So unfortunately I don't know if I'm going to be able to hold out until the Sandy Bridge issue is resolved or Bulldozer comes out before I have to start buying gear (not happy about that at all). So for now I'm looking at getting an AMD setup with a 965/970, 8gigs ram and a new power supply (current one does not have an 8-pin CPU connector). I think I have the mobo choices down to two and wanted to get some feedback on which to go with.

GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 or the MSI 890FXA-GD70

Overclocking is not really a concern at this point, but I like a quality board to be there if I want to later on.

What do you guys think? I'm pretty much going to let my system run until it can't run anymore. But last night I had a ton of problems moving data around from one hard drive to the next so the end is likely near.

I have no experience with those chipsets but I've owned both MSI and Gigabyte boards and I have to say that I think I prefer Gigabyte. MSI seems to be first on the market with a lot of new features with cool looking/sounding motherboards, and I often would get lured in by that, but I've had less problems with my Gigabyte boards and they usually end up costing less as well.

both have features that I wish I could intermix - like the number of sata ports, the primary ram slot position to the cpu for clearance for a large HSF, etc.

why not do asus? http://www.mysterybyte.com/part/15976/

I've had issues with every ASUS board I have ever owned. Now I know my current one is a little over 3 years old before the issue occurred but I had at least 2 other boards from them that failed and had to be replaced.

Just kinda leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Which is funny considering that they are known to be one of the best board manufacturers.

I miss Abit. They had some sweet boards back in the day.

well if ya narrowned it down to two - go with the one that has features that would benefit you the most and consider expansion.

Well I had been a MSI user for years then went with 2 Asus boards.. 1st one was the best board I ever owned but this 2nd one is having problems. Not sure if it was the right choice or not but I purchased another Asus .. the one in the link above. If this one has problems then I'll switch to Gigabyte my next build.

I had a couple MSI boards in the day (KT3 Ultra and K8 Neo Plat), actually my brother still has my old one, and it still works, I think, 5+ years later. The KT3 ultra blew up when I put in a new faulty PSU, but this is going back to like 2002 or earlier.

My current 2 Asus boards that are each over 2 years old have been flawless. Past endurance is no indication of future performance though, as lemons exist everywhere.

That is true. I think I'll likely go with the Gigabyte this time though as they seem to be one of the more popular AMD boards that are running around.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I think ASUS had a better rep like 10-15 years ago and they still seem to be cruising along on it. Now a day I consider them good, but not hand over fist better than the competition like they were back then.

Also, ABit boards were fun, but I've had a few duds with them as well back in the nForce2 days.



I had the KT3 Ultra and the K7 Neo Platinum. The KT3 Ultra died a few months after I gave it to my sister for university, but in all fairness it might not have been the boards fault. I gave her and my dad the parts I had when I upgraded and my Dad took it to a shop to get a few pieces they needed for it and they said they would put it together for him free of charge. Sure enough during the building the motherboard stopped working, so it could have been a flakey board or a bad tech I'm not sure.

The K7 Neo Platinum worked great during my "World of Warcraft" phase but I started getting weird video card/motherboard issues after about 3 years. I never did full resolve the issue and ended up just upgrading but I think the AGP port was going or dirty or something.

I will also have to admit that I love ASUS. I have had 2 ASUS boards. One of which is for my E8400 and the other one I sold to my sister n law which was and old AMD XP+ system and is still going strong. I am waiting for SB as well. Hopefully new boards ship soon.

I prefer ASUS 100% for overclocking. They also have great build quality as well. I only ever had to RMA one board and it's was a M3A board.

Ive owned a few GB boards. Work great and reliable. Never had to RMA one. I know they make great overclockers by reviews. But I haven't had as much luck with them. I made some great clock speeds with them. Just not as high as asus.

MY next build on a SB platform i'll most likely stick with Asus.

Hey Top,

I am also going to be building a SB PC. I just got the new ram for it. Got 8 gig kit G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600.

I'm still looking for parts but it's in the works for a 24/7 OC machine.

Here is a list so far. Mind you it's a soft list at the moment.

Motherboard: Asus Maximus IV Extreme

CPU: Intel 2600k

Memory: OCZ DDR3 PC3-17000 / 2133 MHz / Flex EX XLC / 12GB Low Voltage / Triple Channel

Cooling: Koolance Exos 2.5, Koolance CPU 360,

PSU: In decision

VIDEO: In decision

Case: Indecision

Koolance Exos 2?? :O

Well being that the SB is a good potential overclocker and I wanted a clean water loop. The Exos 2.5 seemed like a clean choice with enough power/potential to run through.

NB/SB, CPU, DIMMS and possibly video.

That way I can keep it cool and a bit more quiet. Back when Skiman got me back on the Coolit Freezone thing I have had a hard time resisting.

Probably going to build around summer to see what else come out for heat dissipation hardware for the S1155 boards.


I'm really waiting on my decision of cards as well. I'm a Nvidia guy so most likely I will be going for the fastest single GPU solution I can with them (Fastest for a week...)..



My selection for storage will most likely be OCZ 120GB Revodrives X2's (2).


But like said it's a "SOFT" list due to waiting till summer to see what else drops a bit.