Is the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P a good motherboard and will it work in my pc?`

[Gaming Freak]

Hello all, I recently purchased a new processor and then I found out that I had to buy another motherboard. So I stumbled across the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P and I was wondering if it was a good mobo and if it would work in my build. I really don't want any more surprises so anything you could tell me about the board would be great! Also, if there is a better one for the same amount of money that I don't know about, I will take any suggestions. Thanks!

Here is my build:
AMD FX 8350
MSI Radeon R9 290
8GB RAM
SeaSonic 850w
1TB Hard-drive
250GB Hard-drive

 

[bignastyid]

For a 970 board I'd only get one of these
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-970performance
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3p

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

I've been using Gigabyte boards for over 15 years now and would recommend them. The only downside I see with that board would be the rare possibility of a CrossFire issue due to the mismatched PCI-e x16 ports, one of which is only wired up for x4. I've seen this cause some games to malfunction during cut-scenes using the older style CrossFire that uses a bridge connector. I'm unsure if it affects the newer cards that use bridgeless CrossFire. Other than that, I would say it's a solid board.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I seem to recall an issue with the AMD FX8350 and the 970 chipset motherboards. AMD claims the TDP if the FX8350 is 125 watts, but in testing, it actually reached 140 watts (on load). This exceeded the the thermal limit for the motherboard and caused the CPU to throttle down. As I understand it, this is not an issue with the 990 chipset motherboards.

I can't seem to locate the article I read, but found this AnandTech forum post.

-Wolf sends

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Even the FX-8370 is on the CPU support list for the particular board in question.

Power delivery is not determined by the chipset implementation but by the power delivery circuits.