Best Board for AMD
 

Hi,

Is there a board that is recommended for the AMD FX 8320. I've had good luck w/ ASUS boards. I've never built an AMD before, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanx

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answer...-amd-8320.html, but personally I prefer ASUS too: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answer...-8320-cpu.html. Just look at your other devices too. This is a good page to start: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NNVnQ7
also you can check here: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/CPUs/AMD/...herboards.html
use only one of the 970 and 990 chipset.

I use an ASUS M5A99X Evo, works fine in Linux, no problems at all.
Depending on what you want to achieve I would recommend a board with either AMD 960 chipset (for "normal" people's everyday use) or 990 chipset (for "advanced" usage, read: more than one videocard, overclocking, ...).

When it comes to brands, I only use ASUS and Gigabyte, taught by the experience from working for OEMs.

Member Response
 

Hi,

I agree that the ASUS evo boards are quality. I have several units built using the evo boards. Clean boards.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

ASUS is good, but dont neglect other brands. it should really depend on what you plan on using the board for.

gaming boards are not good for server usage, etc... so determine the features you require first, then start shopping around for all of the boards out there that meet your needs of the system.

my last two systems (one gaming win7 rig and one NFS CentOS v7 server) are both MSI. at the time i built the gaming box MSI had the best overall performance with its sATA3 chipset as well as northbridge tech was getting much better reviews and ratings on places like TomsHardware.

the server board only had a few minimal requirements. sATA III, usb 3.0, and the capability of maxing the RAM at 32G so i went with a $45 board for the server. FYI side note on that cheap board. I just upgraded from CentOS 6.x to v7 but before that I did some research on zfs and found that for the amount of total storage I would have to upgrade from the 8G to at least 16G RAM. upgraded the ram, and poof the board failed to post and would not post. called MSI, was on hold for a very short time (less then 5min) and in under 10min on the phone I had an RMA number. It was supposed to take 5 weeks for round trip. I live in FL the repairs took place in CA. I had the board back in 10 days. Its a brand new replacement board with upgraded BIOS and some hardware features. I only paid for 1 way shipping.

Thats good customer service.

Checking info - thanx
 

Really appreciate all the info. I'm checking out the boards. There's a couple at about 100.00 which seem to be good for me, like I said still trying to research.

I've currently running KXStudio which is basically Kubuntu. I like it and it runs well. However recently I had a chance to use Slackware and it seemed much faster than Ubuntu. Is that the case for Slackware or is it the machine and other factors. Thinking of trying Slackware with the 8320 cpu.

Usually distributions that are configured the same are equally fast, so a Slackware that runs exactly the same software as an Ubuntu will not be faster.
Your performance differences may be caused by the fact that Slackware by default runs less services than Ubuntu. On machines as fast as a FX8320 you shouldn't see much difference.

slackware ETC
 

Tobi - thanks for the info.,

Good to know because Kubuntu seems fine and I don't want to do much system work. Video, audio etc much more fun!

ASUS Board
 

Hey everyone/anyone,

This ASUS seems like it would work with a AMD Fx 8320. It's priced under a 100.00. Anyone familiar with this board??

ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970

This would keep my MOB and CPU costs to a little under 200.00. But still need a 500 to 600 watt power supply and 8 gigs ram. Probably another hundred or more like 150.00.

I have something similar, I think you do not need 500 W power. http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

It is a quite nice board, the "little brother" of my M5A99X, good enough if you don't plan to have more than one videocard or do massive overclocking.
As pan64 said, you won't need such a powerful PSU, that is, until you plan to go for a gaming videocard with huge power consumption.

Power
 

Hey - thanks for the replys!

Perhaps I don't need a large power supply. I was told to use one because of the power that is involved with many of the latest usb add-ons.

I'll check the board out that was called the 'big brother', the board I mentioned is on sale and seems to be 'good enuff'. I've never over-clocked before, the chip is supposed to easily over-clock to 4.0, it runs at 3.5. Maybe the board can handle that, guess I'll find out!!

Okay, I'll make some more purchases and get the build started. I'll be back with more questions I'm sure.

later

Member Response
 

Hi,

Try this online PSU Calculator to size your PSU needs.

EDIT: I had to look for the ASUS calculator: http://support.asus.com/PowerSupply.aspx?SLanguage=en

500 watt
 

OneBuck - thanks,

The asus calculator says 500 watt, with the memory maxed. I wont be starting with the memory maxed out however! But a 500 watt ps, is the way to go!!

Appreciated