Cari tahu siapa aku: Five $160 To $240 990FX-Based Socket AM3+ Motherboards

Forty-two PCIe lanes give the 990FX a clear connectivity lead over competing Intel chipsets. We compare five class-leading products using AMD's FX-8150 to see which offers the best combination of performance, overclocking, integrated features, and value.

When it comes to the popularity of our stories, CPUs run second only to new graphics cards (which seem to get everyone's blood pumping the fastest). Motherboards fall behind quite a ways. That's a shame though, because the right board is an absolute necessity for connecting processors to GPUs, and every other components inside your machine.

This is where AMD gives a lot of love to its customers, whereas Intel tends to skimp more often. Nowhere is the difference between both company's mainstream parts more evident than in the chipset segment. The 990FX's 42 total PCIe 2.0 lanes provide a lot more potential throughput than Intel's popular Z68 Express, which is limited to 16 lanes from the CPU and a handful more on the Platform Controller Hub.

Of course, a fan of Intel's work could argue against the need for 42 lanes of second-gen PCIe when the 36 native to X58 Express support multi-card graphics configurations just as capably. But such a comparison really isn't necessary. After all, we've known for almost a year that Intel’s lower-cost Sandy Bridge-based part outperform the pricey six-core Gulftown-based processors in many desktop benchmarks, including pretty much every gaming scenario we throw at the two platforms.

And, it just so happens that Intel's mainstream (and multiplier-unlocked) Core i5 and Core i7 chips are more in the same league as AMD's most expensive enthusiast-oriented FX CPU.

The Importance Of PCIe

Gaming is where the Sandy Bridge architecture most easily proves that you don't need a thousand-dollar processor to turn in the best frame rates, and that's in spite of the 16 lanes built into each CPU's die. We've even seen situations where an NF200 bridge soldered down onto a Sandy Bridge-based motherboard enables performance just as compelling as a high-end LGA 1366 configuration. The thing is, a Z68 or P67 platform's 24 total PCIe 2.0 lanes aren't explicitly set aside for graphics cards. They have to handle every device attaching via PCI Express, including network and storage controllers.

We’ve even tested a few "enthusiast-class" Sandy Bridge-based motherboards so loaded with features that simply installing an add-in card forced certain slots or on-board controllers to become disabled. That doesn’t sound like a solution a power user would willingly accept to us.

As of this moment, enthusiasts who need more connectivity than the LGA 1155 platform offers are left to choose between “upgrading” to one of Intel’s older LGA 1366 platforms, paying extra for a motherboard with bandwidth-sharing PCIe bridges, or shifting to a platform with more native PCI Express, a wider range of unlocked processors and prices, several times the reference clock overclocking headroom for locked processors, and a downright respectable chipset: AMD’s high-flying 990FX.

Today we consider a few of the most enthusiast-oriented Bulldozer-compatible motherboards that employ the 990FX northbridge.

990FX Motherboard Features
	^{ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional}	^{Asus Sabertooth 990FX}	^{ECS A990FXM-A}	^{Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7}	^{MSI 990FXA-GD80}
^Warranty	^{Three Years}	^{Five Years}	^{Three Years}	^{Three Years}	^{Three Years}
^{PCB Revision}	^1.03	^1.01	^1.0	^1.1	^2.2
^Chipset	^{AMD 990FX/SB950}	^{AMD 990FX/SB950}	^{AMD 990FX/SB950}	^{AMD 990FX/SB950}	^{AMD 990FX/SB950}
^{Voltage Regulator}	^{Seven Phases}	^{Ten Phases}	^{Seven Phases}	^{Ten Phases}	^{Ten Phases}
^BIOS	^{P1.30 (09/08/2011)}	^{0810 (09/28/2011)}	^9/26/2011	^{F6 (10/14/2011)}	^{V11.5 (09/19/2011)}
^{200.0 MHz RCLK}	^{200.9 (+0.45%)}	^{200.7 (+0.35%)}	^{200.0 (+0.0%)}	^{200.9 (+0.45%)}	^{200.0 (+0.0%)}
^{Internal Interfaces}
^{PCIe 3.0 x16}	^None	^None	^None	^None	^None
^{PCIe 2.0 x16}	^{3 (x16/x16/x4)}	^{4 (x16/x4/x16/x0 or x16/x4/x8/x8)}	^{3 (x16/x0/x16 or x16/x8/x8)}	^{6 x(16/x4/x0/x4/x16/x0 or x8/x4/x8/x4/x8/x8)}	^{4 (x16/x0/x16/x4 or x16/x8/x8/x4)}
^{PCIe x1/x4}	^2/0	^1/0	^2/0	^{None (See x16 Above)}	^2/0
^{Legacy PCI}	²	¹	¹	¹	¹
^{USB 2.0}	^{2 (4-ports)}	^{2 (4-ports)}	^{2 (4-ports)}	^{3 (6-ports)}	^{2 (4-ports)}
^{USB 3.0}	^{2 (4-ports)}	^{1 (2-ports)}	^{1 (2-ports)}	^{1 (2-ports)}	^{1 (2-ports)}
^IEEE-1394	¹	¹	¹	¹	¹
^{Serial Port}	¹	¹	^None	^None	¹
^{Parallel Port}	^None	^None	^None	^None	^None
^{SATA 6.0 Gb/s}	⁶	⁶	⁶	⁸	⁶
^{SATA 3.0 Gb/s}	^None	²	^None	^None	^None
^{4-Pin Fan}	²	⁵	¹	²	¹
^{3-Pin Fan}	⁴	¹	²	²	⁴
^FP-Audio	¹	¹	¹	¹	¹
^CD-Audio	^None	^None	^None	^None	^None
^{S/PDIF I/O}	^None	^{Output Only}	^{Output Only}	^{Output Only}	^{Output Only}
^{Power Button}	^Yes	^No	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes
^{Reset Button}	^Yes	^No	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes
^{CLR_CMOS Button}	^No	^No	^No	^Yes	^No
^{Diagnostics Panel}	^Numeric	^None	^Numeric	^Numeric	^Numeric
^{I/O Panel Connectors}
^{P/S 2}	²	¹	¹	¹	²
^{USB 3.0}	²	²	²	²	²
^{USB 2.0}	⁶	¹⁰	⁸	^{8 (1 shared w/eSATA)}	^{6 (2 shared w/eSATA)}
^IEEE-1394	¹	¹	^None	¹	¹
^Network	²	¹	²	¹	¹
^eSATA	²	^{2 (1-powered)}	²	^{2 (1-powered by USB)}	^{2 (powered by USB)}
^{CLR_CMOS Button}	^Yes	^No	^Yes	^None	^Yes
^{Digital Audio Out}	^{Optical + Coaxial}	^Optical	^Optical	^{Optical + Coaxial}	^{Optical + Coaxial}
^{Digital Audio In}	^None	^None	^None	^None	^None
^{Analog Audio}	⁶	⁶	⁵	⁶	⁶
^{Other Devices}	^None	^None	^{Bluetooth Transceiver}	^None	^None
^{Mass Storage Controllers}
^{Chipset SATA}	^{6x SATA 6Gb/s}	^{6x SATA 6Gb/s}	^{6x SATA 6Gb/s}	^{6x SATA 6Gb/s}	^{6x SATA 6Gb/s}
^{Chipset RAID Modes}	^{0, 1, 5, 10}	^{0, 1, 5, 10}	^{0, 1, 5, 10}	^{0, 1, 5, 10}	^{0, 1, 5, 10}
^{Add-In SATA}	^{88SE9172 PCIe 2x eSATA 6Gb/s}	^{2x JMB362 PCIe 2x SATA 3Gb/s 2x eSATA 3Gb/s}	^{2x 88SE9128 PCIe 2x eSATA 6Gb/s 1x PATA 133 MB/s}	^{2x 88SE9172 PCIe 2x SATA 6Gb/s 2x eSATA 6Gb/s}	^{JMB362 PCIe 2x eSATA 3Gb/s}
^{USB 3.0}	^{3x EJ168A PCIe}	^{2x ASM1042 PCIe}	^{2x ASM1042 PCIe}	^{2x EJ168A PCIe}	^{2x D720200F1 PCIe}
^IEEE-1394	^{VT6315N PCIe 2x 400 Mb/s}	^{VT6308P PCI 2x 400 Mb/s}	^None	^{VT6308P PCI 2x 400 Mb/s}	^{VT6315N PCIe 2x 400 Mb/s}
^{Gigabit Ethernet}
^{Primary LAN}	^{BCM57781 PCIe}	^{RTL8111E PCIe}	^{RTL8111E PCIe}	^{RTL8111E PCIe}	^{RTL8111E PCIe}
^{Secondary LAN}	^{BCM57781 PCIe}	^None	^{RTL8111E PCIe}	^None	^None
^Audio
^{HD Audio Codec}	^ALC892	^ALC892	^ALC892	^ALC889	^ALC892
^{DDL/DTS Connect}	^{Not Specified}	^{Not Specified}	^{Not Specified}	^{Not Specified}	^{Not Specified}

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16 November 2011

Five $160 To $240 990FX-Based Socket AM3+ Motherboards

The Importance Of PCIe

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