Any feedback on...

[Mixzzz]

I was searching for a budget board for AMD and that GA-970A-UD3P is a pretty good value board. I was initially going to buy 990FXA-UD3 but I dont see the reason to spend 45euros more just to have SLI support. Other than that they seem to be the same. But can't find any reviews on it and theres also a lot of negative feedback about it. Wondering if there are any UD3P owners here who could give me some feedback about and how much you have OCed on it.

[WereCat]

It is good board but I wouldnt be trying to OC FX 8xxx CPUs on it too much even if the CPU it self could handle more MHz the board is just not build for it.

[i_build_nanosuits]

had one...overclocked FX-8320@4.6ghz as a daily speed with 1.425v on that board...the UEFI is absolutely HORRIBLE like all the gigabyte boards...no fan controls from the bios, lots of bugs and issues...the board itself is nice, though it does not offer modern comodities such a PCIe3.0 or mSata or anything fancy...it gets the job done if you don't plan on using dual GPU's i don't see why you would want to go 990FX this 970 board is all you need for a single card...and it's not like if AMD CPU's could drive dual GPU's they cant even drive a single card in most games...hence the reason i sold that old slow piece o shit to buy something decent...if you don't already have an AMD FX chip in hands forget AMD all togheter and buy yourself a nice little intel i3 as this will rape the FX-9590 in just about every games...you save a lot on power bills too.

[i_build_nanosuits]

It is good board but I wouldnt be trying to OC FX 8xxx CPUs on it too much even if the CPU it self could handle more MHz the board is just not build for it.

what are you talking about the UD3P is a digital 8+2 power phase motherboard it's absolutely up to the task of overclocking the AMD FX8...i got mine rocking at 4.77ghz, here:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlC81MjwelBgdEZNV3l6aHl1eUNwSUR4Rml0MXMzN1E&usp=sharing#gid=0

 

[WereCat]

what are you talking about the UD3P is a digital 8+2 power phase motherboard it's absolutely up to the task of overclocking the AMD FX8...i got mine rocking at 4.77ghz, here:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlC81MjwelBgdEZNV3l6aHl1eUNwSUR4Rml0MXMzN1E&usp=sharing#gid=0

 

Im not saying this from personal experience but I heard that it has trouble with north bridge. Thats why it is not recommended to OC too high with that board as the north bridge will most likely overheat.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Im not saying this from personal experience but I heard that it has trouble with north bridge. Thats why it is not recommended to OC too high with that board as the north bridge will most likely overheat.

1.55ghz i once put through it and 4.93ghz but the CPU got trottled down because i ran out of cooling...this motherboard is a VERY capable motherboard...especialy for it's pricepoint...too bad AMD CPU's arent great performers otherwise i'd still have it.

[MageTank]

I was searching for a budget board for AMD and that GA-970A-UD3P is a pretty good value board. I was initially going to buy 990FXA-UD3 but I dont see the reason to spend 45euros more just to have SLI support. Other than that they seem to be the same. But can't find any reviews on it and theres also a lot of negative feedback about it. Wondering if there are any UD3P owners here who could give me some feedback about and how much you have OCed on it.

I own an FX 8320 and a Gigabyte 990FXA UD3-rev 4 motherboard, and my results are very similar to @i_build_nanosuits, excepted i required slightly less voltage than he did, and a slightly lower clock speed of 4.5ghz (blame my OCD, i like to stop at x.0 or x.5 lol). I also own a M5A97 R2.0 that was not bad at OCing, but it's voltage fluctuated quite a bit on my 8320 at high OC's. If you want a modest OC to 4.0ghz base, then the M5A97 would work for that. If you are wanting to push it as hard as you can go, you need something with a much stronger power phase.

 

I kinda feel stupid for buying the 990FXA because after i saw how far i could take it, i threw it back on 3.5ghz stock, and left it there until i gave the machine to my father. Oh well, it was still super fun at the time.

[Mixzzz]

I already have 8320 @ 4.2GHz at stock volts on 78LMT-USB3 stable so I got a relatively OKish chip. I just neēd another AMD board so I decided to upgrade mine... I dont care about the the few fps I lose in games + I like to OC so i5k costs more than FX + mobo and offers better multi-threaded performance which I actually need as Im running an MC server and 2x MC itself ( and a lot of other games x2). About the VRM cooling - I have no problem adding a fan to blow on VRM... Only hate that buggy bios....

[i_build_nanosuits]

I already have 8320 @ 4.2GHz at stock volts on 78LMT-USB3 stable so I got a relatively OKish chip. I just neēd another AMD board so I decided to upgrade mine... I dont care about the the few fps I lose in games + I like to OC so i5k costs more than FX + mobo and offers better multi-threaded performance which I actually need as Im running an MC server and 2x MC itself ( and a lot of other games x2). About the VRM cooling - I have no problem adding a fan to blow on VRM... Only hate that buggy bios....

the bios is fine provided you are ok with controling your fans with softwares...all the essential overclocking features are in there and working...the sound from that board is nothing special but it works...i had no issues other than fan controls with that motherboard i did ran into some small bugs here and there but overall it works... and provided you have a well enough vented case i can confirm that 1.45v is perfectly doable for 24/7 use on this motherboard without VRM trottling occuring and you don't need to have special fans to cool down the vrm's on this board provided you have SOME airflow over the VRM's area you're fine...

 

EDIT: an example of a problem i had is that motherboard was always doing double boot (power on, pc turn on, pc turn off, pc turn on again and boot) until i updated the bios and then that got away but another issue arrised i can't remember what it was it was almost a year ago now but again i can confirm nothing major, except for the lack of fan control.