CPU/Mobo Advice for Best AMD Motherboard (4k)

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Memento

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Q: What is your budget?
4k preferably. Can Increase to 5k+ if benefit is substantial.

Q: What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
Nothing so far. Will be buying a rig very soon. Roughly decided parts:

Processor-Athlon x3(430/435/440) OR Athlon X4 (630/35/40), depending on model availability.
Case-CM elite 310/430
PSU-VX450W
Hard Drive- WD Caviar Blue 500gb
Ram-Corsair/Gskill 2x2gb ddr3.
Monitor - Benq/Samsung/Dell -20’ or 22’
Motherboard-?
GPU- Will be purchased in 4-5 months when prices fall, since the ati 6 series is coming very soon.

Q: Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
None.

Q: Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.

Motherboard – Amd Am3 ddr3 motherboard is required. Since I will buy a proper graphics card after 4-5 months, I need a decent IGP motherboard for the time being for old games. I did some research and got some suggestions.:

These 3 have decent IGP and features

Biostar TA785G3 HD-Rs. 4.5k (Prime)
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-US2H- 4.5k
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H - 4.5k(smc)

Please mention if you know of any other models that are better in the same price range or a little more .

Should I stick with Gigabyte? The service and warranty is very important to me. USB3 and sata 3 is simply a luxury/extra benefit. I have no need for it. Unless it’s price is close to one without it, I’m not interested.

Q: Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component

Yes, will upgrade the Graphics card in 4-5 months. I will either go for 485,5770,460 or others depending on the fall in prices due to ati 6 series arrival.

Q: Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
Mumbai
Open to online purchase.

Q: Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
Not for a motherboard.

Q: What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
Gaming (High settings)
Browsing
Desktop Processing
Downloading
Watching movies.

Q: Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
ASUS service seems bad. I’ll stick with Gigabyte, MSI & Biostar.

Q: If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
Half-Life 2 + episodes
Portal
Bioshock
Crysis
Fear Etc.
Q: What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
Will be buying a 20’ or 22’ inch lcd with the build. Most likely 1920x1080 or 1600x1900.

Q: Are you looking to overclock?
I'm open to it. Unless the price difference between a motherboard that supports easy overclocking/unlocking and one that doesn’t is small(under 1.k) then it’s not worth it. If it’s possible in my budget then great.

Q: Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
Windows XP sp2 for atleast another year.
Important Question
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- Would it be better to buy a motherboard with decent IGP now , until I buy a full fledged graphics card after 5 months OR should I buy a much cheaper motherboard without IGP and buy a very cheap dedicated graphics card now, for 2k, and then replace it 5 months later?
Suggestions and help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Op. I do expect that price for the 880GMA-UD2H but I am not very certain.
That looks like the board to get if expected ownership > 3years due to all solid caps.
A serious drawback is only one PCI slot and a useless PCIex4 slot which shares bandwidth with the PCIex16 slot. Seriously what were they thinking? You would be very limited in expansion options with this board, especilly if like me you own several pci cards.

The rest use electrolytic caps peripherally and solid ones near the cpu area.
I got a quote for 4.2k for the TA785G3 HD. Prices outside of India for the 7 series boards have declined sharply from $5-$10.
I expect this board to cost 3.75k in a couple of weeks. I must remark here that the 4200HD IGP on this board is pre overclocked to 700Mhz and it also has 128 mb ddr3 dedicated sideport memory.
Only that Biostar has used some electrolytic caps to cut costs.
Biostar boards are expected to hit fsb walls early at only 220-230 perhaps due to the quality of mosfets used. This is expected to be an issue if you overclock on a low multiplier locked processor like the athlon ii x3 425/435 and athlon ii x4 620/630.
I'd recommend getting the c3 revision and better binned processors like the athlon ii x3 440/445, athlon ii x4 640 or even the multiplier unlocked phenom ii BE ones.
 
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Appreciate the replies guys. I didn't know the bIO boards are hard to find. I can't seem to get a proper price on the 785 and 880 boards. The lack of many models on the online retailers sites doesn't help either. PLus, I need to buy my rig in the next 10 days.

@Freeradical- Im pretty new to all this. Don't really know the importance of all solid caps. Is it a performance based feature or durability?

The TA785G3 HD for 4.2k is the Bio or GIGA one?

AS for the processor that I'm going for,tt will be a athlon 2 x3 435/44o or x4 630/635. Athlon x3 440/445 and x4640 are extremely rare.

I don't need overclocking but If I could get a X4 530/35 to 3ghz+ then it's great. Since I'm new to this anyway its not a necessity.

Besides buying a good card in 5 months time I don't think I will be buying any more cards for pci, anytime soon.
 
The stock speed of Athlon II x3 440 is 3.0 ghz (200 fsb x 15).
Insist on buying a c3 revision.
Hint:Look at the box codes and compare with the one's listed on amd's product page.

For your purposes the Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H seems to be better than the Biostar TA785G3 HD.

Electrolytic capacitors have a shorter life and can swell up and burst killing your mobo. But that generally happens over a long period of time or prolonged heat exposure.
Solid capacitors are more durable.
 
..:: Free Radical ::.. said:
The stock speed of Athlon II x3 440 is 3.0 ghz (200 fsb x 15).
Insist on buying a c3 revision.
Hint:Look at the box codes and compare with the one's listed on amd's product page.

For your purposes the Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H seems to be better than the Biostar TA785G3 HD.

Electrolytic capacitors have a shorter life and can swell up and burst killing your mobo. But that generally happens over a long period of time or prolonged heat exposure.
Solid capacitors are more durable.
Click to expand...
..:: Free Radical ::.. said:
The stock speed of Athlon II x3 440 is 3.0 ghz (200 fsb x 15).
Insist on buying a c3 revision.
Hint:Look at the box codes and compare with the one's listed on amd's product page.

For your purposes the Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H seems to be better than the Biostar TA785G3 HD.

Electrolytic capacitors have a shorter life and can swell up and burst killing your mobo. But that generally happens over a long period of time or prolonged heat exposure.
Solid capacitors are more durable.
Click to expand...

So the 435 or x4 630/35 don't have c3 revisions? X3's have been hard to find at the computer shops I've asked. I think it's better if I go for a full quad 630/35 instead of hoping to unlock a 4th stable core. Why is it so important?

Plus I found this: Twelve C3 revision Athlon IIs/Two new Athlon II X4s on the way - XtremeSystems Forums

And this : Details on AMD Athlon II X2 processors with C3 revision

Also I did some reading up on the different chipsets(785 and 880) here:

AMD 880G Conclusion | bit-tech.net

Should I be worried about the driver problem(see the trackmania test) and the fact that the 880 unlocking features have been removed( Woudn't matter if I choose a quad). Most of the stuff is way above my head.

Also the 880 mother board I mentioned in 1st post is the : Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H, not Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H. The price difference is more than 1k and I don't need usb3 or sata 3.
 
Ah yes my mistake.
Even I am contemplating to buy the same motherboard from SMC.
Are you certain of the price?
The Gigabyte website does not advertize "core boost" unlocking for this motherboard but its less endowed sibling with 2 dimms, the 880GM-D2H is explicitly mentioned to support it.
you may want to download the manual on the product website to confirm.
But since both have SB710 with ACC, it seems likely that the UD2H board, which is the same as its predecessor, the 785GMT should support unlocking.
 
..:: Free Radical ::.. said:
Insist on buying a c3 revision.
Hint:Look at the box codes and compare with the one's listed on amd's product page.
Click to expand...
i dont understand
i am going to buy an AMD Athlon II X4 635 tomorrow
is there two versions?
one c3 and the other normal

or is every 630-640,435-445 processors come as c3 revision? :huh:
 
Check these codes on the box

Athlon II X3 435
ADX435WFK32GM / ADX435WFGMBOX

Athlon II X3 440
ADX440WFK32GM / ADX440WFGMBOX

Athlon II X4 630
ADX630WFK42GM / ADX630WFGMBOX

Athlon II X4 635
ADX635WFK42GM / ADX635WFGMBOX
 
aman.pitbull said:
Also check out this board MSI 880GMA-E45, it has cores unlocking feature + all solid capacitor design. Pair it with Athlon II X4 635.
Click to expand...

Pardon my ignorance but why would one want core unlocking when pairing it with a quad CPU?
 
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