Question 1

Does this work with Windows 7?

Accepted Answer

I installed windows 7 and then 8. I worked great. SSD drive boots a little slow, with the bios time to boot around 30-40 sec, but then windows is running in 8 sec. I used 32 bit windows 7 and upgraded to 64 bit 8 to take advantage of my 16g of ram. The ram disk worked like a charm under windows 7. The only issue i had in 7 was sleep and hybernate failed. I believe it was driver related, but didn't bother fixing it since I was upgrading. Overall, this is a great MB. 32 g memory, fast FSB, usb3, no embeded video and basic sound with a great price. I plugged in my video card, put on my headphones, and started gaming fast.

Question 2

Will a PCI Xpress 3.0 video card work in a PCI Xpress 2.0 slot?

Accepted Answer

Yes it will, people have done lots of bench marks to see the performance loss and it's Barley anything.  Also I've Used a amd 7770 with 2.0 and my gtx 770 I can't really see a bottleneck.

Question 3

Will this board run Win XP 32 bit?  I am dual booting on my current Abit KN8 Ultra.

Accepted Answer

I am currently running Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit so i am sure this board will no problems running Windows xp 32 bit. Also the specs state that it can run 32 or 64 bit os.

Question 4

What size (watts) power supply should I use for this mobo.  Will not be using a hi end GPU graphics card, just a plain pci video card ?

Accepted Answer

Any Wattage will do that is above the wattage that your system requires.

A 1000W PSU will use as much energy powering your system as a 500W PSU.

For the sake of saving money, I would go for a lower Watt PSU, 500W should do you good. However if you want to get a high-end high-consumption GPU later on I would spend the extra money now to get a higher Watt PSU.

Question 5

I want to replace my current ddr2 motherboard with a ddr3 motherboard. Will my ddr2 ram work in this until I get the ddr3 ram. my ddr2 is 240 pin also?

Accepted Answer

DDR2 RAM, will not work in a DDR3 Slot. You can find some motherboards that have both DDR2 and DDR3 RAM slots: This is an option for you : ASRock 960GC-GS FX AM3+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CL7u-cejgLsCFQpgMgodYV8ANg&Item=N82E16813157469&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-AMD+Motherboards-_-N82E16813157469&ef_id=UmWghgAAAWxx3W5v:20131125154317:s Unfortunately, you are going to be stuck upgrading your RAM with your MOBO if you get a DDR3 only mobo. On a positive note, 8gigs of G. Skill Ripjaw X is only $59.99 DDR3 1600. G. Skill's Ripjaw series is affordable I would recommend DDR3 1600, but 1333 will also work for you. Hope this helped, and sorry about your compatibility issue.

Question 6

Does this include a GPU? Thanks

Accepted Answer

This board does not include onboard video/GPU. It has a standard PCIe 2.0 x 16 slot for a discrete graphics card.

Question 7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227 will that motherboard fit this the case in the link the sooner i know the better !

Accepted Answer

It's a very compact motherboard. It will since it's less than 12 inches long and 8 inches wide.

Question 8

Hello, I am wanting to build a budget gaming rig, and I am fairly new to the custom rig scene, so it goes without saying I am very inexperienced in the ways of what I should get or where I should look.  I understand how to pull apart a pc, and put it back together, I could do it in my sleep, I am just unfamiliar with all the options for hardware, and tbh, it kind of overwhelms me, I'm not sure if I should go for the whatsit GTX 90000 or the whosit XMB 25699

SO basically what I am asking is, is this a good Mobo to choose for a budget gaming rig? I plan on dropping around 600-ish dolalrs and building it myself, and I want it to handle pretty intesnive games, I don't play crysis or anything, but stuff like skyrim, WoW, hosting custom servers for minecraft, and games like that without using too much System resources.

I had the Asus g74sx gaming laptop a few years ago, and was very happy with that laptop, and I am winting a rig of comparable power at least,

Any advice, pointers, hints, or things that are absolute no-no's would be greatly appreciated thanks.

P.s. Sorry if I posted this to the wrong area..

Accepted Answer

Adam,
I am running that board in a machine that is not a gaming rig, but my current pc is one model older than that one but the same Brand (ASRock) I have an AMD 3.6GHz OC(Overclocked Black Edition) CPU, 8GB RAM, and the AMD R9 270 Video card.  I can run Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online and FFXIV-A Realm Reborn at maximum graphic levels with no issues so I believe the board you are looking at will easily supply your needs. Even if down the road you want to tap into dual Crossfire or SLI Video cards.  Good luck and Enjoy the games!

Question 9

I bought and already shipped out x1 ADATA XPG V1.0 series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GW8G9-1G but had to rma the ,obo i bought also and am thinking of going with this board, seeing how this board is Dual Channel memory will my one stick work for like a month or so untill i can buy another stick. all I plan on doing with this build is playing WoW?

Accepted Answer

Yes it will work with no issues for as long as the stick of ram will last. As long as its ddr3 everything will work normaly.

Question 10

Has anyone actually used this motherboard's floppy connector? Does it work natively/out of the box for Windows 7 / 8.1 64-bit versions and boot from properly?

Accepted Answer

Yes it does work,  you need to go into the bios and enable it. i use windows 7 64 bit i dont know about booting from it but it should  as far as win8.1 i dont know

CPU Socket Type	AM3+
CPU Type	Support for Socket AM3+ processors Support for Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom II X6 / X4 / X3 / X2 (except 920 / 940) / Athlon II X4 / X3 / X2 / Sempron processors

Chipset	AMD RX881/760G
South Bridge	AMD SB710

Number of Memory Slots	4x240pin
Memory Standard	DDR3 1866(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066/800
Maximum Memory Supported	32GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 2.0 x16	1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16
PCI Express x1	3 x PCI Express x1
PCI Slots	2 x PCI Slots

PATA	1 x ATA133 2 Dev. Max
Serial ATA (SATA)	2 x SATA 6Gb/s
SATA RAID	6 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and JBOD)

ASRock 980DE3/U3S3 AM3+ AMD RX881/760G USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Learn more about the ASRock 980DE3/U3S3

Customer Reviews of the ASRock 980DE3/U3S3

Warranty & Returns

Warranty, Returns, And Additional Information

Warranty

Return Policies

Manufacturer Contact Info

Back I/O Ports	1 x COM (Serial Port) / 2 x PS/2 / 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 / 3 x Audio Jacks / 4 x USB 2.0/1.1
PS/2	2
COM	1
USB 3.0	2 x USB 3.0
USB 1.1/2.0	4 x USB 2.0
Audio Ports	3 Ports

Onboard USB	2 x USB 3.0 + 6 x USB 2.0
Other Connectors	1 x Floppy connector 1 x IR header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x Power LED header 1 x CPU Fan connector (4-pin) 1 x Chassis Fan connector (4-pin) 1 x Power Fan connector (4-pin) 24 pin ATX power connector 8 pin 12V power connector CD in header Front panel audio connector

Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC662
Audio Channels	5.1 Channels

Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset	Realtek 8111E
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps

Physical Spec
Form Factor	ATX
Power Pin	24 Pin

Item#: N82E16813157366