Motherboard advice for AMD FX-8150

[Cerbo Knight]

Hi all, I've just purchased an AMD FX-8150 (8 core, 3.6GHz) and was looking for motherboard suggestions. I was thinking this
but wasn't sure if it would be a suitable choice.

I'm going to be running it alongside 8 gigs of RAM, a single (soon to be 2) GTX 550ti and on a corsair 700 watt PSU.

Thoughts and suggestions please.

 

[geekapproved]

What's your budget?

Do you need onboard video?

Do you plan to run SLI?

ARe you overclocking?

 

[morbious81]

Looks like a good board. Depending on your price range and the case you're putting it in I'd look into the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX. Picked one up a little while ago, and love it. It's good for my use, but you're not me. either way the one you posted seems to be a solid board.

 

[Wisecracker]

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3: $124 before $10 rebate

 

[Cerbo Knight]

My budget is no higher than £90, I don't really need onboard video (got the GTX 550ti) and I plan to get a second one, so yes SLI is needed.

I will be overclocking, but I'm not looking to break any records here.

 

[TheBigTroll]

should have picked intel but ok.

the 990fxa-ud3 is a great board. the other one id recommend is the m5a97 evo from asus

 

[Cerbo Knight]

Can't pick intel. I needed to build on a budget and intel would have torn through it.
Thanks for the recommendations though.

 

[TheBigTroll]

of course you can. if a intel pentium g630 can match fx 8150 performance in games, i dont see why you wouldnt go that route

 

[Wisecracker]

Nothing wrong with the FX-8150 -- except it costs more than the FX-8120

The GB 990FX-UD3 motherboard is an early revision that does not have LLC (that is why it is so inexpensive - the new revisions are coming out), nor does it have the beefier VRM of the -UD5 or -UD7.

It does have everything else, including x16/x16 CrossFire/SLI. I run 2 external drive enclosures off the dual eSATA.

Be certain that your backup BIOS is the same as your main BIOS (read the manual!)


edit:

£103.19 Inc VAT at Scan UK

£99.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK at amazon

Looks to be in-between at eBuyer. If that busts your budget, either the GB 990XA-UD3 or Asus M5A99X will CrossFire/SLI at x8/x8.

 

[geekapproved]

of course you can. if a intel pentium g630 can match fx 8150 performance in games, i dont see why you wouldnt go that route

Yeah games that require only 2 cores........of course most modern games run best with 3-4 cores.

Besides, 8150 beats Pentium G in just about everything else.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=434

 

[geekapproved]

should have picked intel but ok.

the 990fxa-ud3 is a great board. the other one id recommend is the m5a97 evo from asus

Ignore the typical fanboy reply.

 

[Regor245]

"Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?"

 

[Wisecracker]

Not sure what your point is -- other than being a terrible game for AMD, the PhII 965BE at $90 is a slam dunk compared to the Intel dual-cores that require a new mobo, too.

We still don't know the mobo model number -- an average motherboard will easily run the 965 at 3.8GHz (and higher) with good air.

And it will move to an AM3+ motherboard -- bringing Bulldozer, Piledriver and hopefully, Steamroller to the table.

 

[TheBigTroll]

Ignore the typical fanboy reply.

in my family, we've been using amd chips for quite a while. my cousin has a athlon ii x4, we have a first gen athlon sitting around, a phenom laptop that broke recently, and another athlon 64 in some other rig we have lying around. as far as i know, we have a inte i5 460m laptop, a pentium e2220, a p4, and my i7 3770k. just stating information that is out there on the webs

if he was to game, he should have picked up the phenom ii x4 965.

 

[geekapproved]

http://media.bestofmicro.com/E/6/353022/original/average perf.png

"Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?"

Of course none of those are MP benchmarks.

 

[geekapproved]

in my family, we've been using amd chips for quite a while. my cousin has a athlon ii x4, we have a first gen athlon sitting around, a phenom laptop that broke recently, and another athlon 64 in some other rig we have lying around. as far as i know, we have a inte i5 460m laptop, a pentium e2220, a p4, and my i7 3770k. just stating information that is out there on the webs

if he was to game, he should have picked up the phenom ii x4 965.

That's great, but recommending a pentium G over a 8150 is just ignorant without knowing what his other uses are, because obviously the 8150 obliterates a Pentium G in just about everything except gaming.

Not to mention he said he ALREADY has the 8150.

 

[morbious81]

I don't care what anyone thinks my Intel i3 can play forger like a mother and that's just fine by me.......... sorry I had to poke the hornets’ nest.

When it comes down to it buy a chip that fits your need, doesn't matter whose name is on it. In this case he has already chosen a chip, and needs an opinion on what board to plug it into. I'd have picked the 965 over the 8150 personally, but I'm partial to the chip. That is irrelevant. He already has a FX-8150. Let’s stick to helping him solve the problem of which board to plug it into.

 

[Cerbo Knight]

Well, I didn't meant to kick up a fuss.

This isn't going to be a permanent build though, so this motherboard doesn't have to last. I'm going to build myself an intel setup in the next few months but this is just to get by (I can't stand using my current setup much longer).
If I were to go with the motherboard that I linked to begin with, what kind of overclock could I expect? Using a corsair H60.

Also what kind of settings could I run BF3 on? I'm already playing it on low/med with a celeron E3400 @ 3.24 GHz with 4 gigs of RAM and a GTX 550ti, but I'm just wondering about the performance gains now. Not that it's really going to affect me in the long run, like I said this isn't a permanent setup I'm just wondering if anyone would know.

Thanks for all the help too

 

[morbious81]

The OC would depend on the exact board and APU you get, and your OCing ability and patience. no two pieces of hardware are exactly the same. I would expect you'll be able to knock your detail level up to high or better. The APU, GPU (soon to be GPU's I guess) and ram should handle that pretty well for you.

 

[Cerbo Knight]

Thanks for the answer, and all the info in this thread was useful to me in some way, if it wasn't related to the current build!

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Cerbo Knight]

Well I bought the board and have been using it pretty much since I stopped posting in this thread, I thought it fair to give an update.

It's great, can't fault it at all. Had a little trouble with windows installation (mostly the partitions, apparently you can't extend to the left...) and BSOD a few times but apart from that it's all working well, and it plays BF3 maxed out at a very decent fps (around the 40 mark, 30 on larger maps). I was surprised that I could use the mouse in BIOS though, I felt like I'd lept into 2012 finally.

Thanks for the help, I'd definitely send anyone else here.

 

[Cerbo Knight]

Can't edit the above post so adding this:

There's two things I don't like with my new build, one is the startup time, is it normal to see the "Press Del for setup" screen about 3 times? The other is the tone of the POST message. The beep is different but that's neither here nor there.

 

[Wisecracker]

If you purchased the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3, you need to verify that the Main BIOS is the same as the Backup BIOS.

Check the first BIOS section of your motherboard manual