AMD FX series + which Motherboard

[milkha96]

Hello guys, i have a FX 4170 (125w) cpu on a wrong mobo (95w one) so i have to replace the mobo first but in a way that i can use that mobo later on with some other fx series CPUs. I tried to find the answer myself which mobo suits these AMD CPUs the best but most of them varied a lot. Some say that 990XA/990FXA (please explain me the difference, i found that it is just some extra slots on FXA) chipset is needed to run even 4core CPUs like my 4170 and that it is not enought for 8core ones (i am planning to buy fx8350 in the future). While on the other hand i just google cpu compatibility and i find cheaper mobos like GA 970A DS3P which suppose to handle both 4170 and 8350 and many other. Is 990 necessary or i can go with cheaper 970 ones and still get same performance? Greets!

 

[prit87]

A fx 8350 will run very well with a decent amount of OC with 970 chipset board for heavy OC get the 990fx chipset board.

 

[milkha96]

A fx 8350 will run very well with a decent amount of OC with 970 chipset board for heavy OC get the 990fx chipset board.

Then i believe 970 is also enough for 4170 to run fluently on 4.2ghz?

 

[milkha96]

And please what is the difference between ga-970a-ds3p vs ga-970a-ud3p? Again some extra slots on ud3p?

 

[spdragoo]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/print_page.aspx?ck=2 &pids=4591,4717

Summary:
-- Sound: DS3P has Realtek ALC887 chip, UD3 has VIA VT2021 chip
-- Video: DS3P support CrossFireX
-- USB: DS3P has 12 2.0/1.1 rear ports, UD3 has 14.
-- Power Connectors: DS3P has 24-pin & 4-pin ATX connector, UD3 has 24-pin and 8-pin ATX connector
-- I/O Connectors: UD3 has internal Serial Port header and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Header.
-- Back Panel: DS3P has 2 PS/2 ports, 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports, & 3 audio jacks; UD3 has 1 PS/2 port, 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports, & 6 audio jacks
-- Size: DS3P is 30.5x21.5cm, UD3 is 30.5x24.4cm in size.

 

[spdragoo]

Moving up to the 990X (GA-990XA-D3) replaces one of the PCIe x1 slots with a 3rd PCIe x16 slot (running at x8), adds an IEEE 1394a header & port, bumps the audio to a Realtek ACL889 (including support for Dolby Home Theater), & supports full 2-Way AMD CrossFire as well as 2-Way nVidia SLI (using the x16 & x8 slots). It's the same size as the 970-UD3P.

Moving to the 990FX (GA-990FXA-UD3) bumps the x8 slot to a full x16 speed (still supporting 2-Way CrossFire/SLI), replaces a PCI slot with another PCIe x4 slot, & adds 2 eSATA connectors (supporting RAID 0 & 1) on the back panel. The UD5 & UD7 both add 2 additional internal SATA ports, & 1 (UD5) or 2 (UD7) additional PCIe x16 slots running at x8 speed for 3- or 4-Way CrossFire/SLI. The UD7 also adds on the motherboard a CMOS clearing button, power button, reset button, & an integral PCIe power connector. The UD3 & UD5 are identical in size to the 970-UD3P, the UD7 is slighlty bigger (E-ATX size, 30.5x26.4cm).

 

[prit87]

A fx 8350 will run very well with a decent amount of OC with 970 chipset board for heavy OC get the 990fx chipset board.

Then i believe 970 is also enough for 4170 to run fluently on 4.2ghz?

Yes 970 is enough for fx 4170 overclocked to 4.2 my friend uses gigabyte 970 chipset board with fx 8550 OC to 4.4 ghz.
here is the features of the two boards you have asked for http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970ads3p%2Cgigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3p/ and there is no difference between them.