Need Help getting a new Motherboard

Wavester

Wavester

Joined
May 5, 2008
Messages
1,665
Taking a chance in an open discussion section of my favorite knife forum that someone might be able to help me out. The PC I had buillt for me died recently. Going thru all the motions and I think we finally got it down that it was my motherboard that went. The MoBo I have now is the Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard (AMD)...which was like cutting edge 2 years ago. Trouble is..with PC tech getting advanced by the minute - its tough to find a MB that can accomodate my setup without upgrading everything under the sun. Even trying to get a Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard used or refurb is not easy. So with that said...can anyone point me in the right direction to get a MoBo that can accomodate my setup now? Here are all my components:

Optical Drive - LG GGC-H20L
Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) EPS12V 750W Power Supply
HDD - Seagate 1TB Serial ATA/300 32MB Buffer ST1000340AS-RK
RAM - OCZ OCZ2RPR10664GK PC2-8500 DDR2 Dual Channel Reaper Series 1066MHz 4G Kit
GPU/Video Card - Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Video Card - 512MB GDDR4, PCI Express 2.0
CPU - AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad-Core Sockel AM2+ CPU 2.5GHz, 4MB L2+L3 Cache, 125W
Case/Tower - ASUS Vento 3600 TA-362 ATX Mid-Tower, Red
motherboard - Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard (AMD)

Even if you dont have a suggestion - maybe suggesting another forum to post my question that I might get some feedback would also be appreciated, thanks.
 
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i have a mach speed board. they have a lifetime guarantee. my first one was 6 years old when it died and they gave me another one just like it. now i'm good for another 6+ years.
 
Bryan J said:
Are you 100% sure it was the motherboard? What is the evidence?
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Well, not 100%...but here goes the story. One night I am going to go on my PC (which was already powered on, cause I keep it that way most of the time) and I see the monitors wont kick in, so I am thinking maybe something got unplugged. Everything was plugged in. When nothing was working right off the bat, I figured a hard reboot would do the trick, which it did not. I also noticed when doing the hard re-boot, that holding the power button in was having no effect, I had to actually cut power and turn back on, and even then the PC was not showing any video. Seeing that I am starting to have some serious problem, I decided to give my setup back to my friend who built it for me in '08 for him to troubleshoot further. First thing we thought was it was the power supply. Got a new one of those, didn't do the trick, gave it back. Tried taking the video card out, trying it on another rig, worked on there no problem, so its not the video card. Tried my RAM on another RIG, worked fine, so its not the RAM. Slaved the HDD to another machine and we could get on there easily, so its not the HDD, which I doubted it was. We're down to the MB or the processor, which we we thinking it has to be the Mobo....so here is where I stand...
 
You need a motherboard that supports Socket AM2+. The memory controller is built into the CPU, so any board that requires DDR3 is probably guaranteed not to work.

There are many AMD motherboards listed on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=22&name=AMD-Motherboards

There's an option on the left side of that page to filter by CPU socket; like I said, any AM2+ motherboard should work. I'm partial to Asus myself. Filtering by Asus and AM2+ support, I get the following page:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625%2050001315%20600007945&IsNodeId=1&name=AM3/AM2%2b/AM2

I've only bought Intel processors in the last few years, so unfortunately I can't recommend one AMD board over another.
 
Wavester said:
Bob - wouldnt that be a problem memory wise though? Those MoBo require DDR3 RAM, which I have DDR2 RAM currently.
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Yeah, probably not. Sorry 'bout that; I only searched for the processor type. :o

Looks like not a lot of choices for the Pheonom X4 nowadays.
 
You need a motherboard that supports Socket AM2+. The memory controller is built into the CPU, so any board that requires DDR3 is probably guaranteed not to work.

There are many AMD motherboards listed on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...D-Motherboards

There's an option on the left side of that page to filter by CPU socket; like I said, any AM2+ motherboard should work. I'm partial to Asus myself. Filtering by Asus and AM2+ support, I get the following page:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...AM3/AM2+/AM2
Click to expand...

Are any of those compatible with the Phenom X4 processor? It's not listed among processors on the specs anyway. Maybe check the manufacturer's website for a more complete list of processors.
 
Bob W said:
Are any of those compatible with the Phenom X4 processor? It's not listed among processors on the specs anyway. Maybe check the manufacturer's website for a more complete list of processors.
Click to expand...

The specs for those boards do show support for Phenom, which should include Phenom X4. I believe any AM2+ socket CPU should work on any AM2+ socket motherboard -- that guaranteed upgrade path has been a selling point for AMD in the past.
 
Wavester said:
Taking a chance in an open discussion section of my favorite knife forum that someone might be able to help me out. The PC I had buillt for me died recently. Going thru all the motions and I think we finally got it down that it was my motherboard that went. The MoBo I have now is the Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard (AMD)...which was like cutting edge 2 years ago. Trouble is..with PC tech getting advanced by the minute - its tough to find a MB that can accomodate my setup without upgrading everything under the sun. Even trying to get a Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard used or refurb is not easy. So with that said...can anyone point me in the right direction to get a MoBo that can accomodate my setup now? Here are all my components:

Optical Drive - LG GGC-H20L
Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) EPS12V 750W Power Supply
HDD - Seagate 1TB Serial ATA/300 32MB Buffer ST1000340AS-RK
RAM - OCZ OCZ2RPR10664GK PC2-8500 DDR2 Dual Channel Reaper Series 1066MHz 4G Kit
GPU/Video Card - Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Video Card - 512MB GDDR4, PCI Express 2.0
CPU - AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad-Core Sockel AM2+ CPU 2.5GHz, 4MB L2+L3 Cache, 125W
Case/Tower - ASUS Vento 3600 TA-362 ATX Mid-Tower, Red
motherboard - Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard (AMD)

Even if you dont have a suggestion - maybe suggesting another forum to post my question that I might get some feedback would also be appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...

Try clearing the cmos via the jumper on the motherboard. And try changing the battery in the motherboard. That's all my nephew's old asus board needed to fix his no video/no post problem.
 
Wavester said:
Even if you dont have a suggestion - maybe suggesting another forum to post my question that I might get some feedback would also be appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...

I haven't been following AMD's offerings, so I'm not sure whats good these days, but you should try asking on hardforum.com.
 
Mike G said:
Try Tiger Direct.

I use MSI boards with my AMD's, and have had fantastic luck.

www.tigerdirect.com
Click to expand...

Yeah I went newegg. But I bought a AMD Phenom II X4 965 black edition with a Msi board forgot which one :confused:. I have 4 gigs of ram and run whatever I want.

As for the AMD offerings right now the 965 black edition is probably the best buy. There's not too much use for the new 6 core amd's.
 
jerrinfla said:
Try clearing the cmos via the jumper on the motherboard. And try changing the battery in the motherboard. That's all my nephew's old asus board needed to fix his no video/no post problem.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestion - I asked my friend and he said that was the first thing he tried...oh well...
 
GA-MA785GM-US2H
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394

I would get this, it's cheap and highly rated. Will work with your current set up and will be compatible if you want to upgrade to socket AM3 in the future, the downside is that you won't be able to use DDR3 until you get a new processor(AM3)/memory/mobo(Socket AM3).

Whatever you decide, stay away from off brands. Asus, Gigabyte and DFI (highly technical bios) make some of the best out there. I haven't had much experience with MSI but I've heard good things.

This mobo does have HDMI, which is awesome if you want to connect it to a television in an entertainment room/game room.
 
since I only pay attention to model numbers while I'm actually computer shopping, I've had great success with both Asus and MSI boards. just find one that holds your stuff and is cheap, I'd guess that you'll be looking at a full upgrade in about 4 years or so anyway, so save now while your rig is still decent.
 
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