M3A Asus or something else

NTJedi

NTJedi

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 23, 2006
Messages
444
I'm planning on buying a motherboard which will at first have a dual core AMD processor yet eventually upgrade to the quad core AMD processor when the price drops. I'm planning on buying the M3A Asus motherboard with the X2 5600 Windsor... but I'm wondering if anyone would recommend a different AMD motherboard and why.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
I like my M3A :D I have a brisbane though so I cant speak for how it runs with phenoms. There is a long thread about em on xtremesystems though.
 
I just got one, with a 4200 brisbane and 2gb gskill 4-4-4-12 ddr2 800.


Loving it so far. Update the bios, it's awesome. Great oc options, wide range of voltages.
Pretty much full customization of all bus speeds and voltage with good headroom.

Havent starting oc'ing yet but setup was a breeze, I enjoyed the board layout and high quality packaging. They included 2 nifty little things, a lil brick to plug all your case connectors into, then u just plug the brick into the mobo. Way nicer than squinting at the wires and connectors deep in the case.
Also the faceplate thing that goes in the back of the case i/o, isn't just a flimsy little piece of metal. It's nice and thick and insulated.

So far an A+ from me. I don't plan on oc'ing to the max, just getting in the 2.7-2.8ghz range with my memory right at 800mhz for the time being, and the HT bus almost right at spec. The memory actually runs slower than 800 at stock due to the odd multiplier (11x) on this chip and the way the amd dividers work.

Will report results. So far I'd recommend it with no hesitation =)
 
I was looking at the same board, can you tell me how good the hardware monitoring is? I have a M2N-SLIdlx and none of the hardware monitors work right. I cant get fan speeds, fan control in windows or accurate temps for that matter. I am interested in how your overclocking goes too.
 
If you update to bios 0501 or 0601 the readings are accurate in AOD, it over clocks the X2 series like a demon. 5000 black editions up to 3.2. FSB wall between 360-380 with out extra NB cooling.
 
I had the MSI 790x version with crossfire. It popped with in 6 hrs, I was only running a approved 89watt x2 cpu. I went to the M3A and won't go back it fits my needs perfectly and runs great.
 
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