Solved 1st Build - Major help needed

[linnemeyerhere]

Have a look around for this or other ASRock mobo's. I've built all my 8 rigs with MSI and have nothing but great things to say about the boards and customer support. The one board other than MSI has been an ASRock and it was another great build and I came away impressed as well. My future miniITX build will be an ASUS mobo my first and I'm excited to build this next build.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A75M-ITX/

 

[ChrisPbass]

Don't mix RAM , especially from different manufacturers, it will cause issues. One thing is all RAM will default to the slowest stick that is installed. Some RAM companies publish a list of boards they've tested with, G. Skill is very good at this.

Most RAM is compatible with all boards, yeah it is what has been tested that shows on the compatibility lists.

Is there another hole to put a stand off in for a mATX board? If it's a mATX case it will work. Mini ITX boards are very, very tiny, barely wide enough to fit a DDR3 standard stick in.

A SSD should work fine on any board that has SATA ports, they are all interchangeable, backward compatible, e.g. a SATA III SSD will run in a SATA II port.

Personally I have had bad experience with both MSI and Biostar. Biostar I think are very low end boards and MSI support was very, very poor with my bad board and a GPU.

You can check for yourself on the manufacturer's site for what is/is not compatible, that's what we do or use Google.

As for the A6 chip, look on the chip for the model number, that's what they show in compatibility lists. The model AD3500OJGXBOX isAMD's number for a boxed chip with the cooler.

When I said ' I'm looking at a board and it has 1 kingston, 1 crucial and 2 team for 1866 DDR3.' I should have said that the spec sheet for the board said that those 4 types of memory are compatible with the board. THAT is why I was confused as it seems incredibly limiting. But those are just the tested mem modules and it doesn't mean that other modules won't work.

Now on to the CPU. If my particular model is not on that board's compat list then NO OTHER A6 CPU will work on that board? OR, is it like the memory and that is the only tested A6 CPU.
It seems bizarre that a board that accepts FM1/3500 series/2.1GHZ/65W CPUs won't accept my FM1/3500 series/2.1GHZ/65W CPU

I am either looking in the wrong places or FM1 boards are hard to find. Most are Itx or mini-itx hence my question about them fitting. mITX are surely small enough and I/O shield seems to match up traditional case I/O placement but I have no assurance due to a lack of experience.

I have decided to stay away from the 50-60 boards...Asrock or maybe Asus simply because w/my lack of experience instead of just knowing it's broken I'll troubleshoot it for a month...I'd rather spend the money and better my odds of getting a good board. Seems like QC is chopped in the name of budget control.

 

[ChrisPbass]

Have a look around for this or other ASRock mobo's. I've built all my 8 rigs with MSI and have nothing but great things to say about the boards and customer support. The one board other than MSI has been an ASRock and it was another great build and I came away impressed as well. My future miniITX build will be an ASUS mobo my first and I'm excited to build this next build.

ASRock > A75M-ITX

I looked at the board and it fits my needs I'm sure not quite sure about it fitting into my mATX case correctly. I *think* it will.

Actually, I don't see any ITX boards. They are all mini, micro, pico...

 

[Britton30]

In order of decreasing size, ITX boards are Mini, Micro, Nano, and Pico.

 

[ChrisPbass]

OK...I'm looking at Asrock boards.
compat list
ASRock > Support > CPU Support List

The A6 Llano, which is what I have, is not on that list....Well it is for A4 but A6 is only Husky. THOUGHTS?

Gigabyte board. I found another one that will fit my needs.
It does support a bunch of Llano chips
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3934#
Everything lines up as far as I can tell. Seems like it would work though I'd rather but in an Asrock just because the last Giga failed.

 

[matts6887]

Micro atx should be fine; whatever your preference is should be fine. But you will save yourself some headaches in the long run by spending a little more and getting better quality.

 

[ChrisPbass]

Micro atx should be fine; whatever your preference is should be fine. But you will save yourself some headaches in the long run by spending a little more and getting better quality.

ready and willing!
board 1
A75 Motherboard Series Manufacturing - ASRock Inc.
board 2
A75 Motherboard Series Manufacturing - ASRock Inc.
board 3 (last choice)
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket FM1 - GA-A75M-S2V (rev. 1.0)

Memory and CPU
AMD A6-3500 Llano 2.1GHz (2.4GHz Max Turbo) Socket FM1 65W Triple-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6530D AD3500OJGXBOX - Newegg.com
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL - Newegg.com

 

[Britton30]

What is the name of your CPU, AthlonIIx4, for example? Llano cover a boatload of them.

 

[matts6887]

Indeed knowing the name and brand etc of
The CPU would be beneficial to us.

 

[matts6887]

I would say go for the asrock as i can understand yer not wanting to
Take another chance with the gigabyte board if one of those spread failed. I believe that board should be just fine for what you want to put in it but please tell us the brand etc

 

[linnemeyerhere]

One ASRock listed above is a MiniITX and the other is the MicroITX. Your original Giga mobo is the MicroITX but the Mini should fit as well as it's smaller. If you can find the ASRock's then I think you'll be better served.

 

[matts6887]

One ASRock listed above is a MiniITX and the other is the MicroITX. Your original Giga mobo is the MicroITX but the Mini should fit as well as it's smaller. If you can find the ASRock's then I think you'll be better served.

I concur on this.

 

[ChrisPbass]

I can find the Asrocks. All the boards are on Amazon.
I posted the link to the CPU above:huh:

:sarc:Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

Is that not enough information? If so, I'll have to take it off the board and get the #?

HERE"S THE THING. This is what I've been asking. Ya'll are willing to suggest a board and you don't even know the specific CPU. SO.
:shock::shock::shock:AM I OBSESSING OVER CPU COMPATIBILITY?:shock::shock::shock:

 

[Britton30]

Yes you are obsessing, enjoy yourself, we've tried to help and get confusing half-answers. :huh:

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I tried to call ASRock and dbl. check. @ 909.590.8308 but they are closed till the new year. I think if you can contact an authorized ASRock dealer you should ask for the compatibility as I feel confident it should work but clearly your CPU isn't listed and I understand your concern. It would seem the mobo's can handle the FM1 pin patterns in A6 or A4 in Husky or Llano cores with a Bios version difference, but I would hate to say 100% and be wrong.

 

[matts6887]

I would probably see if you can dig up
Any info online about the board you are
Thinking about and go from there. As
Far as over absessing well maybe maybe not

 

[linnemeyerhere]

All of this is coming from ASRocks site and then support for CPU's and it clearly doesn't show this CPU but I still suspect it will work but would I bet my life on it.......not a chance, but someone will be much more in the know as they say.

I would probably see if you can dig up
Any info online about the board you are
Thinking about and go from there. As
Far as over absessing well maybe maybe not

 

[ChrisPbass]

Yes you are obsessing, enjoy yourself, we've tried to help and get confusing half-answers. :huh:

Thank you for help.

 

[ChrisPbass]

Apparently AD3500OJGXBOX
is the boxed version of 3GX so which is supported by one of the boards I'm looking at. [end red font]

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Great news and better to be safe then sorry as many more issue could put you off ever building another rig, don't ever let that happen !