720 Be + Ga-ma790xt-ud4p

Hey guys. New member here. Been lurking on the forums for months and finally decided to sign up since I ordered some new toys this morning :D

AMD Phenom II X3 720
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649

GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128378

CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145200

My current system consists of Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe, Opteron 175 @ 270x10, and 2GB of Corsair XMS PC3200. I set an upgrade budget of $350 (lol you know how those go) but was really torn on whether I should go the AM2+ route or jump into the AM3 and DDR3. Since my current system is just DDR, didn't really make sense to me to buy DDR2 since DDR3 has gotten cheaper even though it doesn't offer much tangible benefit now. My thinking is in a year or so, I might have a better chance of dropping in a new CPU with the AM3 DDR3 combo than on an AM2+ DDR2 if AMD decides to drop the DDR2 support in the future CPUs.

Anyway, this is my first Gigabyte board, so I hope it doesn't disappoint. I used to strickly use MSI until I moved into the s939, then I had an Asus K8V Deluxe which I swapped out for the A8R32-MVP Deluxe (love that board) and PCIe support.

Does anyone know if the 720 BE comes with a heatsink... and if so, is it any good to get started with some mild overclocking? I had heard the one that came with the 940 wasn't bad to start out with but anything past about 3.5ghz needed an upgrade.

If it's retail it should, I have no clue if its as beefy though.

The majority of gigabyte boards although not amd seem to be able to clock higher, they however need more volts as well. The asus although not record breakers seem to be a little more stable for 24/7 usage. this is just my view on the WHOLE outlook of asus versus gigabyte.

I will say my gigabyte has lackluster memory options in an amd variant if ram tweaking is your thing. It's also an onboard video board though, not particularly high end.

Yeah, I went with a 790X because the FX was a little out of my price range for the Giga and Asus boards currently available... and I only have one video card and doubt I'll crossfire it. I skipped looking for a GX because I don't need the onboard video and thought maybe it would add additional heat to the NB.

BTW, those are awesome results on that 720 you've been playing with. I read that this morning and it just sealed the deal on my purchase. :up:

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Yeah, I went with a 790X because the FX was a little out of my price range for the Giga and Asus boards currently available... and I only have one video card and doubt I'll crossfire it. I skipped looking for a GX because I don't need the onboard video and thought maybe it would add additional heat to the NB.

BTW, those are awesome results on that 720 you've been playing with. I read that this morning and it just sealed the deal on my purchase. :up:

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Where are the Results *chew is getting? I am thinking of the exact combo you are, although i may opt for ddr2, ma790X - ud4 am2+/am3 ddr2 as it seems you really need the 1600+ ddr3 and a 2.8 nb to see a noticable difference, for that price i d rather have 8 or 16 gb of ddr2 oc'd ;P. But i am interested in what volts, temps etc, these chips run at vs 940.

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Originally Posted by chew*

If it's retail it should, I have no clue if its as beefy though.

The majority of gigabyte boards although not amd seem to be able to clock higher, they however need more volts as well. The asus although not record breakers seem to be a little more stable for 24/7 usage. this is just my view on the WHOLE outlook of asus versus gigabyte.

I will say my gigabyte has lackluster memory options in an amd variant if ram tweaking is your thing. It's also an onboard video board though, not particularly high end.

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I've noticed that Giga boards are a little thin on ram options as well, luckily for me I am an impatient OC'er and usually only glance over the ram unless I have a really bad chip that needs help desperately.

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Originally Posted by villa1n

Where are the Results *chew is getting? I am thinking of the exact combo you are, although i may opt for ddr2, ma790X - ud4 am2+/am3 ddr2 as it seems you really need the 1600+ ddr3 and a 2.8 nb to see a noticable difference, for that price i d rather have 8 or 16 gb of ddr2 oc'd ;P. But i am interested in what volts, temps etc, these chips run at vs 940.

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His results: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=217679

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Originally Posted by iandh

I've noticed that Giga boards are a little thin on ram options as well, luckily for me I am an impatient OC'er and usually only glance over the ram unless I have a really bad chip that needs help desperately.

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I'm the same, I don't find alot of joy in getting really granular on memory tweaking. If I can set the major timings, voltage and speed and I'm usually satisfied :)

Well, welcome to the our favorite AMD insane asylum!

Cool choices of parts. I'm thinking about the same things, or maybe the DDR2 version of the mobo, cuz I have piles of DDR2 1066 memory (everytime its $40 for 4GB, I can't control myself):rofl:

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Originally Posted by nanohead

Well, welcome to the our favorite AMD insane asylum!

Cool choices of parts. I'm thinking about the same things, or maybe the DDR2 version of the mobo, cuz I have piles of DDR2 1066 memory (everytime its $40 for 4GB, I can't control myself):rofl:

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nanohead..if you can believe it, I might set this one out..Well, mey be till price settles:p:

OP...Nice parts tho...thats what i would have got.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

His results: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=217679



I'm the same, I don't find alot of joy in getting really granular on memory tweaking. If I can set the major timings, voltage and speed and I'm usually satisfied :)

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Thanks for the link. What cooler are you using for your cpu? Just wondering if there is RAM clearance issues, as I plan on getting the dark knight s1283, and retiring my TRUE.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Anyway, this is my first Gigabyte board, so I hope it doesn't disappoint. I used to strickly use MSI until I moved into the s939, then I had an Asus K8V Deluxe which I swapped out for the A8R32-MVP Deluxe (love that board) and PCIe support.

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:welcome: Hemi345

I was always an MSI fan myself, in fact I'm still looking forward to that new GD70!
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=217278

I wish you the best of luck with the GBT board, hopefully they've gotten better with thier Phenom boards. The DS5 was my first GBT/Phenom board and it was a really poor/defective design... For your sake I hope they've figured things out, I was really PO'd at them and it will probably be awhile before I buy another one of thier boards....

Your choices look good though, and the 720BE looks like a great budget chip!

Be sure to keep us posted... :up:

I have a 720BE and a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P on the way, unfortunately they will only be delivered on monday, so it will be tuesday before I have my results up here, as for the ram, I have 2x2GB 1600 7-7-7 G.Skill and 4x1GB Cellshock 1866 (both old "high" voltage kits) and ahem several 2GB stick ocz 1333 low voltage stuff ready.

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Originally Posted by iandh

I've noticed that Giga boards are a little thin on ram options as well, luckily for me I am an impatient OC'er and usually only glance over the ram unless I have a really bad chip that needs help desperately.

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The latest Gigabyte boards for intel chips have tons of ram options, maybe they will do that for the amd boards as well now.

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Originally Posted by Daveburt714

Your choices look good though, and the 720BE looks like a great budget chip!

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Yep, especially if you consider it's the same price as a E7500 here, so you get a extra core and far more cache for free.

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Originally Posted by charged3800z24

nanohead..if you can believe it, I might set this one out..Well, mey be till price settles:p:

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I don't believe you :rofl::rofl::rofl:


I'm trying to control myself, but I may have to buy something... gonna get a 720 at minimum. I'm not sure about the board yet, but the CPU, a def

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Originally Posted by nanohead

I don't believe you :rofl::rofl::rofl:


I'm trying to control myself, but I may have to buy something... gonna get a 720 at minimum. I'm not sure about the board yet, but the CPU, a def

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Ya, I have been eyeing the boards... I really like the Gigaebyte with dual x16's. The colors and layout are nice. It is starting to call to me :eek:

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Originally Posted by villa1n

Thanks for the link. What cooler are you using for your cpu? Just wondering if there is RAM clearance issues, as I plan on getting the dark knight s1283, and retiring my TRUE.

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Just going to start out with the stock cooler. There is a review on Newegg that says it is a fairly nice heatpipe model that isn't half bad to get started with some mild overclocks in the 3.5-3.6 range.

I have an arctic cooler64 on my opteron, i wonder if it would fit the 720?

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Just going to start out with the stock cooler. There is a review on Newegg that says it is a fairly nice heatpipe model that isn't half bad to get started with some mild overclocks in the 3.5-3.6 range.

I have an arctic cooler64 on my opteron, i wonder if it would fit the 720?

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Yeah, i think those coolers are okay, until you have to start pushing the volts over stock, 3.5,3.6 seems to be the ceiling of what phenom II's can do at stock or close to stock volts. I guess i ll find out :P I m not to ambitious though, no ocz reaper with 3 inch high cooling on top, probably gonna end up with some Gskill 1066 8gb, or depending, maybe mushkin if i can push my budget a little bit hehe.

Does anyone have opinions on which sata ports to use? I notice that the two facing up are supposed to be connected to the "Gigabyte sata2" which I think is really a Jmicron controller. Do those two have any advantage over the ports run off the SB750?

I'd avoid anything JMicron, but thats just me :)
If you can, test the throughput using ATTO / HDTune / your favorite disk benchmark on both the SB750 / JMicron ports, then use whichever is better. Should not take long. Be sure to post your results and tell us of your experiences with the UD4P + 720BE combo (which I may be getting as well soon)

Looks interesting! Here's a review from Guru3D, notice that they used DDR2 board (ASUS M4A79 Deluxe)

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...e-review-am3/1

That 3,8GHz OC was done only with voltage and multiplier. I am pretty sure it will run as hell when it sits on a AM3 mobo with bumped NB speed and premium DDR3. :up:

Smarter choice... that starts to have a right ring to it.

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Originally Posted by Hemi345

Just going to start out with the stock cooler. There is a review on Newegg that says it is a fairly nice heatpipe model that isn't half bad to get started with some mild overclocks in the 3.5-3.6 range.

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The good news... all the parts showed up! The box that gigabyte board came in sure is purty.:ROTF: Hopefully they put as much energy into the board itself.

The "bad" news is the HSF that comes with the 720 BE looks like a piece of :banana::banana::banana::banana:. I don't even think it has a copper core. Looks like that trash Intel retail CPUs come with. So no overclocking for me till I buy a decent cooler. Damn, I was hoping it would atleast have been that heatpipe model I saw on Legit reviews to get me started.

putting it all together (i'll add more details tomorrow, it's getting late)

old Opteron config...before i take it out of there:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild0.JPG

the parts:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild1.JPG

the board with cpu installed. easily the heaviest desktop motherboard I've handled:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild2.JPG

is it too early to know if this from a good batch?
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild3.JPG

cheezy yet impressive oem heatsink (idles @ 28C stock)
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild4.JPG

Ram installed:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild5.JPG

Picture of the voltage and timings for 1600mhz:
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild6.JPG

All wired up and ready to run.
http://www.coloradodesigns.com/pics/...omIIbuild7.JPG

looking good, I hope your UD4P lives longer than mine, oh well, atleast it gave me a excuse to get the UD5P, I'd look into a better cooler though, the stock one wont really cut it at high clocks.

put those memorys in the white slots:up:

^ +1

looking forward to your results Hemi. I'm hoping that you have better luck and that naokaji's experience was just a rare bad one. This seems like the ideal combo for people that aren't too interested in having dual 16x Crossfire.

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Originally Posted by naokaji

looking good, I hope your UD4P lives longer than mine, oh well, atleast it gave me a excuse to get the UD5P, I'd look into a better cooler though, the stock one wont really cut it at high clocks.

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What's crazy is the idle temp of all cores (stock) is 28C with CnQ enabled, 32C with CnQ disabled with that stock cooler :shocked: I thought that can't be right, so I went into the BIOS and it said 33C. I ran Orthos blend to stress cpu and ram (CPU stock, memory set at 1333mhz and timings at auto) for about 10 minutes and cpu temps never went above 35C. So now I'm wondering if the temp reporting is off or if that cooler really is doing that good of a job (never seen a stock CPU run this cool with a oem hsf).

Yeah, I'll need better cooling when I start leaning on it, but for now I want to make sure everything is completely stable before I start monkeying with stuff.

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Originally Posted by msimax

put those memorys in the white slots:up:

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I remembered you saying that as I was carrying it all back upstairs to try it out :D I'll move them tonite :up: