Good product what runs stable. Many uitbereidingssloten for a motherboard with the AMD 970 chipset. Unfortunately, the VRM-cooling to.
Pros
- 3x PCIe x16
- Rather than front audio header
- Space between Ram slots and CPU slot
- All 7 pci slots in the case can be used
- M. 2 slot
- Beautiful color red…
Cons
- …But I would have preferred a blue motherboard.
- VRM-cooling meets but just
- Some trouble with ram memory
Final conclusion
Score: 4Per criterion
Features
Score: 5
Why this motherboard?
It was not on the schedule, but due to a defect on my Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0, I had to find a replacement motherboard.
My requirements for this system board
– Preferably a blue color
– Adequate cooling on the VRM
– Logical lay-out for all connections
– At least 5 PCIe ports of which at least 3 x16
– Minimum ability for 10 USB ports including at least 4 USB 3.0
– At least 6 Sata ports, preferably 8
– All 4-pin fan headers are REAL PWM
Why these requirements?
In order to reach the final to begin: with my previous motherboard were but two of the six 4-pin fan headers are really PWM controlled. In combination with my Noctua fans gave some strange problems which I prefer not once more want to have. The minimum numbers for the sata and usb ports are so much because I also have really that amount of in use have 2 video cards, usb3.0 card, sata card and wifi card – all of which are PCIe. The logical lay-out for all connectors is mainly to prevent me from too many extension cords I need.
The cooling on the VRM, I am becoming more and more important going to find since I have stability issues due to hot VRM against ben came in and overclocking on another AMD motherboard. There must be a large heat sink on the VRM’s which is also what airflow of my CPU cooler can take.
The first point – which, clearly, is not satisfied, is – is for me of secondary importance. Because I don’t have an unlimited budget have is that the least important point where a board should meet.
Possible candidates
Asrock Fatal1ty 970 Performance
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
Asus M5A99X EVO
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
Below is a table with a brief comparison between the four motherboards that meet my requirements would meet.
Asrock Fatal1ty 970 PerformanceGigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3Asus M5A99X EVOGigabyte GA-990FX-UD5Laagste price at the time of writing�102,96=5�138,-�144,95�145,05 ChipsetAMD 970AMD 990FXAMD 990XAMD 990FXPCIe x16 configuratiex16/x0/x4
x8/x8/x4x16/x4/x16/x4x16/x0/x4
x8/x8/x4x16/x4/x16/x4/x0
x16/x4/x8/x4/x8Aantal USB poorten4x 2.0
4x 3.0
3x 2.0 header
1x 3.0 header8x 2.0
2x 3.0
3x 2.0 header
1x 3.0 header8x 2.0
2x 3.0
3x 2.0 header
1x 3.0 header8x 2.0
2x 3.0
3x 2.0 header
1x 3.0 headerAantal Sata aansluitingen6x Sata3 6gbps6x Sata3 6gbps6x Sata3 6gbps
2x Sata2 3gbps8x Sata3 6gbps
Why the choice for this board? The four above motherboards are allevier good for what I need. The only and simplest reason that I made this choice I have made is the price. This Asrock motherboard is of the four by far the cheapest. With a difference of more than lwa 30, the choice is made fairly quickly.
In use
I have this motherboard now almost a month in use and I am very satisfied with it. All the hardware fits it, and the settings for the fans is also great. There are two things that to me are disappointing. To start the cooling of the VRM’s. This is just enough to use with a FX-8350. Overclocking I’m not going to do and I can also not recommend anyone. Because the target audience for this motherboard is not the die-hard overclocker, I’m not a big minus.
The second problem, what I personally what is more annoying is the stability with the RAM. I have 2 modules of 8GB DDR3-1600 and 2 modules of 4GB DDR3-1600 – both of the same series of Corsair – in use. On my previous motherboard – Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 – this worked without any issues at 1600mhz with tighter timings than Corsair specify. On this motherboard I’ll get it even with very loose timings, not stable at 1600mhz. Now I have the speed reset to 1333mhz and the timings to be automatically set, but even now is an increase in the voltage of 0.05 V is needed to make the RAM stable. For a platform that is already several years on the market, I find that very bad.
Conclusion
This motherboard does exactly what it should do. Despite the two (relatively) small problems I am very satisfied. When you are AM3+ processor want to start overclocking I would not have this motherboard and want to recommend. I can use this motherboard, however, strongly recommend it to the people who have a not too expensive AM3+ motherboard, want to have, what the modern interfaces like M. 2, SLI support and USB3.0. So far I have no regrets of this choice, despite the fact that red and blue not so nice combine blue and blue.