Bulldozer Mobo Purchase Help

[Grnfinger]

This rig will be for my wife. Light Gaming and a few benches to see what it can do.

Currently looking at theese....

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=61765&vpn=SABERTOOTH%20990FX&manufacture=ASUS

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=61546&vpn=GA%2D990FXA%2DUD5&manufacture=Gigabyte

I like the Gigabyte board better in terms of looks/layout but Gigabyte has a fucking horrid RMA policy and it's slower than the second comming of Christ to get a new board.


Opinions on the 2 or suggestions to more... AMD has not been in my house since my FX-60

[B NEGATIVE]

Both are good,i prefer Gigabyte but thats personal choice....
ASUS are still having NB issues with heatsinks stuck down with chewing gum..

[Grnfinger]

I was also looking at the gigabyte more than Asus.

I just hate to deal with Gigabytes RMA if the board should crap out

[jacobroufa]

The Sabertooth is one of the higher-rated AM3+ boards. That said, I've had good luck with MSI's AMD boards (from AM2 on up), though you're probably looking at about the same issues w/r/t RMA and customer service as you would with Gigabyte. Even still, they're worth checking out as price/featureset is pretty nice.

[Grnfinger]

MSI cards are decent I'll take a peek at some 990FX boards and see what they have to offer

[TheBlueChanell]

Another positive chime in for MSI. I've had 5 of their boards starting with the 790FX-GD70 in the past 2-3 years and every single one of them has been solid.

Guess I've just been lucky.

[xmanrigger]

I have never built an AMD system, but can say I have built 3 systems with the Sabertooth series board. One being a i55 and the other two both being X58. The board is rock solid on the Intel platform as far as I have experienced.

As far as looks go, well, the Sabertooth definitely hands down. I am not a Gigabyte fan so I cant really comment there other than the S775 board of theirs I have has a BIOS that sucks shit. Shitty overclocks on E6850 compared to Asus Commando.

As B-Neg said, NB heatsink was and is an issue with the Sabertooth if liquid cooling the CPU only. On the LC build I did, could not run LC without aux fan cooling the NB with stock mounting. Temps were out to lunch, causing crashes with little to no overclock. Problem was easily solved by removing the NB heatsink, cleaning it and the chip, and applying a quality TIM. I used MX-2 and MX-4 respectively. The MX-4 is the ticket. With a full cover block on the Sabertooth, you would be hard pressed to beat it with any board. Even the air cooled build I did yielded stupid overclocks.

[Grnfinger]

thanks for posting rigger
I do want the Asus and think it will be the board of choice...
Looked at MSI GD80 990FX and my god what a pos, very few positive reviews for it.

[B NEGATIVE]

MSI cards are decent I'll take a peek at some 990FX boards and see what they have to offer

MSI boards are rubbish and blow VRM's up...i can provide a link to good AMD boards thread on OCN,They also do a thread on blow ups,90% of which are MSI...cards are good,boards are not

[cpufrost]

Both are good,i prefer Gigabyte but thats personal choice....
ASUS are still having NB issues with heatsinks stuck down with chewing gum..

:D

At least that beats the "cheese" that some video cards use. :D

If I'm building with the intent of pushing the board I always pull off any heat sink and remount with TIM of choice. There are a few exceptions where remounting did noting for temperatures but that is definitely the exception, not the rule.

[XMT_Systems]

Another positive chime in for MSI. I've had 5 of their boards starting with the 790FX-GD70 in the past 2-3 years and every single one of them has been solid.

Guess I've just been lucky.

Fuck MSI :bird:

thanks for posting rigger
I do want the Asus and think it will be the board of choice...
Looked at MSI GD80 990FX and my god what a pos, very few positive reviews for it.

Fuck MSI :bird:

MSI boards are rubbish and blow VRM's up...i can provide a link to good AMD boards thread on OCN,They also do a thread on blow ups,90% of which are MSI...cards are good,boards are not

Fuck MSI :bird:

I have never had any problems with an ASUS board. I haven't worked with their Sabretooth line, but I can picture the NB overheating problem being a fairly simple fix. I've also built several Gigabyte systems, and all of them were solid as well. I personally prefer ASUS to Gigabyte, but both make nice boards in my experience...

When it comes to MSI though, Fuck MSI! :bird:

[RampageWSU]

While I've never had a problem with my MSI P55-GD65, I consider myself lucky. I'll never buy another MSI board.

Probably only Gigabyte or Asus for me from here on out.

[jedimasterben]

At least that beats the "cheese" that some video cards use. :D
Did someone mention cheese? (http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/04/07/thermal_paste_shootout_q209/2)

Pay close attention to the last contender. :D