Good motherboards for an AM3 CPU?

[JoshAraujo]

My rig is 3 or 4 years old now, and sometime around six months ago, the mosfets on my motherboard erupted in flames, it seems to have damaged my PCI slots, because my GPU is no longer detected, and I get white horizontal lines across my screen.

I need a motherboard that supports my AMD Phenom 965 (AM3) CPU, 16GB DDR3 RAM and my GeForce GTX570 (And can also take a Radeon card in case I need to upgrade. And USB3.0

I'm asking for help because I seem to have bad luck picking out motherboards, this is the second board I've had trouble with. And would like the opinions of people who know more about motherboards than I do.

Thank You

 

[Calvin7]

Faulty PSU maybe, use a good quality one. You can use the Phenom II 965 in current retail AM3+ models. There are some models, lowest priced ones, that don't support CPUs with a TDP (Thermal Design Power) over 95 watts. The Phenom II 965 is a 125 watt TDP model. There are micro-ATX and ATX motherboard sizes. What size are you looking for?

 

[JoshAraujo]

Umm, this is going to run circles around me.
mATX or ATX, really doesnt matter to me, I think anything can fit in my HAF X. I just need a board that works.

Now wait, faulty PSU? for the burning on of the mosfets or the GPU not being detected? (as in there isnt enough power going into it? Oh man, So I need a new PSU? I have a Corsair GS600 btw, and I have had it fixed once for a weak capacitance, maybe a year or a year and a half ago.

 

[EAJuggalo]

What Calvin7 is saying is that a bad PSU could have given you voltage or amperage spikes that blew the MOSFETs on your old board. If that is the case the bad PSU is likely to do the same to a new one.
I'm currently running an FX-6300 on an Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 which is a mATX board, but will probably be upgrading in a few months to a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P so I can utilize the USB3.0 ports on the top of my case.

 

[JoshAraujo]

How could I tell for sure?
I'm short on cash right now, so I'd rather not spring for both a new board and a power unit

 

[EAJuggalo]

I would get the ASUS board I listed earlier and make sure I get the replacement plan. I know MicroCenter will replace a blown board under their replacement program, if the PSU blows this one too you know you have a problem there. Best thing I can come up with short of taking the PSU out and having it tested.

 

[madmatt30]

If your going for a cheap board go with this
Gigabyte over the Asus
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga78lmtusb3

As it at least has a USB 3 header for front case ports & is a slightly better board.

EAJuggalo - I have the Asus in a htpc build ,I just added one of these for 2 extra rear ports & a front usb3 header.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007SJGGAE/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1420809205&sr=8-2&dpPl=1&dpID=41MvrswYQvL&ref=plSrch&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

 

[JoshAraujo]

Asus M5A78L-M-USB3?

I hear it only takes 8GB of RAM
it's onboard graphics can't even display 1080p HD
And it has bad audio and no 5.1 channel output?

 

[EAJuggalo]

8GB per slot, total of 32. 7.1 audio.
onboard graphics I couldn't really tell you about.

After looking over the board madmatt linked I would go with that over the one I have. And thank you for the card suggestion.

 

[madmatt30]

Perfectly acceptable 5.1 dd output via optical on both Asus & GB boards (haven't tried 7.1 as I only have a 5.1 setup)
Asus will take up to 32gb of ddr3 1600 (max speed) ram
GB will take same but with a 1866mhz limit (needs to be set manually in bios)
Onboard video does 1080p mid bitrate no prob (will struggle with full bluray bitrate 1080p ,as in 10-30gb files)
Newer 970 boards have no onboard video at all - don't see the significance with a discrete GPU added??
Downfall of both boards is only sata 2 ,unless you have a ssd it doesn't matter ,ssd speeds will be 20-25% slower as opposed to sata 3.

Theme yer cheap options mate,otherwise its $80 minimum for a decent 970 atx board - generally better in every way & will run the fx 8 cores with big overclocks .

 

[JoshAraujo]

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 it is then
Thanks a bunch fellas

 

[madmatt30]

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 it is then
Thanks a bunch fellas

got it a bit wrong mate,the gigabyte doesnt have optical out - it will do 5.1 via hdmi and/or 3.5mm jacks
the asus does have optical out - dont know if this is important to you or not??

 

[JoshAraujo]

Oh bollocks. Optical out? 3.5mm? Isnt 3.5mm the 5 SPDIF type ports into which you plug in the different jacks for different channels? That's fine by me. My Roccat Kave is like that

 

[madmatt30]

Yep same - I always used to use single optical cable (now have a HDMI arc amp do just use HDMI pass through instead)
Yes it has 3 jacks ,1 for left/right,1 for surround left/right,1 for centre & sub so you'll be fine

 

[JoshAraujo]

Great, I bought the board today, and my rig powered on like a dream, well almost, My display broke. Talk about bad luck.
btw, how would I check for a damaged GPU?
Let me explain my situation first -
My computer shelf caved in on top of my moniter, cracking a quarter of the screen
After the motherboard fire I dont know what components might be damaged
When I used the computer after the fire, with my damaged screen, I have black patches all over the right half, and small horizontal lines and dashes all over the screen.
I have one other moniter but that only has a VGA or I think D-Sub input, so I cant connect my card to it

So is it just a damaged moniter or a damaged card (gulp, its hard just thinking about it)?

 

[madmatt30]

The board has VGA output far as I remember??
Plug your VGA monitor yo the onboard VGA .
Check in device manager if your discrete GPU is showing.
Not saying it is definitely fine but if it shows in device manager its a decent sign.

BTW - vga & d-sub are the same.
Edit - I see now - your 570 gave a display but your not sure if it was the mb,monitor or GPU causing display corruption???

Surely that card has dvi-i ports ??
You should have a dvi-VGA adapter somewhere if you had it new.

 

[JoshAraujo]

Yeah, I'm not sure where exactly the problem lies. Either ways I connected my moniter to my motherboard with my DVI-D and there arent any lies. Felt like a ton of bricks hit me, I cant see any reason why the card might be defective, but that seems like the most obvious possibility. I'm taking it to my tech guy to have it checked, fingers crossed eh

btw, have you heard of the Antec VP550P V2, its a power supply, only available in Australia and I think other parts of Asia.
I bought it yesterday, but when I checked the stats on it, I find that although its a 550watt, it has only 444watts on its 12v rail (though there are two rails each at 30amps). I'm afraid to open it and try it cause then I cant return it.
Do you think it's enough to power my system? GTX570 (200watts), Phenom 955 (120watts), 1 HDD, DVD Drive. Couple fans, 2x RAM sticks. I cant find too many reviews or tests as thing isnt available outside Australia/Asia

 

[madmatt30]

You can buy the vp's here in the UK.
They're OK psu's,the 12v on that is more akin to a 500w than 550w but it'll power your components fine mate.
I see a lot of complaints on the v2 for the exact same reason - the original v1 had a 12v of over 500w ,that's a pretty steep drop.

 

[JoshAraujo]

You're sure arent you? I can't afford another dud component sinking a hole in my pocket.

 

[madmatt30]

To put in perspective mate - it has 20w more on the 12v than the corsair cx500.
I personally think the corsair is a decent budget PSU for midrange builds irregardless of the hatred on toms for them.
The corsair will pretty easily run a 6 core fx with up to a r9 280/gtx760 or a 8 core fx with a 270x
The antec will do the same fairly easily ,if those kind of upgrades fit into your future plans then you're a-ok.
I also ran a stock 8320 with a 280x on one for a month or so with no Ill effects.
It probably wasn't the most sensible scenario but shows it can be done.

 

[JoshAraujo]

Hmm, okay alright. Thanks mate and godspeed!