last for me...one with good air flow and case fan placing options...functional

Michael

quick change...think i am going with this power supply:

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified

Good deal with sale and rated very very well with plenty of connectors

I noticed that motherboard before I ordered everything today

Boards are rather similar and I decided to go with my pick.

I bought 8 GBs of Mushkin (4X2gb) DDR2 1066 and figure I will do fine.

Here it is:

Antec 900 Case
Asus M4A79 Deluxe Motherboard
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB Video Card
Corsair 750Watt Power Supply
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Processor
Mushkin 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 1066 Ram
Seagate Barracude 250GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive
(2) LG 22X DVD Burners
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Arctic Silver Thermal Remover and Surface Purifier

ordered 2 cooling fans and will stick with the best one that does not interfere with motherboard components and upgrades too much.

Coolmaster Hyper TX2 CPU Cooler
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler

and added:

Saitek Black USB Eclipse Keyboard
Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse

Going to hold on sound card and speaker system until later. Thinking HT Omega Striker if EAX is good and Logitech speaker system.

Thanks all for your input,

Michael

Hi TS check out the P2X4 940BE + Foxconn 790FX combo price on Egg!

Which of these motherboards would support SLI? I have done some research and i like the look of the Asus m4a79t deluxe but not sure if i will be able to bridge 2 nvidia 9600Gt graphics cards or if it only supports crossfire.