Best AM2/AM2+ Mobo

[Para_Franck]

Here is the thing. My Asus M2N-SLI deluxe just died today! I now need to change her for a more recent board. I am looking into the 790Fx chipset. I originally wanted to upgrade when the new SB 500 south bridge beacomes widely available, but life decided I had to change Now. I will not be changing my CPU yet. So I will be running an athlon XP 5600+ in my new board. I will most likely clock it at around 215 Mhz FSB. I d'ont think That I will be neading 4 GFX cards, but I am looking into cross fire X. I already have a HIS 3850 turbo. My ram is Corsair XMS2 ddr2-800 4-4-4-12, or OCZ ATI crossfire edition ddr2 800 4-4-4-15. The OCZ did not work in my Asus. My PSU is a 580Watt muskin sli-ready. So i am looking into an afordable and DEPENDABLE new mother board. I also need my computer to be up and Running during next week.
Please help.

[chibi_man]

Well now that AM2+ boards are coming more common the choice can become tricky. Me Personally would say the Asus M3A32-MVP is still hands down the best AM2+ board.

I've heard DFI has a nice AM2+ board carrying the 790FX as well.

Not much more I can suggest.

[s_8ball]

Originally Posted by chibi_man

Well now that AM2+ boards are coming more common the choice can become tricky. Me Personally would say the Asus M3A32-MVP is still hands down the best AM2+ board.

I've heard DFI has a nice AM2+ board carrying the 790FX as well.

Not much more I can suggest.

Do you mean this board?
DFI LP Dk 790FX-M2RS AMD790FX ATX AM2+ DDR2 2PCI-E CrossFire SATA2 RAID HD Sound GBLAN Motherboard - DirectCanada
I have it and I love it. It's a great board at a great price. It's great for overclocking too. I'm currently running a 6400+ X2 and it is working great.

[BALISTX]

That's a pretty good price for 790fx chipset

[chibi_man]

Yep, that be the one.

I think the M3A32-MVP has better parts and construction. Not saying DFI doesn't make a KICK butt board, I just see more in the Asus one.

[Eagle Eye]

If you're honestly looking for a motherboard that supports crossfire then you can effectively rule out any nVidia series boards.

If you are looking into 790FX series I completely agree with chibi_man you certainly can't go wrong with the Asus M3A32 MVP Deluxe, loaded with features a very high quality motherboard and when you decide to upgrade when the AMD phenom are down to bargin basement prices you'll be ready to go and with an excellent motherboard.

I also suggest RMAing your previous board then sell it on the forums the M2N SLI deluxe is an all around good board especially those looking to build a cheap AM2 home pc even a gaming computer I used it for many months before replacing it with a better 590SLI board for overclocking purposes.

Good luck with your search ,

EE

[vinister]

... this coming from 2 people who have never used one.

The asus board is shite. Check out the forum for it as Asustek:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum-

The board has a SLEW of problems which have yet to be addressed by Asus. The wifi does not work, plain and simple. Even with the latest bios 1002, its still not working for most users. RAID setup is very complicated, finicky, and just does not work properly. 1066 RAM support is terrible, and not many people can get it stable. CrossfireX is only working on this board for people running dual X2's, 3-way and 4-way setups are not working for the few who can afford to try. Crashing, Freezing, Lockups are common and an everyday occurence for me, and it drives me crazy. The BIOS has about 20 or so new options that have no explanations and nobody really knows what they do, we just speculate on the forum. Asus support has been NIL. And the crunching!! I have never had a louder motherboard. I thought it was my HDD's but its not, its the motherboard's power-switching circuits, they crunch nonstop with cpu activity, its enough to make your brain hurt. As if that wasn't bad enough, whenever you launch a 3D app you get a super-high pitch squeal that sounds like its definitely giving you cancer.

Having 4 pci slots seems cool at first until you realize they are so close to each other that you will never be able to use them unless you have single-slot cards and/or a multi-gpu watercooling setup with full-coverage blocks ($$$). The boards with 3 slots make much more sense and are way more useable.

The DFI board, on the other hand, I have heard nothing but good about. There were some issues at first but they have been fixed by bios updates (imagine that). If you really want the ASUS board, buy the DFI and I will trade you because I was duped by cool-looking copper heatsinks and useless pci slots.

Anyways, just thought you might want to hear from someone who is actually putting up with one every day before you buy.

[Para_Franck]

Eagle Eye, I am actualy in the process of RMA, and I wanted to sell the board when it came back from ASUS. Thank you vinister. i already had my doubts about Asus, I admit that there board looks insane, espacially with the ram sinks and heat pipe set-up. I had 2 ASUS boards, and both did not meet my expectations, that are not that High, since I don't overclock a lot. It seems like Asus still has it's issues. On the other hand, I have been looking At the DFI and Gygabit products for a while. Ebdoradz reaaly believes in DFI and his arguments are strong and believe me, that guy knows what he is talking about. So I think I will go with this DFI board that s_8ball has. It is retty cheap and it is a premium board. Now I really am going to have a hard time not to upgrade my CPU and Ram. DDr2-1066 and DFI most allow for pretty nice performances. heck I may slap another 3850 turbo in there! Budget will be limiting factor, but the price of this board, I can afford better ram.

[Eagle Eye]

I guess reviews don't say it all I read 2 and there wasn't any mention of any problems in the conclusions or throughout they had nothing but good things to say. I really guess individual experiences are indeed different everytime for people and computer hardware, nonetheless vinster you are right I guess my recommendation was abit premature.

My apologies,

EE

[Eagle Eye]

Vinster I have been reading the forums over at Asus I simply the love "GOD" goes out gets a crossfire board and trys to put together a SLI configuration with 2 nvidia cards gotta love that.

Wow did you read about the guy that had his board catch fire and destroyed his a ATI 3870 card thats just messed up LMAO.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/6118/dscn1630le8.jpg

As to the problems you have been facing it appears that the bios used is pratically beta in its intial release I wouldn't be suprised if Asus rushed this board to market and didn't finish the bios in time. The big challenge for everyone has been OS compatibility and driver related problems. I did read some post about people that have infact sorted most their problems out, WIFI has been very challenging for some.

I think you should consider your board for RMA if its making crackling or high pitched whining, honestly that sound likes bad circuitry and will ultimately get worse with time especially in an overclocked environment.
Does Ausus PC Probe work on that board and OS? check the voltage see if you are drawing more power then you should be on one the rails, do a visual inspection of the capacitors around the motherboard and see if any are broken or bulging.
Does it do at stock or just when you are overclock?

I don't know if you have heard but there is some indication that certain AM2+ boards do not support the newer phenoms due to their power management systems and the TDP of the higher clock phenoms. Apparently some boards practically fry upon boot almost within minutes.