Which... Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H or Asus M4A78LT-M

M

map-08

New Member
Hi I need some advice please. I cannot decide which of these 2 motherboards to go for, they are both £47 on Ebuyer.com and both look pretty equal in features etc.

GA-MA78LMT-US2H
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3375#sp
Ebuyer... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/193510

Asus M4A78LT-M
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A78LTM/#specifications
Ebuyer... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/200981

I am building a new pc and need an AM3 board, for my AMD Phenom II x4 840 (£75 on Ebuyer.com)

I chose these two for the low price, but more importantly, the s/pdif out on mobo, so I can connect an HDMI lead to my TV (from GTX260) without the need for extra cable. Also, need 4gb DDR3, might go for 'Kingston HyperX Blu'
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239260

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks, Mat.
 
Id say it is up to you on the mobo, I would personally go with asus but just because i ahve owned more asus boards than gigabyte both are extremely reliable.
Unless you want to pay an extra £10.00 and go with the 8xx chipset series.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/220150

I cant believe ram got even cheaper I only look last week or so.
 
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go for an am3+, they are as cheap as 100, and you'll be able to get bulldozer later when you want something better, and you can get up to 1866mhz ram too.
 
I can seem to find any matx 9xx series boards myabe using 8xx series chipset, but you any as well go for the newer chipset if going for AM3+
 
chipset doesn't matter, i know it does though, as long as you look at the compatibility and see an FX in the list.
 
Chispet does matter otherwise AMD wouldnt have brought out a new chipset at all, some 800 series are compatible yes but you may as well go for a 9xx board if your are buying a new one.
The 9xx series chipsets are optimized for Zambezi, they will just work on 8xx. The 9xx series also has other benefits that are more future proof than the 8xx series. for example the support for hard drives larger than 2.2 Tb without the need for a workaround, EFI, faster HT speeds and sli support (on some boards)
 
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along with it's 1866mhz ram, i know, i also said in there that i know the chipset does matter, but it would be better to get something that just supports if that's all he can get, instead of saying he needs to get these that are out of budget, that he will not be able to afford what the benefits are anyways so they don't matter to him.
 
1866mhz support is irrelevant, current mobos support this is done by the cpu, phenom athlon II etc support up to 1333MHz, Zambezi Supports upto 1866Mhz.

9xx series boards do not cost alot more about $10-20 on the egg, prices may be diff in the uk.

As for what the op can afford technology has, and will continue to drop dramatically in price making higher end parts more affordable to everyone overtime and the 9xx series board will be of more benefit in the future for not alot more now.

I do see where you are coming from now and why you recommended what you did, but it is also worth sating that no one knows how well the 8xx series will perform when paired with Zambezi which is another reason why I currently believe the 9xx series would be a better investment.
 
really we won't know which he should get until the thing is out and benched, so this argument is pointless, and these boards are beyond his budget anyways aren't they, so why don't we just leave it alone untill there is a good solid argument to get one or the other, which means until i have a solid argument :P
 
I do agree we should wait for benches to determine which board performs better.

But I would like to point out there is infact no price difference when compared, there is only a price difference when going from matx to atx. Otherwise price is the same. Hence why it would be pointless to buy and 8xx series rather than 9xx series.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131734

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767

Now enough with going off topic, to the op if you you want mATX I would suggest you get something like this it is mAtx but is also AM3+ ready even though it is on the 7xx series chipset and is cheap, there are also a few 8xx series in this list but they are more expensive what is available in the uk and cant really look atm as I am at work so here is a short list.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=
 
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idk if the 4 linked boards, at least 3 of them, will suppoert bd cuz under cpu type only 1 contains the fx listing, but this may be fixable with a bios update or something

installing ubuntu now just cuz i feel like it and want to play around with it.
 
CrayonMuncher said:
I didnt know that the am3+ was available on the nforce chipsets. I have a m4n75td board from Asus, man it would be good if they made that AM3+ but i do wonder how it would work as AM3 has one less pin than AM3+
Click to expand...


They do. read CPU support list!
What do you mean by nforce chipset??
 
daisymtc said:
They do. read CPU support list!
What do you mean by nforce chipset??
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? My board does not currently support AM3+ nforce boards are boards that have an nvidia chipset, the last on linked has nforce 630a mine has an nforce 750a chipset. AMD has their own chipsets, 7xx, 8xx, 9xx series these are far more likely to get AM3+ support as they are are AMD. Nvidia is less likely because, well it is nvidia.
 
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Hi, thankyou all for your feedback.

As for the AM3+ boards, the cheapest on ebuyer is £78 which is nearing double my budget, especially when a good Phenom II x4 is going to cost me £90+ (Phenom II x4 955 BE http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673 ).

I was going to go for Phenom II x4 840 but read up on it and its just a glorified Athlon x4 so I was quite put off, even if it is only £75.

Out of the two motherboards, I think I will go for the Asus M4A78LT-M.

Only because I think it is possibly a more reliable brand. Sorry Gigabyte but I could never quite get the front USB ports to work properly with my AM2 Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3. Also, just sold it on ebay, shipped it and the buyer is returning it due to an unknown fault that has developed since removed.

Thanks again for all your help guys!

:good:
 
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