Gigabyte or Asus, What to buy?

[BadNizze]

Have been thinking of upgrading my motherboard sense 890FX first came out. As usual I was all over the review of bough Thuban and the 890 series of chipset. I also checked in here daily to see user input of boards and CPU´s. But when it came to buying a board for myself I´m lost, the Crosshair Iv look solid and is still the most mature board. The Gigabyte offerings look like they have potential, I have and 790FX-Ud5P know that has served me well.
In sweden where I live the Corsshair IV and UDP5 cost the same where the UD7 is a bit more expensive. I would like some input, or be pointed towards an good review roundup of 890FX boards. I know there are review of bough ASUS and Gigabyte board, but they are usually and/or made before new bioses came out.

Board will be tested with my 955/1090T with micron GTS/JNM and Elpida BBSE. And a HD4770, no plans for crossfire or subzero cooling. This will be my work/play rig. Thanks for reading!

[luf1c3r]

I ia to the Gigabyte UD7 is slightly above the ASUS IV

Pd. I found this: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-89...-31909-16.html

Regards

luf1c3r

[Lightman]

I like ASUS CH IV a lot but given simultaneous availability of both Giga and CH IV I would go with Giga.
Just few little things spoiling perfect board in ASUS case.
Obviously Giga wouldn't be perfect, BIOS support is weaker on their side but at least integrated sound card will not squeak while idle (no sound output) and PWM circuity on my DQ6 was quiet in contrary to ASUS one which is louder than HD5870 PWM under load :O

[BadNizze]

I like ASUS CH IV a lot but given simultaneous availability of both Giga and CH IV I would go with Giga.
Just few little things spoiling perfect board in ASUS case.
Obviously Giga wouldn't be perfect, BIOS support is weaker on their side but at least integrated sound card will not squeak while idle (no sound output) and PWM circuity on my DQ6 was quiet in contrary to ASUS one which is louder than HD5870 PWM under load :O

Yea, the DQ6 was a nice board sold mine and went DFI, bough boards was solid. ASUS has not been the best for me either, it sometimes seems quality is missing. PWM wise i trust giga, asus i don´t know... So...UD5 or UD7?

[OCD-OC]

depends

not much real difference apart from onboar GPU vs 70 bajillion PCI-ex slots !!

I wanted cross-fire so ggot the UD7

[BeepBeep2]

depends

not much real difference apart from onboar GPU vs 70 bajillion PCI-ex slots !!

I wanted cross-fire so ggot the UD7

That didn't really make sense.

[keithlm]

So...UD5 or UD7?

If you go UD7 MAKE SURE your case will hold the extra large UD7 motherboard. (It is longer than a normal ATX board and not a lot of cases can hold it.)


I have considered the UD7 because I have a nice big Xaser case and I like the look of the passive heatsink on this board. (Or if I had this board... I might be "forced" finally buy a good water cooling system just because the darn board had the water cooled heatsink built into it.)

But I am cautious because I have a bad history with Gigabyte: I bought their 790FX-DS5 which they basically orphaned after they figured out that they couldn't make it work correctly with newer chips. Later I did end up with the 790GP-UD4H even after swearing I'd pluck out my own beating heart before ever buying Gigabyte again... but an emergency board blowup made me buy what was available locally. And I must admit the UD4H is a very solid board.

I have accepted that every company sometimes releases lemons; the DS5 was a definite lemon. Several others on this forum can agree with me on that assessment of the DS5. So the idea of buying the UD7 makes me cautious. I'm sure it is okay, but I'd hate to buy it, and have Gigabyte orphan it early because it wasn't very popular because of it's slightly larger size.


I also agree with Lightman, Gigabyte has terrible BIOS update histories. ASUS puts out at least twice as many BIOS in the same amount of time as Gigabyte for similar boards. I had to wait until about the end of May to get a BIOS that would allow the X6 chips on my 790GP-UD4H. Of course since I've decided to get a new 890FX board that doesn't really bother me. (But I was a bit angry with them telling me they needed time for validation. As if they hadn't received X6 chips for testing and validation MONTHS before release. Jerks.)

BUT it does seem that Gigabyte takes longer to test and validate, which is good and bad. Bad because you have to wait forever to get a new bios which is awful if you have a problem. But that is good if you don't have a problem because when they do release a BIOS it is probably better tested and validated than what ASUS puts out.

Since I don't really have a history with ASUS I can't really comment on them. I do like some of the features on the Crosshair IV that Gigabyte doesn't have. That is why I'm attempting to wait for the Crosshair IV Extreme which should have the best of both; plus I can play with Hydra. But I'm getting impatient....

[BadNizze]

If you go UD7 MAKE SURE your case will hold the extra large UD7 motherboard. (It is longer than a normal ATX board and not a lot of cases can hold it.)


I have considered the UD7 because I have a nice big Xaser case and I like the look of the passive heatsink on this board. (Or if I had this board... I might be "forced" finally buy a good water cooling system just because the darn board had the water cooled heatsink built into it.)

But I am cautious because I have a bad history with Gigabyte: I bought their 790FX-DS5 which they basically orphaned after they figured out that they couldn't make it work correctly with newer chips. Later I did end up with the 790GP-UD4H even after swearing I'd pluck out my own beating heart before ever buying Gigabyte again... but an emergency board blowup made me buy what was available locally. And I must admit the UD4H is a very solid board.

I have accepted that every company sometimes releases lemons; the DS5 was a definite lemon. Several others on this forum can agree with me on that assessment of the DS5. So the idea of buying the UD7 makes me cautious. I'm sure it is okay, but I'd hate to buy it, and have Gigabyte orphan it early because it wasn't very popular because of it's slightly larger size.


I also agree with Lightman, Gigabyte has terrible BIOS update histories. ASUS puts out at least twice as many BIOS in the same amount of time as Gigabyte for similar boards. I had to wait until about the end of May to get a BIOS that would allow the X6 chips on my 790GP-UD4H. Of course since I've decided to get a new 890FX board that doesn't really bother me. (But I was a bit angry with them telling me they needed time for validation. As if they hadn't received X6 chips for testing and validation MONTHS before release. Jerks.)

BUT it does seem that Gigabyte takes longer to test and validate, which is good and bad. Bad because you have to wait forever to get a new bios which is awful if you have a problem. But that is good if you don't have a problem because when they do release a BIOS it is probably better tested and validated than what ASUS puts out.

Since I don't really have a history with ASUS I can't really comment on them. I do like some of the features on the Crosshair IV that Gigabyte doesn't have. That is why I'm attempting to wait for the Crosshair IV Extreme which should have the best of both; plus I can play with Hydra. But I'm getting impatient....

My case is plenty big I know about the DS5 that was defiantly a lemon! True Asus put´s out more bioses then gigabyte, but when they come out they tend to be less buggy. Me to was thinking about the Extreme, but just like you I can´t wait! When is the Extreme due out anyway?

[OCman XPC]

ASUS CH IV memory can run DDR3-2000MHz (2GBx4) with Thuban , QVL memory vendor : G.Skill, Kingston ,OCZ , Transcend ,..... .
The IMC of AMD Phenom II X6 is better than Phenom II X4 ,

Tomshardware testing 890FX MB comparison of Maximum DRAM data Rate ,
using Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition with Kingston HyperX 2133 CL9 ,
ASUS CH IV is the memory overclocking lead , 4 Modules / DDR3-1928 MHz
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 , 4 Modules / DDR3-1790 MHz

For your reference , If you care the memory performance .

[OCD-OC]

That didn't really make sense.

yeah sorry .. I'm full of man-flu atm and spout general sh1te at the best of times

So. I meant there's little difference between the 2 boards

the chipset is the same the components are the same

major difference is the obvious size that the UD7 needs for 6 PCI-express slots

has NO onboard GPU (don't think either of them do actually )

the UD7 has more PCIEx lanes ..which means not a lot unless you need them.

and that's pretty much it

so if you want a board for multi GPU (Crossfire) then UD7 .. if you'll never have more than 2 GPU's UD5 ... seemplz !

[Leeghoofd]

Tomshardware testing 890FX MB comparison of Maximum DRAM data Rate, using Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition with Kingston HyperX 2133 CL9 ,
ASUS CH IV is the memory overclocking lead , 4 Modules / DDR3-1928 MHz
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 , 4 Modules / DDR3-1790 MHz

For your reference , If you care the memory performance .

Let me tell you that them high ram speeds are more marketing then anything else... AMD's still better to go with lower clocks still and tight timings... at least that's what my idea is about all this Thuban high memory thingy... efficiency is far fetched...

[[XC] Oj101]

ASUS CH IV memory can run DDR3-2000MHz (2GBx4) with Thuban , QVL memory vendor : G.Skill, Kingston ,OCZ , Transcend ,..... .
The IMC of AMD Phenom II X6 is better than Phenom II X4 ,

Tomshardware testing 890FX MB comparison of Maximum DRAM data Rate ,
using Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition with Kingston HyperX 2133 CL9 ,
ASUS CH IV is the memory overclocking lead , 4 Modules / DDR3-1928 MHz
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 , 4 Modules / DDR3-1790 MHz

For your reference , If you care the memory performance .

You won't be able to use a low enough CL/tRCD for that to be anything faster than "slow" , so it's a moot point. I'd take the UD7

[BadNizze]

Did a u-turn and orderd an Crosshair IV, will give ASUS and chance again. Thanks for all advice!

[keithlm]

If I ignore my DS5 fiasco, which I try to do as much as I can, then the UD7 does look very nice.

On the other hand, some of the "fluff" that the Crosshair has seem to be nice also; but since I've never used those types of things I don't know if they really are worth it.

A quick analysis: (i.e., Me... Thinking out loud)
1. ROG Connect. Seems nice. Not really necessary but nice.
2. GameFirst? I think the dual ethernet of the UD7 trumps that.
3. iRog, Probelt, MemOK,CPU Level up, Core Unlocker, Voltminder LED... ALL NICE fluff, but probably none are really used often.
4. Supreme X-Fi. Who cares... I have a Asus D2X and this X-Fi is software based anyway.
5. Turbo key, WHO CARES. Unless you can active during boot from the keyboard? (Wasn't there a key to do that?) But then... except for benching I don't really care.
6. Turbo-V and/or Turbo Unlocker. A dynamic overclocking feature better than AMD's?

Anybody have any thoughts on any of these Crosshair features? Any of those things "must have" features? Many of them seem to be only really useful in a test bench setups and not in actual cases. Many also seem only useful in specific one time situations like memok/core unlock. Am I missing anything big that I'm not seeing?

Besides I love the look of the "overkill" passive heatsink on the Gigabyte.

I think I might be quickly talking my way OUT of a Crosshair... and into a UD7...

Although I do like the idea of the Hydra chip and better power conditioning on the "Extreme". Plus the heatsink on the Extreme appears like it might be better than the Formula.

ARG... decisions... decisions...

[bingo13]

If I ignore my DS5 fiasco, which I try to do as much as I can, then the UD7 does look very nice.

Anybody have any thoughts on any of these Crosshair features? Any of those things "must have" features? Many of them seem to be only really useful in a test bench setups and not in actual cases. Many also seem only useful in specific one time situations like memok/core unlock. Am I missing anything big that I'm not seeing?

Besides I love the look of the "overkill" passive heatsink on the Gigabyte.

I think I might be quickly talking my way OUT of a Crosshair... and into a UD7...

Although I do like the idea of the Hydra chip and better power conditioning on the "Extreme". Plus the heatsink on the Extreme appears like it might be better than the Formula.

ARG... decisions... decisions...

I have a vested interest in your choosing ASUS. In regards to what you call fluff, the same holds true on the Gigabyte board if you go down the feature list and call out their marketing checklist. If you think you will need four-way CF capabilities (which with current processors is slower than three-way) and dual LAN ports (which we dropped as nobody used them and latencies were worse) then the C4F is not going to have those two "features".

That said there are some very useful functions on the C4F, especially if you overclock as the combination of ROG Connect and Turbo V is the best OC suite combination available right now and is constantly being updated and improved. In addition, our auto overclocking routines are the best around along with our fan controls compared to the other board. We offer the easiest to use and most stable core unlocker technology if that is important.

Our board has a better price to performance ratio than the UD7 and fits in a wide variety of cases. I can assure you our support is much better, especially when it comes to personalized forum support. I do not see a Gigabyte representative offering support around here. In addition, if you need all the bells and whistles on a board, our Extreme board will be released in less than two months.

[moorhen2]

I have both boards and they are just as good as each other in my opinion,as always with new chipsets and boards it takes time for the bios's to mature and fix the many bugs we are seing at the moment,that goes for all manufacturers i think.

[Leeghoofd]

56. Turbo-V and/or Turbo Unlocker. A dynamic overclocking feature better than AMD's?

It's far superior than the normal AMD Turbo feature... Plz if you haven't tested it, don't judge it... Asus solution is more flexible and powerfull. On top of that it can be used on more CPU's then just X6...

TurboV kicks Easytunes b u t t (faster, more flexible) Only drawback is that you can't (yet) clock up the multiplier for all the cores at once...

If there was one feature that could make a difference then it's Turbo unlocker... The UD7 is still a bit too bios problematic...

[keithlm]

In addition, if you need all the bells and whistles on a board, our Extreme board will be released in less than two months.

You definitely sold me on the ASUS customer service... getting a response from Gigabyte is like pulling teeth...

ANYWAY:::: from your response AND the others... I'll wait for the Extreme.

August = My birthday.

My Present = Crossfire IV Extreme (as long as it is around $300. Or less. Less is better.)

SIDE NOTE: Besides I have an Asus D2X soundcard. So I'd only have to check one website for motherboard bios and/or soundcard updates. :-)

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: I have also read that ASUS boards have less problems with the LSI HBA controllers; apparently Gigabyte just tells you that the PCIe x16 slots are only for video cards. (And I am a proponent of using dedicated RAID IOP cards for RAID-0. Onboard raid really doesn't work as well as people think.)

On top of that it can be used on more CPU's then just X6...

That would be nice since I will be using the board with my PhII 965 for a few months until either the next stepping or the next "iteration" of newer X6 chips arrive.

(NOTE: I bought a 9850 then the 9950 came out shortly after... then I bought the 940 and the 965 came out shortly after... so this time instead of buying the 1090T and then having something new come out... I'll wait a little bit and see what happens. Besides... I want to see how this PhII 965 will work on an 890FX.)

[Warlife]

In addition, if you need all the bells and whistles on a board, our Extreme board will be released in less than two months.

YOUHOUUUUUUUUUUUUU

My dream will become reality

thanks a lot for this information!!!
for a bit I was going to buy the C4F because I could not find the C4E!

Now I no longer has to wait a bit ...
wait ... few more days ... before ... arrival ... the Monster by ASUS ...

provided you have a countdown on the website?

[dctokyo]

ASUS

[ViViD]

Asus For Sure

[Blacklash]

My AMD comp has an Asus CH IV in it. Love the mobo. Currently have BIOS 0905 installed.

My 1055T does fine in it @ 4.0GHz on air. Been trying to do 4.1GHz and P95 blend fails after 3hours @ that clock. I may need better cooling or to do more tweaking.

[demonkevy666]

I wish I could control the pwm/fans better on asus/foxconn boards.

some of these new fan controls on motherboards do not make sense at all.


Now if I could find one like this in 890FX.....
that is from a jetway board.