GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: I have been using the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 motherboard for about a year. It is a great motherboard and have had no issues with it. I dual boot and use the Linux Mint 32-bit version 13 and Windows 7 64-bit operating systems with it. The sleep mode works good with the Linux and Windows operating systems. I do not overclock so I cannot give any feedback on that. Here is my current hardware setup I am using:

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620 Watt
Video Card: Asus ATI Radeon HD4670 1 gigabyte
RAM: Super Talent PC3 12800 4 gigabytes
Processor and Motherboard: Phenom II 945 Quad-Core and GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3
Hard Drives: Two 7200 R.P.M. Serial ATA hard drive (I cannot remember the model numbers)

I will likely upgrade to a 95 Watt Vishera core processor in the future when I have the funds.

Cons: There is no Parallel ATA port on the motherboard for older hard drives. I got around this by using an add on card to get a Parallel A.T.A. port.

I suppose technology has got to move on from Parallel A.T.A. sometime. Serial A.T.A. is the future.

Pros: Nice selection of ports and features
Good board layout - components are easy to find
UEFI DualBIOS is well laid out
Excellent USB port density (8 rear ports!)

Cons: In BIOS, key repeat is off - must repeated press up/down keys
BIOS does not identify SATA port speed

Other Thoughts: I bought this board to replace an aging Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H board with an Athlon II X4 620 processor, all bought from Newegg. At almost three years old, the older MA785G was showing its age. I bought the GA-970A-D3, a new set of DDR3 DIMMs for 16GB of RAM and a new Samsung SANDisk 240GB SSD and went to town. I moved over the older X4 620 processor, and an old 1TB SATA hard disk. In less than an hour, I moved my Windows 7 install to the SSD without re installation. Thanks to the speedy SSD, Windows boots in 10 seconds or so, and this board allows me to use all 16GB of RAM under Windows 7. Handbrake and Freemake are the defacto apps I run, and they seem pretty happy with my build.
All-in-all, Gigabyte continues to keep me loyal to their products and I have no complaints!

Pros: lots of features

Cons: setting the memory speed in BIOS was a pain, SATA plug location sucks. no USB3.0 connector.

Other Thoughts: wish i spent a little more on a motherboard.

Pros: Great overclocker
Not a single problem out of it

Cons: none

Pros: It's a working board.

Cons: Not comparable with Blackmagic Design Devices. We had 2 Intensity Pros attached and we lived in Problem City for a month. BSOD constantly, among a whole slew of other complications. Not recommended if doing anything with Blackmagic.

Pros: Board arrived fast and was attractive to look at.

Cons: Couldn't get the thing to work, at all, hooked up all the components, got all the cables where they needed to go, plug up the PSU and lo' and behold NOTHING, Front Panel shows no signs of life, Power Switch doesn't work, LEDs aren't on, nothing. Test PSU with another computer, works fine, pull out all non-essential components to make sure nothing is causing an issue, still nothing. Saddest thing is I missed my RMA time-frame because I bought the board a long time ago while I saved up for the GPU and CPU I wanted. I wont be buying from Gigabyte anymore.

Other Thoughts: Using a 500W Coolermaster PSU with a FX4100 and a GTX 650.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your GIGABYTE product. Please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 97526 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: I purchased this MB to run Linux on. I was able to install Debian 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS without any problems. Everything functioned after I went into the BIOS and changed a few settings. I could not be happier with the results. The box seems really fast and stable under load. I am sure it will do its job rendering images in the GIMP.

Cons: Everything seems to function just fine. So, no cons!

Other Thoughts: At first I could not figure out how to boot my new Linux install. Then I went into the BIOS and set the Boot Mode Selection from UEFI to Legacy Only - that fixed that problem.

Also, it seemed like most of the USB ports and the ethernet port were not functioning. In the BIOS I set IOMMU to ENABLED - that fixed that problem. Now it seems like everything is functioning. All of the USB ports work, the ethernet port functions. I couldn't be happier.

I have not used M$ Windows in over a decade. Linux is free and it works. I have not had a single virus in that time. I have saved a bunch of money not paying for Operating Systems and used all that money to buy better hardware.


My system is made up of:

1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

1 x AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

1 x Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory

1 x GIGABYTE GV-N630-2GI GeForce GT 630 2GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

1 x COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500-PCARD3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply

1 x Western Digital WD Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

1 x ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Hope this helps somebody out.

Pros: Cheap, compatible with latest AMD CPUs, USB 3, ATX form factor.

Cons: Since I purchased this product early in it's life, I received a rev 1.1 board. The big difference between this and the latest (rev 3.0) board is the latest comes with UEFI, VRM cooling, and a better Ultra Durable spec. This kind of annoys me because I paid the same price for the board and others get a better one.

The only other con I have is the lack of a USB 3 header.

Pros: None really.

Cons: Nothing but issues from the start with this board. Tried several different installation mediums and OSes (Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian and even Windows) all of them exhibited some sort of error relating to the sata controller, usb drives, network, etc.

Other Thoughts: Returning the board and getting something else. I figured I would give Gigabyte a try after the recommendation of a colleague but after this I will just stick with Asus or Biostar.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your GIGABYTE product. Please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 97389 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Has all the features I could need from a new motherboard. Plus, cheap.

Cons: UEFI takes some getting used to.

Other Thoughts: Other reviewers have said they couldn't get the board to boot from USB drives. I saw no such problem. Other review said they couldn't change the boot order. I saw no such problem. The only thing I saw was a system that boot up and ran Ubuntu 12.04.2 right out of the box without any arguments. Booted off of a thumb drive just to test. All worked and has been great so far. Highly recommend.