- AMD 790X
- Phenom II X3 / Phenom II X4 / Phenom FX / Phenom X4 / Phenom X3 / Athlon X2 / Athlon / Sempron X2 / Sempron
- DDR2 1333 OC
What the Doctor Ordered
06/15/2009
This review is from: GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
Pros:
Build quality; runs cool (have you seen Gigabyte's website for all specs? Really, go!!!)
Much better graphics (using same DirectX 9 radeon graphics card and same PSU I had in old system) it even unlocked new resolution options and any flicker I had at some resolutions in old system.
It recognized new CPU and new memory right off the back, booted and posted immediately at first attempt.
Memory: note that ALL and ANY memory you buy to run at higher speed than DDR2-800 needs to be manually set in BIOS - this is not a problem of this or any other board, it is a technical production standard required even by law. So don't go giving bad reviews because it wouldn't recognize "automatically" your 1066 or higher clock memory.
Also: amount of connection options in back; 8 USB(?) wow, optical audio to hookup to my AV Receiver surround sound when I buy a BluRay disk drive to add to this; 1394 Firewire (for external HDD) and double eSata bracket (will take one of your 7 slots).
Cons:
Some users / reviewers of this product. If you're actually reading this than you probably relate to that.
I'm 38 years old and I was playing PC setups and pushing memory pins into boards and soldering cables (they didn't have adaptors and custom cables back than) since I was 16.
1st do your homework before putting parts together, this is technology make sure things are compatible. Educate yourself. You might even enjoy it.
2nd if you do encounter a challenge, search manufacturer website for solutions and contact technical departments. In my experience they can help you resolve 99% (ok 98%) of your issues or help figure out you can't due to compatibility issues or something (not this products fault if you didn't do your homework)
Here's a story I love just for kicks: a friend of mine actually almost broke his board as he was trying to force his new graphics card with an AGP connector into the PCI-E x16 slot; DUH!!! Lucky for him I got there just in time.
Overall Review:
This board
AMD Athlon X2 7850 Kuma 2.8GHz AM2+ 65nm (it's a Phenom with 2 cores disabled) allows DDR2-1066 memory, AM2 processors max out at 800.
Gkill DDR2 1066 4Gb (2x2Gb) Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
450W PSU
250Gb HDD SATA 7200rpm
Lightscribe DVD burner
This was the main component for future upgrades as I'm on a budget currently. An old nerd without resources, who would have thought of that?!?! LOL
The only reason you'd go for a more expensive 790FX board is if you want to take advantage of Dual SLI or CrossFireX at x16 speeds with both cards. YES that's the main difference. Here you get X16 with 1 GPU, or x8+x8 with 2, in an 790FX board you actually get x16+x16 with 2 cards, so if you're a serious gamer and have the budget that'd be the perferred way to go. I'm the occasional gamer one card at x16 or future upgrade at x8+x8 is plenty for my needs. I did want the PIC-E 2.0 slots to take advantage of newer cards speed and technology when I get my next card and this board delivers.
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- Miguel T.
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Verified Owner
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Owned For:
1 week to 1 month
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