Asus vs Gigabyte

[Cralis]

I'm about to buy a new CPU/Motherboard/Memory.

I'm getting the AMD AM3 955 4X processor - but wondering which of these two motherboards I should gte:

Gigabyte MA770T-UD3 (This One)

or

Asus M4A78LT-M LE (This one)

My power supply is not new, but has a 20 pin power plug, as well as a 4 pin power plug. I'm pretty sure the Gigabyte board handles that. Not 100% sure if the Asus does. The Asus is $10 cheaper.

 

[EXT64]

Either should handle the old power plug fine. I have a couple computers using that Gigabyte board and from my experience, I would highly recommend it. That said, Asus makes solid boards as well, so either would probably be excellent (though I have no experience for that specific Asus board).

 

[EXT64]

One quick note, the gigabyte board does not have onboard Video, but that Asus board does. Do you need it?

 

[EXT64]

And one more, which might be big. The Asus board does not officially support any 955s (or any 125W CPUs for that matter). It may not be able to take the heat/power. The Gigabyte however can go up to 140W CPUs.

 

[Cralis]

Thanks EXT64 .

I think I'll go Gigabyte then... Most people I speak to seem to lean slightly towards them. As for the video - not really going to use onboard, so maybe the Gigabyte is better in that regard as well. Going to use the stock cooler that comes with the chip. Won't overclock or anything with that though. Hope it's still OK. Temps where the PC sits get to 34 degrees (C) sometimes..

Thanks for the help.

 

[EXT64]

Well, i used to be an Asus person, and then for whatever reason I went Gigabyte. Now, 6+ Gigabyte boards later they have never given me a good reason to leave them.

The stock cooler should do ok, just might not be the quietest thing.

 

[Cralis]

I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old, and a wife. 'Quiet' is not something I know much about.

 

[EXT64]

:lol: I see.

Well, enjoy your new computer and be sure to post back with any results/questions.

By the way, what is the power supply (your existing one) and graphics card?

 

[Cralis]

Best answer selected by Cralis.

 

[Cralis]

Ok, Maybe 80% success.

I have an issue though.

Pre upgrade, I was running 2 x 250Gb SATA drives, plus one 750 Gb Sata.

The 2 x 250Gbs were striped (Raid0) as one 500Gb drive. This was done using the onboard raid on my old MB. However, the drive seemed to crunch a lot. Is it worth using Raid from the onboard raid controller for a disk access performance increase? Or should I just run 2 x 250s stand alone?

I was told that Raid on the boards wasn't a great performance increase, so decided, for now, to run 3 separate drives.

Anyway, the issue is, I plugged the drives into my new MB. Bios correctly showed 2 * 250Gb and 1 x 750Gb (And my DVD RW). I then begain my Win7 (Ultimate) install. However, when it got to the drive selection for the install, it showed my 750, and only one 250gb drive.

I went back to the bios, changed settings, even changed the plugs to different 'poerts' on the board. Same issue.

I then tried to install Win7 onto the only showing 250Gb, and it gave an error saying it couldn't copy files to that drive.

I then decided to try the onboard raid. I set the two drives as Raid0, and restarted the install. This time it shows the 750Gb, and 1 x 500Gb drive (Which is the two 250s striped). I have since started installing onto that config. BUT...

When Win7 starts now, IT gets to the 'Starting windows 7' screen... but the balls that float in, and form the microsoft sign dn't appear for around 90 seconds. Just sits on 'Starting Windows 7'.. After 90 seconds, it sll starts normally. Balls come in, and Win7 starts, and flies nicely.

I then did the Performance rating, and all was [retty high, except the HDD access! It's down at 5.7. The rest are in the 6.5 to 6.9 range.

Should I maybe ditch raid, and try standalone? Any ideas why I can't at the moment? Maybe something on the drive, from the previous installation (on my old system) is indicating it was RAID before, and therefore, I can't run them as stand alone at the moment?

Hope someone can assist.

Oh, and a third question: I have a Sound Blaster card. Would it increase performance to use the card, or stick with the onboard stuff?

 

[Cralis]

Oh, Power Supply. I'm using an older 550W Power supply, and my video card is an NVidia 8600GTS. I think that needs upgrading.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

A new single 500GB platter drive would be much faster than those two old 250GB drives in RAID. HD technology has advanced right along with other hardware. New drives are much faster than drives from just a year or two ago. I would say the 5.7 rating is right, even with the drives in RAID. I highly recommend this drive.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

There is absolutely no reason to use your old Sound Blaster card. I would wager that the 8-channel on-board sound is every bit as good if not better.

 

[Cralis]

Thanks for that.
Soo... I need to now upgrade my HDDs. My wife is going to wipe me off this planet! hehe..

Priorities though would be:

Video Card Upgrade
CPU Fan Upgrade
HDD Upgrade

That CPU fan is noisy! Maybe someonecan recommend something that will help?

Also, at rest, in BIOS screen... CPU is at 47 degrees C, with the 'System temp' at 36 degrees. Is that OK? That's in the BIOS screen, so probably no action on the CPU.

I have one 'intake' fan at the bottom of my tower box, and then the power supply works as the extraction fan at the top. My 3 HDDs all sit in a HDD bay above the fan. They get warm. The two outer drives (Top and bottom) are sitting at 39 degrees, and the middle drive is 43 degrees. There is no fan blowing on them.

 

[EXT64]

Windows 7 experience will not rate a mechanical drive over 5.9 (to my knowledge).

BIOS actually does heat up the CPU. It isn't really at idle.

What is your case? if it is decently wide, the CM Hyper 212+ is a very quiet cooler (and can handle some decent OCs).
Edit: and it is (relatively) cheap too!

 

[Cralis]

Ah no.. looks like I have an issue.

The processor seems to idle around 46 degrees. I installed and ran Battlefield Bad Company last night. In my BIOS, I set the CPU Alarm to go off at 70 degrees. The options were 60, 70, 80 and 90, I think. 70 seemed like the right options.

Started playing, and all was good. I could hear the fan speeding up... My wife was watching TV, so I put on the earphones, and played for around 90 minutes. I heard my wife say something, so took off the earphones, and noticed the case was beeping! Must have been the alarm!

So, I ended the game, and bailed out. Downloaded an app called Core Temp, and got it laoded within 7 minutes of stopping the game, and the CPU was sitting at 60 degrees, and dropping. It come down to 47 after a few minutes...

Someone tells me that that is fine for this proc. But then I think I read somewhere that the max temp for the CPU is 64!

Oh hell!

Should I be dropping the alarm to 60 then? And what are my options for not wanting to fry my CPU! A new cooler was mentioned. I'm using the stock AMD one that came with the chip. But reviews I see, the better coolers drop the max down by maybe 10 degrees... Not enough, I don't think... Also, I have a small fan sucking in air from the front of the case, and then the PSU is working as the extractor.

The air from the CPU is warm all the time. Load or no load. I have 3 HDDs in the big tower case... the do seem to run warm. I have an infrared thermometer, which reads the outer drives around 46 degrees, and the middle one at 52 degrees...

Hope someone can guide me... Maybe I should start a new thread?