Gigabyte or MSI

[03RAH03]

OVERVIEW

Which of these two boards would you recommend: GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H or an MSI 790GX-G65?

MSI board has a memory clock speed of 1600 while the gigabyte has 1333. Thats not much of an advantage in performance gain.

Gigabyte board has the ultra durable 3 feature, solid state capacitors, apparently having a longer life. I'm not sure if the manufacture quality
of the MSI board is as good as the Gigabyte.

The MSI board seems to be a better over clocker.

SYSTEM

This board will have a Phenom II X4 955 BE and an ATI 5870 vid card later on. I am not going to do Crossfire. I want the integrated video so that
I can use the system while I save up to get the 5870. Perhaps use hybrid crossfire after I get the card for some dx10 apps, but i doubt it would be beneficial.

I would like to be able to switch between using the 5870 and the integrated graphics to save some power when not gaming. A simple change in BIOS settings will be nice, but I think Ill have to remove the card each time I go from gaming to less video intense computing.

MY QUESTIONS

1. Does the ultra durable 3 feature make the Gigabyte board have a longer life span than the MSI board?

2. Is the MSI board much better at over clocking?

3. Which board would you recommend and why?

 

[Shadow703793]

1. Not sure. But it should contribute some what to the reliability.

2. No.

3. The Gigabyte as I don't trust MSI's quality after having several of their boards die on me.

 

[03RAH03]

Thanks for the advice. Anyone else have any?

 

[Pointertovoid]

If I get the picture properly (as I use PIII and C2D) the Ram connects directly to the Phenom II, so the mobo's sole role is to put some copper stripes between them and tell different things in the Bios settings... Probably little effect on the maximum frequency!

I've recently preferred Gigabyte to Msi because they provide support (doc, drivers...) for a very long time. And among my ~20 mobos, one Msi died, which is too little for statistics. My nice Msi815ept, which overclocked so much better than the Ga-6oxt that replaces it.

I didn't consider Asus because I had bought an expensive and well-renowned Tusl2c, said to be the best for overclocking... And it did so by forcing Ram latency up and Agp throughput down when the user increased the Fsb, forcing back any choice, and not telling it. May Allah shave off their moustache!

Beware of the ALC889A audio, it adds several seconds Windows boot time and includes Drm. Also, any added JMicron controller (renamed Gigabyte SataRaid) adds some 5s Bios time: mine is now deactivated. You might google or ask the Bios durations, as Gigabyte can be slow.

Today's PciE 1x will soon become too slow, as Ethernet and Ssd near the PciE and Sata300 limits and still improve. It would be wise to have wider expansion ports; check that any 8x video slot can accept a non-video card: some Bios do, others don't.

 

[03RAH03]

If I get the picture properly (as I use PIII and C2D) the Ram connects directly to the Phenom II, so the mobo's sole role is to put some copper stripes between them and tell different things in the Bios settings... Probably little effect on the maximum frequency!

I've recently preferred Gigabyte to Msi because they provide support (doc, drivers...) for a very long time. And among my ~20 mobos, one Msi died, which is too little for statistics. My nice Msi815ept, which overclocked so much better than the Ga-6oxt that replaces it.

I didn't consider Asus because I had bought an expensive and well-renowned Tusl2c, said to be the best for overclocking... And it did so by forcing Ram latency up and Agp throughput down when the user increased the Fsb, forcing back any choice, and not telling it. May Allah shave off their moustache!

Beware of the ALC889A audio, it adds several seconds Windows boot time and includes Drm. Also, any added JMicron controller (renamed Gigabyte SataRaid) adds some 5s Bios time: mine is now deactivated. You might google or ask the Bios durations, as Gigabyte can be slow.

Today's PciE 1x will soon become too slow, as Ethernet and Ssd near the PciE and Sata300 limits and still improve. It would be wise to have wider expansion ports; check that any 8x video slot can accept a non-video card: some Bios do, others don't.

Thanks for the info. The board does have ALC889A audio. Seems that I am also mistaken about the memory clock speed as well. Newegg has it listed as 1600(o.c.), but on the memory support list, gigabyte says it supports up to 1666.

Is there another mobo you would recommend that has both a 790gx north and sb750 southbridge?

 

[jsc]

I also like Gigabyte (four boards plus a friends X58).

 

[nhlguy11]

I also have had very good experiences with gigabyte.

 

[1ce]

I wouldn't concern myself with completely disabling the 5870 to reduce power. The idle power is so low on that card (27 Watts) that you are practically wasting your effort. This is significantly lower than any other high end video card on the market.

 

[03RAH03]

I wouldn't concern myself with completely disabling the 5870 to reduce power. The idle power is so low on that card (27 Watts) that you are practically wasting your effort. This is significantly lower than any other high end video card on the market.

Wow, that is impressive. The price of it seems to be a bit high atm, but its nice to know it is efficient. You can get two 4870s for less cash.

 

[03RAH03]

Im also a bit confused as to what memory I can use with the Gigabyte card. Can I use this G.SKILL memory?

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279

Its not listed on the Memory Support List at the Gigabyte site (http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3145).

The specifications of the motherboard says it will work with this RAM though.

What do you pros think?

 

[Shadow703793]

The Ripjaws will work fine.

 

[03RAH03]

Thank you Shadow. With that memory I should be able to have up to 8 gigs? Not that I will need it anytime soon.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Yes. 8GB will be fine. (Note: You will need to increase RAM voltage a bit usually when running 4 DIMMs. )