Choosing A Motherboard

[pparks1]

My personal preference is Asus, Gigabyte and Intel. I've owned multiple boards from all of them and have had good track records. The only one I ever had a problem with was a gigabyte, and after about 7 years, one of the IDE controllers onboard simply crapped out. I put in an IDE card and it went a few more years before I retired the box.

With any product, I look at the reviews. But I don't put much faith in the reviews that give it 1 star and say "Absolutely garbage, etc". Especially with something like hard drives. It seems some people have tons of bad hard drive after hard drive after hard drive. But yet, I simply cannot remember the last physical hard drive that actually failed on me. And I've gone through lots of hard drives over the years at work as well as at home. They are often replaced as they became too small, or too slow.

I've used Biostar mobos without problems. Friends of mine are currently using MSI boards on new Sandy Bridge setups without any issue. I've had other friends who used DFI boards. While I have heard of ASRock, I don't know anybody personally who has used one.

 

[essenbe]

Earlier you asked about Asrock boards. I have a P67 Asrock extreme4 MB. All I can say is that is has performed anything I have tried to do and have had no issues with it. The board is solid. The best I can say about this board is that I have messed up bios trying to OC and blue screened trying to boot windows, but I have never been able to do anything that will make it not post. This is the only Asrock board I have any experience with. I have experience with MSI and cannot recommend them. Others seem to like it but I'll never have have another MSI board.

 

[seekermeister]

Here is a statement that I found in one review of the ASrock that caught my eye:

Some of the motherboards out there will sacrifice bandwidth in one area to satisfy the needs of another. That is not the case with ASRock's True 333 technology. The ASRock 890GX Extreme3 features the True 333 technology. This technology allows you to run the PCI-E for the latest graphics cards, SATA3 and USB 3.0 at full speed simultaneously!

I hadn't given it much (any) thought until reading this, but it sounds as though the overall performance would be better than on competitive motherboards.

 

[essenbe]

I've seen that but like you have never given it much thought. I have an Intel board and you are looking at an AMD board. As you know, they are both completely different animals. It just strikes me that I've always been told that all chipsets come with a set number of lanes of traffic they can support and it's true that most have to give some items less lanes to give other items more. So, if that is true it seems like some items are addons, similar with what all the P67 boards do by adding on the Marvell ports. So, what they may be doing is giving all the chipset lanes to pcie and sata ports and having an addon USB 3.0. However, I guess it makes no difference how they do it as long as the performance is there.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that I'm getting close to making a decision for this motherboard:

Amazon.com: ASRock Socket AM3/AMD 890FX/SATA3&USB3.0/Quad CrossFireX/A&GbE/ATX Motherboard 890FX Deluxe4: Electronics

I like the fact that it has 8 SATA3 connections, not counting the 1 eSATA3, but I would need to find another vendor, because I don't want to wait 2-4 weeks for it to be shipped. One question remains, since it has 4 x16 PCIe slots, is there any reason that 3 of them couldn't be used for PCIe devices besides graphics?

 

[essenbe]

It actually has 2 X16, 1X16@X4, and 2 X1. If you look at Newegg You will be able to get more details than Amazon gives.

 

[Dwarf]

I would trust the manufacturer's website rather than the likes of eBay, Amazon, Scan, Newegg, etc.

ASRock > Products > 890FX Deluxe4

 

[Britton30]

Looks like a solid choice Seeker. I like the 8 USB ports on the rear and the 3 USB headers on the board, one of which is USB3.0 for a case with those ports. A total of 14 USB ports possible!

 

[seekermeister]

essenbe,

You're right. I guess that it having ATI Quad Crossfire support threw me off. Not that it matters, since I will not use it, but how does one get Quad Crossfire, out of only 3 slots, since it appears that it does not have onboard video?

 

[seekermeister]

I would trust the manufacturer's website rather than the likes of eBay, Amazon, Scan, Newegg, etc.

ASRock > Products > 890FX Deluxe4

Agreed. Actually, I have been looking at the ASRock website specs, but have been flicking back and forth too much and getting my eyes blurry.

I'm still comparing the Deluxe 4 model, to the Deluxe 5. They seem to be pretty much the same, with exceptions regarding the caps and some other functions that I'm still trying to sort out.

 

[seekermeister]

Looks like a solid choice Seeker. I like the 8 USB ports on the rear and the 3 USB headers on the board, one of which is USB3.0 for a case with those ports. A total of 14 USB ports possible!

The board comes bundled with front USB 3.0 panel, but I guess that would require modifying most cases to be able to use it.

 

[Dwarf]

I would trust the manufacturer's website rather than the likes of eBay, Amazon, Scan, Newegg, etc.

ASRock > Products > 890FX Deluxe4

Agreed. Actually, I have been looking at the ASRock website specs, but have been flicking back and forth too much and getting my eyes blurry.

I'm still comparing the Deluxe 4 model, to the Deluxe 5. They seem to be pretty much the same, with exceptions regarding the caps and some other functions that I'm still trying to sort out.

That, and the not too insignificant $145 price difference.

 

[seekermeister]

I would trust the manufacturer's website rather than the likes of eBay, Amazon, Scan, Newegg, etc.

ASRock > Products > 890FX Deluxe4

Agreed. Actually, I have been looking at the ASRock website specs, but have been flicking back and forth too much and getting my eyes blurry.

I'm still comparing the Deluxe 4 model, to the Deluxe 5. They seem to be pretty much the same, with exceptions regarding the caps and some other functions that I'm still trying to sort out.

That, and the not too insignificant $145 price difference.

You must have been looking at Amazon. There are some eBay offers for it at ~ $212 shipped, but even that is more than I really want to pay for it. Newegg has it for $179.99...too bad it is Newegg. Still, I think that when I have more time to look, I should find a price closer to that.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that the reason for the price difference is because the Deluxe 4 is Phenom II X6 6-Core CPU Ready, while the Deluxe 5 Supports AM3+ Processor, 8-Core CPU. Either of them would support a Phenom II x6 1090T wouldn't they?

 

[LiquidSnak]

ASRock is a sister company of ASUS.

 

[Britton30]

I think that the reason for the price difference is because the Deluxe 4 is Phenom II X6 6-Core CPU Ready, while the Deluxe 5 Supports AM3+ Processor, 8-Core CPU. Either of them would support a Phenom II x6 1090T wouldn't they?

Check each board's CPU compatibility list. The Deluxe 5 should support everything below Octocores.

 

[seekermeister]

LiquidSnak,

Good to know, but sisters don't always get along, and they don't necessarily travel in the same circles.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that the reason for the price difference is because the Deluxe 4 is Phenom II X6 6-Core CPU Ready, while the Deluxe 5 Supports AM3+ Processor, 8-Core CPU. Either of them would support a Phenom II x6 1090T wouldn't they?

Check each board's CPU compatibility list. The Deluxe 5 should support everything below Octocores.

The only compatibility list that I'm aware of is the QVL, and that only lists memory. There is this chart:

ASRock AMD8

But it is not all that specific

 

[seekermeister]

I did find this list:

ASRock > Products > 890FX Deluxe4 > CPU Support List

But I find the number somewhat confusing, because they don't conform to the manner in which the processor was listed retail (HDT90ZFBGRBOX). Amazon's ad suggests this processor as an additional purchase with the motherboard, but then Amazon only cares about selling stuff.

 

[essenbe]

It does list AM3and AM3+ for the delux5 and only AM3 for the deluxe4.