AM2+ motherboard advice needed

doveman · Post by **doveman** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:31 pm

I've decided that the Q6600 gaming/audio composition (Cubase/Sonar) system I was planning on building is going to take me too long to save for, so I've decided to go with a X3 710 (or possibly 720) with an 790GX board instead, which has the advantage of onboard graphics, that will do me for now and will work with my 300W/18A@12v PSU, while I save up for a decent Graphics card and PSU.

I can't see me ever using Crossfire but it might be good to have dual GPU slots in case ATi come up with something like Nvidia's dual card PhysX idea. I'll also want to overclock the CPU once I've got a decent PSU.

Obviously, being here I'm looking for a quiet system so compatiblity with large CPU and GPU coolers is paramount. I want to allow for 2 usable PCI slots, so I'm not considering mATX boards.

I thought the Foxconn A7DA-S 790GX looked quite good but I'm a bit concerned about reports that the Northbridge gets very hot as I wouldn't want to have to stick a noisy fan on it.

I've seen the review of the GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4 but apart from being Â£20 more than the Foxconn, I'm concerned about the Northbridge heatsink getting in the way of a GPU cooler and also thought it was a bit lame that they didn't use rotated SATA connectors.

So, any advice on those boards or some other suggestions would be great.

evilid · Post by **evilid** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:10 pm

I have a DFI LP JR M2RS as my sig shows.
It is mATX but I could put a big cooler (Noctua NH-C12P) which have a 120mm fan.
And my 4850 takes up 3 slots (the card itself + Accelero S1 + Turbo module).
Still it have an empty PCI slot at the end of the board for my sound card.

If you need 2 PCI slots, then this is not for you.

Sorry, it was not much of help.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 4:57 pm

doveman wrote:I thought the Foxconn A7DA-S 790GX looked quite good but I'm a bit concerned about reports that the Northbridge gets very hot as I wouldn't want to have to stick a noisy fan on it.

Foxconn seems to use rather small northbridge heatsinks, but it is fairly easy to replace them with somthing larger.

doveman · Post by **doveman** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:55 am

Is there a replacement heatsink you could suggest for this board that wouldn't obstruct anything else?

doveman · Post by **doveman** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:18 pm

Another option might be the Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 for about Â£68, plus a graphics card. The layout is better in that even with a large cooler on the graphics card I'd still be able to access 2 PCI-E x1 slots and both the PCI slots, although I'd still need to be sure that the heatsinks are adequate and won't obstruct anything.

Gigabyte certainly seem to have an advantage in this respect, with the Intel EP45-DS3 boards having the same slot layout.

Actually, the MSI K9A2 Neo-F has much the same layout (only 2 PCI-E x1 slots but one on the Gigabyte board would be blocked by the GPU cooler anyway) and I've read some reports that the audio quality is better on the MSI board, despite them both using the same Realtek ALC888. The MSI has the SB600 whereas the Gigabyte has the SB700 but I don't know if that will make any difference to me.

doveman · Post by **doveman** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:31 am

Hmm, seems the GA-MA770-UD3 has the same problem with high NB temps (see post #42 @ http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php? ... 427&page=3) as the Foxconn

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:34 pm

doveman wrote: Actually, the MSI K9A2 Neo-F has much the same layout (only 2 PCI-E x1 slots but one on the Gigabyte board would be blocked by the GPU cooler anyway) and I've read some reports that the audio quality is better on the MSI board, despite them both using the same Realtek ALC888. The MSI has the SB600 whereas the Gigabyte has the SB700 but I don't know if that will make any difference to me.

I recommend K9A2 Neo2(F) over K9A2 Neo-F as Neo2 has newer, better SB700 southbridge compared to SB600 on Neo-F. SB600's function, speed, and expansion ability is mediocre by today's standard. Besides, Neo2's SATA slots arrangement is far better than Neo-F when dealing with long, dual slot VGAs such as GTX280, 4870X2. SATAs won't be obstructed on Neo2.

doveman · Post by **doveman** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:33 am

Thanks for the tip. I actually prefer the Neo-F layout as it gives 2 PCI-E x1 and 2 PCI slots that are all usable with an Accelero cooled graphics card, but I agree that SB600 boards should be avoided, so unfortunately that rules out both Neo boards for me.

doveman · Post by **doveman** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:20 pm

um, I didn't actually realise that you could use PCI-E x1 cards in a PCI-E x8/16 slot

So, even though I've got no intention of using Crossfire, it does mean that boards with dual PCI-E x8/16 slots might be suitable for my purposes, providing they've also got 2 PCI slots, although I'm hoping to find a suitable cheap-ish non-IGP board and use the savings towards (probably) a 4830 now.

AM2+ motherboard advice needed

AM2+ motherboard advice needed

Re: AM2+ motherboard advice needed