Looking for a new mobo and RAM. Phenom II 955 proc.

[rs2k]

I have a Gigabyte Ultra Durable 3 AM2+ motherboard (MA785GM) with an AMD Phenom II x4 955 "black edition" processor and 6 gigs of unmatched DDR2 RAM (4 GB of 1066 and 2 GB of 666 all running at 666). I have the unmatched RAM because I just happened to have the 2GB lying around and 4GB was not enough.

This poor computer has been through a lot. It's been on fire three times. Once when the power supply failed spectacularly (Flames and black smoke everywhere), once when a second power supply failed (just smoke), once when a capacitor on the motherboard blew up (No black smoke, but a nice small jet of flame). After the second and third fire it took a few hours before the computer would turn on again.

It's been running fine for the most part for a few months since the third "incident," but I do get "micro locks" every once in a while and I really think it's time to upgrade and lay this motherboard to rest.

Can I get some recommendations for a semi decent motherboard and RAM combos (6 - 8 GB) that will work with my current processor. I don't know the proper way to match RAM to motherboards and processors for best results. I would also like to upgrade to a 6+ core processor in the future since I tend to max all cores out frequently. I do a lot of heavy duty multitasking with several monitors. I really need to keep the price as low as possible at the moment though so I will stick with my current processor for now.

 

[geekapproved]

I don't see the point of buying a new mobo and new ram, obviously you have your configuration all screwed up.

What is your ram configuration? How many sticks of what size? Are they all the same voltage? Do yo have the bios set to the correct voltage according to the sticker on the dimms?

Are you even running in dual channel mode?

I would rather have 4GB of DDR2-1066 than 6GB of DDR2-667.

What are the power supplies you had the keep blowing up? I mean really, you buy junk, that's what you can expect, junk.

After we figure that all out maybe we can recommend something, IF it's needed.

 

[rs2k]

The third capacitor was actually on the motherboard itself, not another PSU. My third PSU hasn't been a problem at all.

The 6 GB of RAM is definitely faster than the 4 GB was. 6GB is almost not enough, but I can easily make it work.

The setup was working quite well until the motherboard capacitor blew. Only thing I'm getting since then are micro locks. I'm wanting to replace this mother board as I don't really trust it any more.

The first PSU that blew was a 500 watt no name that came with the case.
The second was a 550 watt Antec. (Not really junk)

Intel SDD for main drive.


PC info:

Spoiler

Field Value
CPU Properties
CPU Type QuadCore AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 955
CPU Alias Deneb
CPU Stepping RB-C2
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
CPUID Revision 00100F42h
CPU VID 1.3500 V
North Bridge VID 1.1000 V

CPU Speed
CPU Clock 3611.0 MHz
CPU Multiplier 18x
CPU FSB 200.6 MHz (original: 200 MHz)
HyperTransport Clock 2006.1 MHz
North Bridge Clock 2006.1 MHz
Memory Bus 334.4 MHz
DRAM:FSB Ratio 10:6

CPU Cache
L1 Code Cache 64 KB per core
L1 Data Cache 64 KB per core
L2 Cache 512 KB per core (On-Die, ECC, Full-Speed)
L3 Cache 6 MB (On-Die, ECC, NB-Speed)

Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 05/17/2010-RS785-SB710-7A66BG05C-00
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

Chipset Properties
Motherboard Chipset AMD 785G, AMD K10
Memory Timings 5-5-5-15 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
Command Rate (CR) 2T
DIMM1: OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ2F10662G 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-13 @ 333 MHz) (3-4-4-10 @ 266 MHz)
DIMM2: OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ2F10662G 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 400 MHz) (4-5-5-13 @ 333 MHz) (3-4-4-10 @ 266 MHz)
DIMM3: PNY Tech. 1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)
DIMM4: Aeneon AET760UD00-30DB97X 1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz) (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz) (3-3-3-9 @ 200 MHz)

BIOS Properties
System BIOS Date 05/17/10
Video BIOS Date 03/26/10
Award BIOS Type Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Award BIOS Message GA-MA785GM-US2H F11
DMI BIOS Version F11

Graphics Processor Properties
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4200 (RS880)
GPU Code Name RS880 (Integrated 1002 / 9710, Rev 00)
GPU Clock 494 MHz (original: 850 MHz)


I also have an ATI Radeon 5770 installed.

 

[rs2k]

Best answer selected by rs2k.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr