Suggestions for an AM2+ mobo?

[~misfit~]

Hey all,

I'm Intel all the way at the moment. However, a friend bought a built-up
'gaming machine' (I've mentioned it before here, it's been nothing but
trouble) using an Asus M3A motherboard, a Phenom 9500 CPU, 1x2GB DDR2 module
and a 9600GT.

The machine's abeen a nightmare. Firstly it was supplied with a PSU that was
barely capable of 300W (Tt 420W). I replaced it with a reasonable 510W PSU,
reinstalled Windows (don't ask!), updated the BIOS and it seemed alright for
a while. I showed him how to raise vcore if it kept crashing.

Well, yesterday he rang me and asked about a replacement mobo. He's raised
vcore all the way (!) in BIOS, 1.550V and it's still crashing. I expressed
concern at the high voltage but he assured me that the two hardware
monitoring apps I'd given him, HWMonitor and CPU-Z both say that the vcore
is only 1.2xxV when in Windows. I also got him to raise VDIMM to (at the
moment) 2.05V. He doesn't have another stick of DDR2 to try and I only have
what's in this machine and I'm loathe to mess with it. My luck hasn't been
great of late. :-/

I've been sick so I advised him to get a single 1GB stick of DDR2 - 800 and
try that alone. However, if that doesn't work he wants me to advise on a
good mobo. (and fit it, reinstall Windows...) I like Asus personally
(followed by Gigabyte) but the vanilla M3A model that he has, going by
Googling, seems to have been a lemon. As I mentioned, I'm not au fait with
current AMD boards or chipsets so a suggestion or two would be nice.
He'll pay between NZ$200 and $300. (US$150 - $200 by the time it gets here?)
Also, he's said that this is the last time he ever buys a PC on impulse.
I've built the last two machines for him and they've been trouble-free. He's
rather surprised that a PC can be this much trouble, LOL.

Another thing, I've heard that the first Phenoms, the 9x00 range, were
'flaky', that the 9x50 are much better. However, surely they're not *that*
bad that he needs to replace his CPU?

All input appreciated. He's desperate and is going to be calling me soon.
I'll look around but anyone with a positive experience with an AM2+ mobo
that they want to share would be great. Also, any comments on the above;
RAM? CPU?

The clowns that threw this machine together were, IMO, getting rid of
troublesome or slow-moving stock. The PSU was a lemon, the mobo won't work
with LAN drivers off the supplied CD, nobody's buying the 9x00 Phenoms now
the 9x50 ones are around... These guys are that incompetent that they didn't
remove the jumper from the Seagate 500Gb 7200.11 HDD that limits it to SATA
I speed.

Anyway, I digress. Suggestions appreciated. Oh, I'm in New Zealand so mobo
availablility could be limited.

TIA.
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)

 

[Brett Kline]

Hey all,

I'm Intel all the way at the moment. However, a friend bought a built-up
'gaming machine' (I've mentioned it before here, it's been nothing but
trouble) using an Asus M3A motherboard, a Phenom 9500 CPU, 1x2GB DDR2 module
and a 9600GT.

The machine's abeen a nightmare. Firstly it was supplied with a PSU that was
barely capable of 300W (Tt 420W). I replaced it with a reasonable 510W PSU,
reinstalled Windows (don't ask!), updated the BIOS and it seemed alright for
a while. I showed him how to raise vcore if it kept crashing.

Well, yesterday he rang me and asked about a replacement mobo. He's raised
vcore all the way (!) in BIOS, 1.550V and it's still crashing. I expressed
concern at the high voltage but he assured me that the two hardware
monitoring apps I'd given him, HWMonitor and CPU-Z both say that the vcore
is only 1.2xxV when in Windows. I also got him to raise VDIMM to (at the
moment) 2.05V. He doesn't have another stick of DDR2 to try and I only have
what's in this machine and I'm loathe to mess with it. My luck hasn't been
great of late. :-/

I've been sick so I advised him to get a single 1GB stick of DDR2 - 800 and
try that alone. However, if that doesn't work he wants me to advise on a
good mobo. (and fit it, reinstall Windows...) I like Asus personally
(followed by Gigabyte) but the vanilla M3A model that he has, going by
Googling, seems to have been a lemon. As I mentioned, I'm not au fait with
current AMD boards or chipsets so a suggestion or two would be nice.
He'll pay between NZ$200 and $300. (US$150 - $200 by the time it gets here?)
Also, he's said that this is the last time he ever buys a PC on impulse.
I've built the last two machines for him and they've been trouble-free. He's
rather surprised that a PC can be this much trouble, LOL.

Another thing, I've heard that the first Phenoms, the 9x00 range, were
'flaky', that the 9x50 are much better. However, surely they're not *that*
bad that he needs to replace his CPU?

All input appreciated. He's desperate and is going to be calling me soon.
I'll look around but anyone with a positive experience with an AM2+ mobo
that they want to share would be great. Also, any comments on the above;
RAM? CPU?

The clowns that threw this machine together were, IMO, getting rid of
troublesome or slow-moving stock. The PSU was a lemon, the mobo won't work
with LAN drivers off the supplied CD, nobody's buying the 9x00 Phenoms now
the 9x50 ones are around... These guys are that incompetent that they didn't
remove the jumper from the Seagate 500Gb 7200.11 HDD that limits it to SATA
I speed.

Anyway, I digress. Suggestions appreciated. Oh, I'm in New Zealand so mobo
availablility could be limited.

TIA.

Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3, GA-MA790FX-DS5 and the MSI K9N SLI-F V.2 are the
only motherboards I've used with the Phenom.

Some users have have had trouble with the 770/790FX chipset and memory
faster than DDR2 800 (PC2-6400). Using Crucial part BL2KIT12864AA1065
I've not had the same problems.

Have you tried a single PC2-6400 module on the M3A?


http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-ma790fx-ds5.pdf
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-ma770-ds3.pdf

 

[Paul]

Hey all,

I'm Intel all the way at the moment. However, a friend bought a built-up
'gaming machine' (I've mentioned it before here, it's been nothing but
trouble) using an Asus M3A motherboard, a Phenom 9500 CPU, 1x2GB DDR2 module
and a 9600GT.

The machine's abeen a nightmare. Firstly it was supplied with a PSU that was
barely capable of 300W (Tt 420W). I replaced it with a reasonable 510W PSU,
reinstalled Windows (don't ask!), updated the BIOS and it seemed alright for
a while. I showed him how to raise vcore if it kept crashing.

Well, yesterday he rang me and asked about a replacement mobo. He's raised
vcore all the way (!) in BIOS, 1.550V and it's still crashing. I expressed
concern at the high voltage but he assured me that the two hardware
monitoring apps I'd given him, HWMonitor and CPU-Z both say that the vcore
is only 1.2xxV when in Windows. I also got him to raise VDIMM to (at the
moment) 2.05V. He doesn't have another stick of DDR2 to try and I only have
what's in this machine and I'm loathe to mess with it. My luck hasn't been
great of late. :-/

I've been sick so I advised him to get a single 1GB stick of DDR2 - 800 and
try that alone. However, if that doesn't work he wants me to advise on a
good mobo. (and fit it, reinstall Windows...) I like Asus personally
(followed by Gigabyte) but the vanilla M3A model that he has, going by
Googling, seems to have been a lemon. As I mentioned, I'm not au fait with
current AMD boards or chipsets so a suggestion or two would be nice.
He'll pay between NZ$200 and $300. (US$150 - $200 by the time it gets here?)
Also, he's said that this is the last time he ever buys a PC on impulse.
I've built the last two machines for him and they've been trouble-free. He's
rather surprised that a PC can be this much trouble, LOL.

Another thing, I've heard that the first Phenoms, the 9x00 range, were
'flaky', that the 9x50 are much better. However, surely they're not *that*
bad that he needs to replace his CPU?

All input appreciated. He's desperate and is going to be calling me soon.
I'll look around but anyone with a positive experience with an AM2+ mobo
that they want to share would be great. Also, any comments on the above;
RAM? CPU?

The clowns that threw this machine together were, IMO, getting rid of
troublesome or slow-moving stock. The PSU was a lemon, the mobo won't work
with LAN drivers off the supplied CD, nobody's buying the 9x00 Phenoms now
the 9x50 ones are around... These guys are that incompetent that they didn't
remove the jumper from the Seagate 500Gb 7200.11 HDD that limits it to SATA
I speed.

Anyway, I digress. Suggestions appreciated. Oh, I'm in New Zealand so mobo
availablility could be limited.

TIA.

There is a list here, of boards with better Vcore regulators. But this
would be more of an issue if you had a higher end processor (9850).

http://event.asus.com/mb/140w/

And when I checked the price on the M3A32, it was over the NZ$300 limit.
I think it is also cursed by only having one PS/2 port (which matters
to some people). I used this to get some pricing.

http://www.pricespy.co.nz

I notice that search engine only indexes by title line, so if you use
"AM2" as a search term, it doesn't manage to list all the AM2 motherboards!

You could go with something from the previous generation. The M2N-SLI Deluxe
has a good set of connectors on the back. It is an AM2 board, but AM2+ processors
are backward compatible (just need the right BIOS). The HT bus won't run as
fast (no big deal) and the memory controller may not go to astronomical speeds.
But it might be a cheaper solution. There are 1600 reviews on Newegg, so you
should be able to get a good idea of how much of a dud it is.

I don't really enjoy shopping for AM2/AM2+, because the reviews tend to
be depressing.

Another option, is to use this Motherboard Selector at AMD. It lists
motherboards versus your processor selection.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/RecommendedMBFilter.aspx

Paul

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Phil Weldon" typed:

'Shaun' wrote, in part:
_____

Intel Q6600 + motherboard for less than $200 US on sale; course you
probably want to throw away the motherboard B^(
Even not on sale, an Intel Q6600 is $7 US less than an AMD Phenom
9600 Quad and $30 US than an Intel E6600!

1. Sell the current CPU for a decent price, sell the current
motherboard for what you can get.
2. Buy an Intel Q6600 (if your friend really needs quad cores);
there are a number of quad core 1066/1333 MHz FSB Intel manufactured
Core 2 Quad capable motherboards for around $100 US (Intel has gone
over to the dark side and now builds motherboards that are
overclocking friendly.)
So you could get rid of this problem smoothly by spending $200 US
(CPU) + $100 US (Intel motherboard) - $75 US (sell Phenom 9500) - $30
US (Asus M3A) = $195 US net cost.

LOL, it's what I would do. However, that's the flaw in the plan, *I'd* be
doing it, as a favour.

Currently he's bought a single 1GB stick of DDR2 800 RAM per my instructions
and fitted it in place of the 2GB stick that was there. That was two days
ago and I haven't heard from him. I take it that his silence is a good
thing, that the machine is now functioning as intended. <fingers crossed>

Cheers Phil.
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Brett Kline" typed:

Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3, GA-MA790FX-DS5 and the MSI K9N SLI-F V.2 are
the only motherboards I've used with the Phenom.

Thanks. I take it you recommend them all?

Some users have have had trouble with the 770/790FX chipset and memory
faster than DDR2 800 (PC2-6400). Using Crucial part BL2KIT12864AA1065
I've not had the same problems.

Have you tried a single PC2-6400 module on the M3A?


http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-ma790fx-ds5.pdf
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-ma770-ds3.pdf

See my reply to Phil. I think that the RAM may have been the problem. I'm
loathe to call him, I'm pretty sure he'd have got back to me if there were
still problems.

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Paul" typed:

There is a list here, of boards with better Vcore regulators. But this
would be more of an issue if you had a higher end processor (9850).

http://event.asus.com/mb/140w/

S'funny, the Asus specs page for the M3A has "*Supports CPUs up to 95W."
written there in what looks like an addition to the original specs. It's in
a larger font. The 9500 *is* 95W, therefore, by the leter of Asus site,
unsupported. However, in a contradiction, the Asus supported CPU list for
the M3A lists some 125W CPUs. I think that they've changed the specs page
but haven't got around to changing the supported CPU page. The board is a
lemon.

And when I checked the price on the M3A32, it was over the NZ$300
limit. I think it is also cursed by only having one PS/2 port (which
matters
to some people). I used this to get some pricing.

http://www.pricespy.co.nz

Alas, I gave up on NZ Pricespy a long time ago. Fully 70% of deals that
sound too good tobe true are. They claim no stock or similar. However, I
very much appreciate your time and effort Paul.

I notice that search engine only indexes by title line, so if you use
"AM2" as a search term, it doesn't manage to list all the AM2
motherboards!
You could go with something from the previous generation. The M2N-SLI
Deluxe has a good set of connectors on the back. It is an AM2 board, but
AM2+ processors are backward compatible (just need the right BIOS).
The HT bus won't run as fast (no big deal) and the memory controller may
not go to
astronomical speeds. But it might be a cheaper solution. There are
1600 reviews on Newegg, so you should be able to get a good idea of
how much of a dud it is.
Thanks.

I don't really enjoy shopping for AM2/AM2+, because the reviews tend
to be depressing.

Yeah. Part of the reason I'm using Intel again after several years with AMD.

Another option, is to use this Motherboard Selector at AMD. It lists
motherboards versus your processor selection.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/RecommendedMBFilter.aspx

Much appreciated, thanks. However, in my reply to Phil I've mentioned that
it's probably working fine using a single 1GB stick or RAM (at least I
haven't heard).

Thanks again Paul, you're an asset to this group.
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)

 

[Brett Kline]

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Brett Kline" typed:

Thanks. I take it you recommend them all?

All are decent IME with the GA-MA790FX-DS5 being the most fully featured.

See my reply to Phil. I think that the RAM may have been the problem.
I'm loathe to call him, I'm pretty sure he'd have got back to me if
there were still problems.

Hopefully it was the RAM after all.