Gigabyte GA-A57-D3H or Gigabyte GA-A57-UD4H??

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lordvic
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Gigabyte GA-A57-D3H or Gigabyte GA-A57-UD4H??

Post by lordvic »

So for my APU build, I'm still undecided for the motherboard (other parts are slowly being shipped in already).

At first I was determined to get the D3H, but the UD4H is only a little bit more.

The UD4H has more features ( on the rear I/O, etc).

The D3H uses a 4+1 power phase with no heatsink on them, while the latter uses a 8+2 cooled with heatsinks, and the Northbrdige uses a wider, larger cooler.

Plus, the UD4H's second PCI-E X16 slot runs @ X8 vs the D3H at X4 (not that I'll be using a 2nd GPU in this system).

It also supports up to 2400mHz RAM, but I'll be using 1600MHz (maybe 1866 down the road?) only, so not much of a concern anyways.

If the Legit Review Commitee have any motherboard recommendations, feel free to contribute.

I prefer a board with 4 DIMM slots and ATX-size, but 2 slots and Micro-ATX isn't a huge deal breaker.

Other parts that have been ordered or arrived:
- A6-3670K
- 8GB (4GB X2) Corsair Vengance 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 1.5v CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
- Antec TruePower 550W Modular
- HAF 912
- LiteON DVD-RW drive

HDD prices are still a bit high, so I'm sitting tight for now. I still have a 320GB SATA drive sitting around here as well.

I live in Canada, so the prices for things are a tiny bit higher vs US currency.

Ex:
The UD4H is $129.99 (excluding the $10 rebate) and $12.24 shipping
D3H is $104.99 (excluding the $10 rebate) with $11.49 shipping

Thanks in advance.
Victor
Cooler Master HAF 932 // Phenom II 1090T @ 4.1GHz (not 110% stable) // ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX // Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler // Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 @ 1150/1500 // 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJaws + 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJawsX @1600 8-9-8-21-1T // Corsair TX850 // Corsair ForceGT 120GB SSD // Kingston V200+ 120GB SSD // WD Caviar Black 1TB // LiteON DVD-RW // Windows 7 Ult. 64-bit
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Re: Gigabyte GA-A57-D3H or Gigabyte GA-A57-UD4H??

Post by KnightRid »

I have always liked Gigabyte and I dont think you could go wrong with either.

If you wont use the extras or overclock then you could save a couple bucks by going with D3H
Remember, I am opinionated and nothing I say or do reflects on anyone or anything else but me :finga:
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Major_A
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Re: Gigabyte GA-A57-D3H or Gigabyte GA-A57-UD4H??

Post by Major_A »

I'd go with the cheaper of the two and here's why:
1) The APU isn't a steller overclocker so you'll probably reach the same result with either board.
2) FM1 is done, they are already making FM2 for the next generation of APUs.
3) 1866MHz will be plenty of bandwidth, and 1866MHz RAM is expensive.
4) Do you plan on throwing in a HD 6570 for some CrossFire? If so I don't see you using the second PCIe slot for anything needing more bandwidth than PCIe 4x (i.e. sound card, RAID card, ethernet, etc...).

I built my friend an A8-3850 (before the unlocked SKUs were out) and I was impressed with the build.
http://forums.legitreviews.com/about35757.html
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lordvic
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Re: Gigabyte GA-A57-D3H or Gigabyte GA-A57-UD4H??

Post by lordvic »

I guess I'll be sticking with the GA-A75-D3H then.
There will be overclocking, but not going all out with it.
Heh, I won't be using ALL the features, so I guess there isn't much of a reason going for the UD4H. The 8X slot over the 4X don't make much difference for me as well.

The major thing that made me think which one to purchase was the 8+2 power phase and heatsinks VS the 4+1 no heatsinks...

Thanks!
Cooler Master HAF 932 // Phenom II 1090T @ 4.1GHz (not 110% stable) // ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX // Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler // Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 @ 1150/1500 // 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJaws + 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJawsX @1600 8-9-8-21-1T // Corsair TX850 // Corsair ForceGT 120GB SSD // Kingston V200+ 120GB SSD // WD Caviar Black 1TB // LiteON DVD-RW // Windows 7 Ult. 64-bit
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