Best "Bang For My Buck" 990FX Board?

[Pestilence]

Building a rig for the lady as she's growing tired of her Mac. Whats the best Bang for your buck 990FX board? Its going to be paired with an FX4100

[rintamarotta]

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3, this is best board in its price range even tough lacks bios Load Line Calibration settings.

Another board that is bit more expensive is Asus Sabertooth 990FX.

[EniGmA1987]

The Gigabyte UD3 is probably your best bet for features/quality/price ratio


For highest reliability with a LONG lifetime then the ASUS 990FX Sabertooth and pair it with some 1333 ECC RAM. Get this with a high quality PSU and you can show your wife that a PC can run faster, more reliable, and longer than a Mac can if people just used good parts in them.

[BeepBeep2]

Non-crossfire?

I'd have to recommend the ASUS M5A97

[PatRaceTin]

if it is not VCore unstable issue some lower model of Gigabyte may good

[ah_khoo]

I'd say Asus M5A99X EVO or M5A97 EVO is ideal choice if ur targeting value section, else, I'm equally comfortable with CHV Formula & 990FXA-GD80.

[Manicdan]

the CHV is on sale today from newegg for 220$ shipped with a promo code

[EniGmA1987]

I dont see a promo code for it

[Manicdan]

from my email:
ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS
$219.99
With Promo Code: EMCYTZT756
Free Shipping!

[BeepBeep2]

I'd say Asus M5A99X EVO or M5A97 EVO is ideal choice if ur targeting value section, else, I'm equally comfortable with CHV Formula & 990FXA-GD80.

M5A97 non-evo is a great board...just nothing but board, manual, IO plate and install CD in the package.

I have the board right here, just threw it in a build with an X4 840 @ 3.6 Ghz for a friend.

[AlleyViper]

Except for layout, what are the main disadvantages of a 990FXA-GD65 vs a GA-990FXA-UD3 to exclude it of any recommendation?
Wasn't the PWM on the older budget 890FXA-GD65 revised since the blown GD70s?

[EniGmA1987]

Lately MSI boards have been known to have issues here and there, especially in reliability. Gigabyte and Asus are the more reliable choices right now.

[Pestilence]

Anyone have the 990FX Fatality? Any good?

[ah_khoo]

Lately MSI boards have been known to have issues here and there, especially in reliability. Gigabyte and Asus are the more reliable choices right now.

care to elaborate more on reliability issue there mate? yes, there were cases on 790FX-GD70 & 890GX where mosfets are fried, but IMO their 900 series are pretty solid. Ram mileage particularly on 990FXA-GD80 is decent...

[tbone8ty]

there's a fatality review around here somewhere...

[m_jones_]

Anyone have the 990FX Fatality? Any good?

Here

[TheBlueChanell]

Lately MSI boards have been known to have issues here and there, especially in reliability. Gigabyte and Asus are the more reliable choices right now.

Since 2009 I've purchased and ran a 790FX-GD70, 890GX-GD65, Z68-ED55 and an E350-E45. I've not had an issue with any of the boards. I was concerned clocking my thuban on the AMD boards but both of my boards ran 4.2ghz/3.0ghz ~1.4-1.5/1.375v and I did not have any issues. The GD65 was actually stuffed into a mATX case and was used as a server and gaming rig for LAN parties and even with the heat and confined space the board kept kicking.

Some people got lucky and others didn't fair so nicely. I always made sure I had proper cooling on the VRM's while clocking but the board was nothing but a dream and MSI has been excellent at releasing meaningful BIOS updates for all of their boards.

I had never used MSI before the GD70 but they're quickly becomming by favorite mobo manufacturer. They give me a very "abit-ish" vibe.

I guess it all boils down to luck but that's just my two cents. On a side note one of the frozr cards I have has a dieing fan and it's only ~6 months old. During this same Window I've also had a Asus/Giga 790/890 boards as well as an Asus P67 and I've never really an issue with any of the boards except the Asus P67 as it had problems booting.

[hirsch]

Since 2009 I've purchased and ran a 790FX-GD70, 890GX-GD65, Z68-ED55 and an E350-E45. I've not had an issue with any of the boards. I was concerned clocking my thuban on the AMD boards but both of my boards ran 4.2ghz/3.0ghz ~1.4-1.5/1.375v and I did not have any issues. The GD65 was actually stuffed into a mATX case and was used as a server and gaming rig for LAN parties and even with the heat and confined space the board kept kicking.

Some people got lucky and others didn't fair so nicely. I always made sure I had proper cooling on the VRM's while clocking but the board was nothing but a dream and MSI has been excellent at releasing meaningful BIOS updates for all of their boards.

I had never used MSI before the GD70 but they're quickly becomming by favorite mobo manufacturer. They give me a very "abit-ish" vibe.

I guess it all boils down to luck but that's just my two cents. On a side note one of the frozr cards I have has a dieing fan and it's only ~6 months old. During this same Window I've also had a Asus/Giga 790/890 boards as well as an Asus P67 and I've never really an issue with any of the boards except the Asus P67 as it had problems booting.

The 790FX-GD70 were my first MSI motherboard too, and today I've to admit that it probably were the best board I ever had until it burned up.

[AlleyViper]

Previous 890FXA-GD65 and current 900 series should have a different PWM from older 790/890FXA-GD70s, the ones prone to burn. Just wanted to check if the fail rate improved, as everyone started to avoid the brand by fear, even if corrections were made.

[Alex-Ro]

Why get a 990FX?Buy something cheap for your girl,such as gigabyte 970A-UD3.Same pwm like 990x and 990FX.Only much cheaper,last time i saw it was 94$ newegg.