AM3+ motherboard on a 120$ budget

[ppetkovski]

I've recently bought FX-6300 to replace my old Athlon X4, and now I need to change the mainboard because the current one I have, the AsRock 960GC-GS is giving me headaches and it's really low performing and buggy with this CPU, not to mention it has only 3 power phases and that means no overclocking.

Here are the mainboards that are available on the market here. My budget is around 100 - 120$

• 
  Asus M5A97 R2.0 ~ 102$
  AsRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 ~ 90$
  AsRock 990FX Extreme 3 ~ 117$
  Gigabyte 970A-DS3P ~ 82$
  Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 ~ 119$

I want to note that I will be overclocking the CPU, to around 4 - 4.2 GHz.

What's your opinion and your favourite?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 ~ 119$

 

[junkeymonkey]

i'll agree with black bird giga 990fxa ud3 all the way

 

[ppetkovski]

Yes, a lot of people have recommended me that board. But, some folks have mentioned some issues with the chipset overheating and shutting down because of the heat coming from the graphics card. Nothing serious if I have good case cooling right?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

If it's Rev. 4 it's ok.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4672#ov

 

[ppetkovski]

If it's Rev. 4 it's ok.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4672#ov

It's Rev 3 with the flat heatsink. I guess I'm going to put a couple more coolers

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Don't buy Rev. 3 .

 

[ppetkovski]

Don't buy Rev. 3 .

So I guess the 990XA is out of the game? What's the next best contender?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Asus M5A97 R2.0

 

[junkeymonkey]

well lets be fair rev 3 and below can be good as long as the chip is not pushing too much watts like a 9370 blast heater

but yes if you get anything outher than the rev 4 nowadays i would send it back as there pushing old stock cause as long as this boards been around and as long as rev 4 been out theres no reason to get any thing but a rev4 board

 

[ppetkovski]

well lets be fair rev 3 and below can be good as long as the chip is not pushing too much watts like a 9370 blast heater

but yes if you get anything outher than the rev 4 nowadays i would send it back as there pushing old stock cause as long as this boards been around and as long as rev 4 been out theres no reason to get any thing but a rev4 board

Will try and get my hands on the 990XA through ebay. Where I live in Macedonia, we have a pretty limited choice for AMD boards, it's really rare to find a good high end board. And yes, what's the matter with the 9370? 220 Watts is just insane.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

9000 series chips are a waste of money , thermal garbage.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://set.com.mk/Computers-IT/PC-and-PC-equipment/Motherboard/ASUS-M5A99FX-PRO-R2024653
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0

 

[junkeymonkey]

ya i yet to understand that 220w thing or most anything amd done lately

fx 8320 looks to be a sweet deal [opinion]

 

[ppetkovski]

http://set.com.mk/Computers-IT/PC-and-PC-equipment/Motherboard/ASUS-M5A99FX-PRO-R2024653
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0

How did you find this website? Yeah I'm looking at it too. I think I'm going to up my budget just to get this. Looks nice

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

It's a great board that also supports Dual cards.

Very solid ASUS board for the AM3+ Platform.

 

[junkeymonkey]

i would have to dislike you to recomend asus to you.. lol

 

[ppetkovski]

Ok guys, tomorrow I'm choosing between the ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 and the GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD5.
Which one should I choose? I like the FXA for the looks and the better VRM, but the M5A99FX is a little bit cheaper.

 

[NightAntilli]

Unless there's a specific feature that you wish to have from the GIGABYTE motherboard, simply go for the Asus. The differences do not justify the higher price tag of the GIGABYTE.

I have the M5A99FX. No issues whatsoever, I have an FX-8320 with it, which is quite power hungry.

 

[junkeymonkey]

just do a search on each board and see what one gets the most issues threads kinda like these 3 to start

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/all.html?refine=+M5A99FX

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/all.html?refine=+990FXA-UD5

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/all.html?refine=M5A97+R2.0