Choosing a motherboard

[Harvey1601]

I'm building my first gaming pc rig and I need some help choosing which motherboard I should choose to put in my rig.

I have narrowed it down to two choices they are

Asus m5a97 R2.0
Or
Msi 970 gaming

Just need some opinions and advice on what one is best to choose.

 

[madmatt30]

The Asus is generally a better board, the MSI looks nicer.
They're both hood boards though ,you can't go wrong.
The gigabyte ud3p should be in that equation too though - its as good as the r2 & generally (in the UK at least) cheaper than both.

 

[Guest]

no doubt the MSI.. sli/crossfire support, higher power phase, golden audio connectors, dark caps with 10 year life and looks sick

 

[Guest]

The Asus is generally a better board, the MSI looks nicer.
They're both hood boards though ,you can't go wrong.
The gigabyte ud3p should be in that equation too though - its as good as the r2 & generally (in the UK at least) cheaper than both.

how so hood boards? The ASUS board is pretty generic as far as ASUS goes and the MSI is a newer 970 model that employs some of MSI's best components as all the gaming models they make do

 

[madmatt30]

Meant 'good' predictive text on phone.
The Asus is a better overclockers board IMO.
The feature set is pretty much the same on any decent 970 board - no 970 boards will run sli ,only crossfire.
The ud3p ,when it comes to over clocking,is better than both.

Irregardless ,all 3 of those boards will do a decent job.
Admittedly the MSI does look incredible with the red/black colour scheme.

 

[Tradesman1]

If going with a FX CPU would look for a newer chipset like the 990

 

[Guest]

not sure what makes the ASUS better for overclocking

not sure about your reasoning for sli and crossfire.. the MSI says it supports both and will be at x8 and from what I have read performance is only lost if drop down to x4

 

[Guest]

If going with a FX CPU would look for a newer chipset like the 990

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty%20990FX%20Killer/

think this is the cheapest 990fx and has good features but kinda starts loose value going with AMD for gaming as apposed to using a locked i5 when you step up the motherboard.. think so?

 

[madmatt30]

^ fiafight - apologies the MSI does indeed support sli (this was enabled in a bios update) & I wasn't aware.
& I thoroughly agree with you ,the 990 series isn't worth a 30-40% price hike over a good 970 board.

 

[Guest]

^ fiafight - apologies the MSI does indeed support sli (this was enabled in a bios update) & I wasn't aware.
& I thoroughly agree with you ,the 990 series isn't worth a 30-40% price hike over a good 970 board.

no worries man
the hood typo was funny.. had my dad goin for like ten minutes haha

 

[madmatt30]

Yep on phone mobile site - bloody predictive text is a nightmare.
In the UK the only 'hoods' we have are attached to out coats & sweatshirts ;+)