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MATX Board for enthusiast, non-gamer

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - MATX Board for enthusiast, non-gamer

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I am looking at AM3 mATX boards,

have narrowed down to the:

Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H

and MSI 785GM-E65 or E51

I intend to use the onboard GPU for a while so I can save up for a proper PCI-E 2.0 card.

I use the computer for web design, photoshop and a pretty intensive flight simulator.

I have had a MSI board in the past and really like it. However, I'm also wondering what people have to say about other brands (Asus, Foxconn, Biostar, etc...)

What suggestions does anyone have?

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From my personal experience, Gigabyte is the best for AMD processors, and Asus is the best for Intel based systems. This is based on price/performance and features. It seems those two boards in general have better reliability and are optimized better for the respective platforms. For design, editing, and media use, you could easily get by with the onboard graphics. I expect your flight simulator will need something more unless its older software. A good way to tell about any product is to read the consumer reviews on newegg and other sites. Keep in mind a good 25% of complaints comes from user error, but other than that it will give you a good idea of strengths and weaknesses of any potential purchase.

Reply to belial2k

thanks for the insight! I had originally been leaning towards the Gigabyte product, but I've read good reviews on the MSI and have personally had good experience with their products too.

I guess I'll be no worse off with either brand. Now I just need to wait for a good sale to pop up.

Reply to darkfa8

Its also partly to do with which processor you choose. If you want to try to enable cores on the x2 and x3 processors, be sure you get a board that has had success with that. I just finished building a editing/design computer for a guy who designs websites using the Gigabyte board and x2 550BE. When all was said and done, I had all 4 cores running at a stable 3.6 on stock voltage. Not too shabby for a $100 processor and $90 board.

Reply to belial2k

Sign me up as another pro-Gigabyte user.

Reply to jsc

I also prefer Gigabyte but have used many MSI motherboards without any issues.
I also have a MSI graphics card.

Reply to zipzoomflyhigh

any thoughts on the Asus:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131406

This really is a touch decision since all of the boards seem more or less the same. I almost feel as thought I have to buy a bunch of them and see what they're like in person, but that's rather costly.

Maybe I'll have to download the manuals for all of the boards in question and see how the device layout, BIOS layout/functions and documentation quality compares.

Wish there was a local place i could go to check all these out, but I don't know of any such place =\

Reply to darkfa8

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MATX Board for enthusiast, non-gamer

Forum Motherboards & Memory : General Motherboard - MATX Board for enthusiast, non-gamer