Planning to upgrade my build. Please suggest

crazyaccess

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Jul 5, 2015
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Hi Guys,

Current build's specs:

Mainboard: Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
Chipset: AMD 880G
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 3200MHz
Physical Memory: Corsair Vengenance 8192MB DDR3-SDRAM1600 MHz
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4250
Hard Disk: Western Digital WD20EARS (2 TB)
Cabinet: CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced
PSU: Corsair RM-750X
OS: Windows 7 64-bit SP1 Ultimate, Windows 2008 R2 and Red Hat Linux Enterprise 6


My motherboard seems to have died and I am planning to replace it with new board. Can you please suggest what would be a good motherboard. Any other suggestions would be welcome as well.

Thanks.
 
Well my motherboard is not under warranty. Do you think I should replace CPU and RAM because they are working fine. And if you think I should what would be your suggestions for all the components.
 
Oh yeah forgot the 4250 was an onboard chip.

It depends largely what you're planning to do with it.
For light office tasks and watching netflix this machine is still very capable
If you're looking for something more juicy an upgrade would be advisable.
 
Hi Iskolon, I would be running couple of Virtual machines and GNS3 on my desktop. As of now I am not planning for anything more than that. Since my mobo died I am looking for some mobo with decent price with which I can upgrade my machine.

I initially though of an upgrade but my CPU is still giving me decent performance hence I thought of replacing only mobo.

Any suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance.
 
I'd go for something like the Asus M4A87/88/89 series boards, like the one you had or the slightly newer M5A88
Biggest problem will be getting your hand on one.
On the other hand if you're looking for a used one you can get it basically for free.
The problem with most newer AM3+ boards is that they come without onboard graphics since the iGPU was migrated from the board to the CPU itself.
 
Hi Matt,

I am based in India. Both boards are costing me around 8.5k INR. When you say 970+ series board doesn't have integrated graphics are you referring to both the boards ?

I am fine with cheaper options as well but I am not able to find any decent board which will be of help. I am fine with any alternative to my older mobo. A bit higher version will be fine too.
 
Integrated graphics died out with the 880 chipset you currently own.
Anything newer than that has no integrated graphics & you will have to include a dedicated GPU in your purchase.

Unfortunately that Asus board you currently own was one of the best ones around & 880 boards are incredibly hard to find nowadays .

What's strange is cheap 760 boards like the gigabyte 78lmt-usb 3 are readily available & while they include integrated graphics its a fairly weak hd3200 solution & these boards only have sata 3gb connectors
 
The boards have a certain chipset.
This chipset usually consisted out of a north bridge & a south bridge.
In case of your old board the north-bridge chip was the 870 + the SB 850 (SB = south bridge)
The SB 850 had the Graphics processor integrated.

With the 970 chipset, the south bridge was moved into the CPU itself, as the CPUs released with the 970 boards were different from the old Phenoms and had all the south bridge features already integrated in the CPU itself

Therefore when you use a 970 board with your CPU, you'll need a dedicated Graphics card.
Whilst boards with the 880G or 870 chipset come with a south bridge that has a graphics processor
 
As of now my 1090t is working fine but I need suggestion on whether I should upgrade it as well or it is a decent CPU and can go on more for couple of years.

Thanks madmatt for finding the motherboard for me. As it has SB 950 does it mean it will have onboard graphics ?
 
Hi guys. One question. If I am planning to go for some mid range mobos which one will you suggest me for my CPU AMD Phoenix II x6 1090t Black edition.

1. MSI 970 GAMING AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6GB/S USB 3.0 ATX
2. ASROCK 970 EXTREME4 AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX
3. GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6GB/S USB 3.0 ATX.

Asus 970 PRO GAMING-AURA was a good one but is is on bit expensive side.

I will buy a cheaper graphics card something like GIGABYTE GEFORCE 710 GV-N710D3-2GL 2GB 64-BIT DDR3.


Will it be a good choice?
 
Grandmaster madmatt - I was actually expecting your reply :)
I am actually so much confused not able to decide on mobo and graphics card. I am planning to use this rig for couple of years before going for a full upgrade. Never knew AM3 socket mobo will be so hard to find.

Yes ds3p is cheapest of those 4. I hope it will have enough power to run my VMs and GNS smoothly.

I chose GT710 only because it was cheap. If it will do similar job as my integrated graphics card 4250 did I will be more than happy.