ASUS M5A97 LE vs. ASUS M5A99

[Clackamas]

Basically, I am torn between the two boards. I will never use crossfire/SLI nor will I overclock.

I am likely to pair the board with an FX-8320 or maybe the FX8350.

Anyway, given I am not intending OC nor use dual card setups, is there really any need to spend more for the 990FX over the 970 board?

The ASUS M5A97 seems to support dual-channel memory (up to 32GB) and Sata-3 (6Gb/s) and sufficient x16 PCIe bandwidth for a single card.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

No.

 

[Clackamas]

when reviewing the specs on the board, I discovered the M5A99FX Pro supports the full 5.2 memory bandwidth where as the M5A97 only supports 4.8. that differences makes the M5A99FX worth it for me.

 

[Clackamas]

I have other needs such as running Xen and when not gaming, participating in a beowulf cluster.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

System Bus aka HyperTransport for AMD (front-side bus) is usually related to overclocking, and it says 'Up to' anyway. It would have not effect on you.