Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H Motherboard

[AMD X6850]

I'm planning on buying this motherboard, but when I visited Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128435), there was a lot of feedback about the board being DOA or failing after a short time. Feedback on other sites doesn't mention this and say it is a good board.
Is the GA-890GPA-UD3H worth buying (I don't want it to have problems ) or should I go for the slightly more expensive ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3?

 

[jaquith]

Welcome to Tom's Forum!

There's no such a thing a 'perfect' MOBO, but in general I recommend in order: ASUS, ASRock, MSI, and Gigabyte. Frequently, DOA can be from installation error; e.g. standoff, I/O, CPU fan backplate -- shorts or bad: PSU, GPU, CPU -- you name it.

Q - Do you need the onboard GPU?
Q - What GPU are you purchasing, if any?

 

[AMD X6850]

I plan on buying a HIS 1GB 6850, so I don't think I will be using the onboard GPU (though it's nice to know that it is there if I need it ).

EDIT: One other thing that has been bothering me is AMD's Bulldozer line of processors. I would like my motherboard to have future upgrade capability, yet it seems that Bulldozer will only be compatible with AM3+. The current release date of AM3+ is seems to be Q4 2011. Will AM3+ motherboards be released within the next few months?

 

[jaquith]

The onboard will decrease your HD 6850 performance by 5~20%, and I don't recommend it. As far as either the Bulldozer {est Q1 2012} or the AM3+ {est Q3~Q4 2011} there's been only speculation and nothing official.

 

[AMD X6850]

The onboard will decrease your HD 6850 performance by 5~20%, and I don't recommend it.

Um, I don't understand. Do you recommend me just using the 6850 and disabling the onboard? That makes sense.

Anyway, thanks for the help mate, I've come to the conclusion to just go with the Gigabyte board and if anything happens, I can always return it.

 

[AMD X6850]

Best answer selected by AMD X6850.

 

[jaquith]

Um, I don't understand. Do you recommend me just using the 6850 and disabling the onboard? That makes sense.

YES - Your BIOS 'may' allow you to Disable the onboard VGA, and at the very least reduce its' memory to the lowest value. Next in the Device Manager find the onboard VGA and Disable it there. It's always on and running, and the bandwidth that it 'Shares' with the HD 6850 never goes away, and at best you can reduce its additional 'Shared' Physical RAM. In Windows 7 you'll see Hardware Reserved as 0.25~0.5+GB loss even in Windows 64-bit -- it's being allocated via the BIOS.