Legit Reviews

Hey all!

I'm looking to upgrade my aging socket 939 (as you can see in my signature) sometime soon with:

*Athlon II X2 240
*2gb DDR3 1333 (1 stick of RAM)
*IGP HD 4200/HD 3300(for the time being)

and was wondering which company was better for a motherboard?

Here are the motherboards I am looking at around $85-$110 range:
Asrock:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157168
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157167

ECS:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813135236
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813135241

Thanks!

I have an Asus. A lot of people will tell you that they have good experiences and bad experiences with each of those motherboard manufacturers. You really need to look at what each board offers based on what you need.

I have no need for PCI-e 16x (x4) because I would never have the money to run a quad GPU setup, but if that is what you plan on doing, you would want each PCI-e slot to be 16x.

I don't use the AMD chipset boards myself but if that is what you're after here are arguably the most popular ones.

1. MSI 790FX-GD70
2. GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
3. ASUS M4A79T Deluxe
4. ASUS Crosshair III Formula

I know the Gigabytes in particular are often picked for their success in unlocking disabled cores. I would recommend dual channel memory however, 2x1GB or 2x2GB if you've got a 64bit OS. Go with some nice low-voltage, CAS7 DDR3-1600.

vicaphit wrote:I have an Asus. A lot of people will tell you that they have good experiences and bad experiences with each of those motherboard manufacturers. You really need to look at what each board offers based on what you need.

I have no need for PCI-e 16x (x4) because I would never have the money to run a quad GPU setup, but if that is what you plan on doing, you would want each PCI-e slot to be 16x.

Alright I guess the 785g Asus is out then if x4 is kinda worthless. I can't really decide on whether or not I want to do dual GPU's.

Maybe to make things more clear, here's the kind of games I want to play:

StarCraft II
Diablo III
Star Wars The Old Repbulic
Star Trek Online
Age of Conan

I doubt I'll ever need dual GPU's for those games. Maybe an ATI 4670? Unless I want to play at 1920x1080 I'll probably need something faster, but I think a 4670 would definitely be a good start in comparison to my x1600 pro lol.

FunkZ wrote:I don't use the AMD chipset boards myself but if that is what you're after here are arguably the most popular ones.

1. MSI 790FX-GD70
2. GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
3. ASUS M4A79T Deluxe
4. ASUS Crosshair III Formula

I know the Gigabytes in particular are often picked for their success in unlocking disabled cores. I would recommend dual channel memory however, 2x1GB or 2x2GB if you've got a 64bit OS. Go with some nice low-voltage, CAS7 DDR3-1600.

Those are all way above my budget. The links are above of the ones I'm looking at.

The Foxconn is a basic MOBO for the higher price, but it does have the on board graphics if that's what your aiming at to save cost for a good video card later. Most of the time, the Foxconn boards have been very average.

I'll pick the ASROCK boards for your price range. There isn't much of a big difference with the two you had posted. So, if saving $20 helps you then go with the less expensive MOBO.

I've mostly head more bad about ASUS than good over the years. Even the headaches of people trying to RMA their stuff.

As for ECS, they have been around for some time. Really no experience with the brand, so it's a neutral pick.

I've only built two systems over the past few years. The machine I got now was store purchased since the power and hardware were beating out my boxes and the Black Friday price was ever so good to not pass up two years ago.

bmaverick wrote:The Foxconn is a basic MOBO for the higher price, but it does have the on board graphics if that's what your aiming at to save cost for a good video card later. Most of the time, the Foxconn boards have been very average.

I'll pick the ASROCK boards for your price range. There isn't much of a big difference with the two you had posted. So, if saving $20 helps you then go with the less expensive MOBO.

I've mostly head more bad about ASUS than good over the years. Even the headaches of people trying to RMA their stuff.

As for ECS, they have been around for some time. Really no experience with the brand, so it's a neutral pick.

I've only built two systems over the past few years. The machine I got now was store purchased since the power and hardware were beating out my boxes and the Black Friday price was ever so good to not pass up two years ago.

My current system is my first build . Yes, I am in fact looking at the igp's to save money for a better gpu at a later time - anyone say ATI RADEON 5850?! lol. Hopefully it stacks up better than the 4890. We'll see. - Anyway, thank you for your input! I've been looking at mostly the ASROCK and ECS myself. So I guess those 4 are up for grabs and that scraps the Foxconn and ASUS - which was a bit pricey anyway for my tastes based off the benchmarks I've viewed vs the ECS and ASROCK. Now the question is: Dual PCI-E x16 2.0 (3x in the case of the ASROCK), or not, that and will I truly need the HD 3300 over the HD 4200 for a span of oh, 3-6 months after I upgrade (aka whenever StarCraft II comes out, and if the IGP's can deal with it). Hmm...

Some people say: 'Dual GPU's awesome! Some people say 'You might as well just get a newer card.' Space I don't think is a problem with my computer case for dual GPU, especially when I take out my CD-RW drive before I install the new hardware. Plus my PSU is modular so If I need to remove some unnecessary cables, I can. And if I need a new PSU, it'll obviously be modular as well.

Any takers?

Oh and I forgot to mention, unlocking cores and overclocking any component is not my cup of tea. I've read that ECS's don't overclock well, but thats not a big deal to me since I wont be doing any of that.

Past experiences for myself and a mentor for oc'ing and general stability, would make me shy away from ECS. Then again this goes back a while. My brands of pref are Biostar, Asus, and MSI, but right now I running a BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 813138140R) and love it. Also these two kinda look interesting........ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco ... 42&bop=And

jedihobbit wrote:Past experiences for myself and a mentor for oc'ing and general stability, would make me shy away from ECS. Then again this goes back a while. My brands of pref are Biostar, Asus, and MSI, but right now I running a BIOSTAR TA790GX XE AM2+/AM3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 813138140R) and love it. Also these two kinda look interesting........ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productco ... 42&bop=And

I'd prefer to use DDR3. Both of those use DDR2. Plus I'm not a big overlcocker.

I've had a lot of success with Gigabyte boards lately. The last 3 boards I got were Gigabyte and all performed very well.

JMMD wrote:I've had a lot of success with Gigabyte boards lately. The last 3 boards I got were Gigabyte and all performed very well.

I've always heard good things about Gigabyte, the problem with them is, is that they usually don't have onboard video.

How about this combo? $119 for both motherboard and CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.254104


The motherboard is a gigabyte with an IGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128394

GI-JOE wrote:How about this combo? $119 for both motherboard and CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.254104


The motherboard is a gigabyte with an IGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128394

Good deals but the problem is, is that both of those are AM3/AM2+ / DDR2-based boards. Have you heard any good things about this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128397

Its AM3 DDR3-based.

Haven't read them but here are a couple of reviews I googled........

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mother ... h-review/1

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/mot ... 930_1.html

jedihobbit wrote:Haven't read them but here are a couple of reviews I googled........

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mother ... h-review/1

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/mot ... 930_1.html

Wow. 20% overclocking ability on that IGP sounds like a good deal. I'll have to keep that one in mind.

I love my GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P. It OCes nicely, has all the features I wanted and unlocks my 720 to 4 cores.
Cannot really ask for more except I wish it was SLI and not Crossfire. lol
Regards

Well, I've at least got my choices narrowed pretty well. I'll take it from here. Thanks guys!